SS Ahmed’s bat getting as hot as his glove
MIAMI – Nick Ahmed’s defense at shortstop is so good, his ability to impact a game with both his glove and his arm so tangible, that the offensive threshold for him to be a valuable big leaguer has never been high.
Ahmed might not think about it that way, but the Diamondbacks shortstop is clearing that bar by leaps and bounds so far this year, and his three-hit night in a 3-2 win over the Miami Marlins, in which he drove in the tying and go-ahead runs, was just the latest example.
“You’re always hearing, ‘God, if he just hit .250 with his defense…’” hitting coach Dave Magadan said. “But he doesn’t want to be that guy. He wants to be the guy who plays elite defense and is a threat on an everyday basis at the dish. He should feel that way.”
Lately, he has been. After collecting a triple and a pair of singles on Thursday, Ahmed is hitting .283 with a .317 on-base and .475 slugging. He’s only 120 at-bats into a season that likely will include hundreds more, but he has looked like a different hitter – a more dangerous one.
“Oh, yeah, for sure,” Ahmed said when asked if this is the best he’s felt at the plate in his big-league career. “I’ve prepared really well. I’ve learned a lot. I’m healthy. I feel strong. I’m just trying to learn every day. It’s not something where you just figure it out and then all of a sudden you’ve got it. It’s just a con-
stant process of trying to get better and trying to improve and making the right adjustments when you need to.”
Ahmed’s breadth of contributions have been on display during this road trip, on which the Diamondbacks are 5-3 with three games remaining at Marlins Park.
In Milwaukee, he laid out to make an incredible pickup to take a hit away from Travis Shaw on a ball up the middle. Three days later in Pittsburgh, he turned on a 93 mph fastball from Pirates reliever Johnny Barbato and launched it into the bullpen area in left-center field for a go-ahead home run.
And on Thursday, he shot a pair of balls to the opposite field for hits – including the game-winner in the eighth off ex-teammate Brad Ziegler – and drove another to center.
“I feel comfortable with what I’m doing mechanically with my swing,” Ahmed said. “I’m able to repeat my mechanics day in and day out and just trust that even on the bad days, I’m not trying to change things or tinker too much. Just trust what I know is right.”
Said Magadan: “This is as good as I’ve seen him. He was pretty good at the beginning of the year last year, but I think he’s closer to mechanically what we want him to be right now. And the sky’s the limit.”
With runners on second and third and the Diamondbacks down 2-1 in the eighth, Ahmed said he spoke with teammate Chris Iannetta on what to expect when stepping in the box against Ziegler, whom Ahmed had never faced. With the count 2-1, he got a thigh-high fastball and lined it to right.
“That really helped,” Ahmed said. “That was huge for me. I can’t really say (what Iannetta said), but it was something really important.”
Ahmed began the year expected to receive only a fraction of the playing time at shortstop after Chris Owings won a spring-training battle at the position. But since late April, Ahmed has been at short far more frequently, starting nearly twothirds of the time.
Initially, it seemed, it was his glove that had earned him the at-bats. But he’s providing far more than just good defense – and far more than just the bareminimum production people have said he’s needed to provide at the plate, too.
“That’s never, ever crossed my mind,” Ahmed said. “I know people have said that, I guess. I’ve never tried to hit ‘just a little bit.’ I know the ability I have. It’s taken me a little bit longer to tap into it, I guess, than some people might have liked and I definitely would have liked. I’m just trying to learn every day and get better every day.”
Reach Piecoro at (602) 444-8680 or nick.piecoro@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Twitter @nickpiecoro.
“He wants to be the guy who plays elite defense and is a threat on an everyday basis at the dish. He should feel that way.”
DAVE MAGADAN DIAMONDBACKS HITTING COACH, ON NICK AHMED