Searching for his swing
Arenado seeing success at plate again after a day off in L. A.
The key moment of Nolan Arenado’s 2020 season just might have come last Sunday in Los Angeles.
He arrived at Dodger Stadium stuck in one of the worst slumps of his career; one amplified by the truncated 60- game season.
After 26 games, the Rockies’ star third baseman was hitting .218, with no extra- base hits on the road. Most disconcerting, Arenado, typically one of the best clutch hitters in baseball, owned a .067 average with runners in scoring position.
Nolan was not being Nolan. And the Rockies were floundering.
Manager Bud Black decided it was time for Arenado to take the day off.
“With Nolan, like a lot of hitters, his timing is off, he’s a little jumpy in the box; some of the things that happen to hitters,” Black explained, adding that Arenado was missing the sweet spot and popping balls up instead of driving them into gaps or over the wall.
Black also believed that Arenado was carrying too much weight on his shoulders.
“I think, more than anything, Nolan feels that, personally, his role on this club is to do great things,” Black said. “That’s something he’s always done. But sometimes that pressure that players put on themselves works against you.”
Understand that Arenado hates not playing. Before the season began, he had even talked about his desire to be on the field for all 60 games. Ultimately, however, he understood that riding the bench for one game would be a good thing in the long run.
“The day off in L. A., I didn’t pick up a bat,” Arenado said. “I kind of tried to stay clear of it and get away from it for a bit. I didn’t swing, I stayed away and I tried to clear my head.”
What’s remarkable is that Arenado did not even pick up a bat! As teammate and friend Charlie Blackmon once said, “Sometimes,
Nolan just needs a hug. I mean, sometimes he can’t walk down the hallway without stopping three times to take a dry swing with his bat.”
The day off in Los Angeles appears to have been an elixir.
As the Rockies opened a threegame home series against San Diego on Friday, Arenado had boosted his average to .248 after going 5- for- 14 during the Rockies’ three consecutive wins at Arizona. He notched consecutive multi- hit games for the first time this season and he went 4- for- 5 with runners in scoring position after starting the season 2- for- 31.
“Yeah, I had some good atbats,” he said. “Hopefully, I continue to have good at- bats and continue to be ready to hit.”
All- star shortstop Trevor Story chuckled at the idea that Arenado’s slump will linger or the notion that Arenado needs to make major changes to how he approaches baseball.
“He’s one of the best players in
the game and he holds himself to a high standard,” Story said. “His standard of working and preparing is second to nobody. He hasn’t played as well as he wanted to start the season, but he hasn’t let that affect him in the clubhouse or prevented him from being a friend or being a good teammate.
“He’s been there, he’s been present. So props to him for that. Baseball is a tough game and everybody struggles at some point, but I think his leadership is incredible and I’m proud to call him a teammate. There is nobody I would rather play with.”
Still, Arenado’s self- induced pressure ratcheted up this year, and not just because of the 60game sprint to try and make the playoffs. His lucrative contract and his future in Colorado remain issues, even if they are on the backburner right now.
A tumultuous relationship between Arenado and Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich boiled over during the offseason even though Arenado had signed an eight- year, $ 260- million contract in February 2019. Arenado had publically expressed dissatisfaction with the direction of the team
after the Rockies finished 71- 91 last season.
“How do I evaluate this team? We’re behind,” he told The Denver Post in mid- September last year. “We’re going to lose close to 90- some games. And that wasn’t the plan when I signed, that wasn’t the goal.”
Arenado can opt out of his contract after the 2021 season, which helped fuel trade rumors that began to heat up in early December at baseball’s winter meetings and continued to gain momentum during the offseason. Then, after Bridich told The Post in January that he was putting the brakes on trade talks with other teams in regard to Arenado, the third baseman responded, saying he felt “disrespected” by Bridich.
Spring training opened with the GM and the third baseman coexisting, albeit on chilly terms. Then came the coronavirus pandemic and a halt to the season. When the Rockies came back together for summer camp at Coors Field in mid- July, Arenado was in midseason form, driving home runs deep into the seats during intrasquad games.
Though the Rockies sprinted out of the gate with an 11- 3 record, Arenado struggled at the plate, hitting .185 with a .614 OPS and only five RBIs in his first 14 games. That’s not what the Rockies needed, or expected, from a player, who, since 2014, had led the major leagues in RBIs ( 682) and tied for the most go- ahead RBIs ( 161).
Arenado, at 29, is still seeking a more balanced approach to the game he so dearly loves.
“There’s a double- edged sword,” Black said. “What makes him so great is his intensity and his passion and his desire to perform. At times that can work against you.”
Black said he’s told Arenado many times to “exhale and relax and have fun.”
“I’ve told him, ‘ You’re still going to play with an energy and a passion and a strong will … relaxing a bit is not going to hurt you,’ ” Black said. “Other coaches have had conversations with him.
“But this is just how he is wired. It’s how he’s built. The desire and want- to are what makes him a 40plus homer guy, a five- time allstar, and a perennial Gold Glover and Silver Slugger. So it’s hard to change that type of will.”
Rockies corner infielder Josh Fuentes, Arenado’s first cousin, was called up to the big- league club Aug. 20 and made two starts at first base in Arizona. Fuentes said he has no desire to change his cousin, but he does try to take his edge off. “I definitely try to keep it light around Nolan,” Fuentes said. “My whole thing is to make Nolan laugh.”
Arenado said he “cherishes” the time he spends on the field with Fuentes, whom Arenado sees as his kid brother. And he was thrilled to see his cousin across the diamond from him in Arizona.
The fact that Arenado busted out against the Diamondback with Fuentes joining him in the starting lineup is probably just coincidence. But Fuentes does try to put the game in perspective.
“Nolan will come up to me and talk about the pitchers and about how he felt,” Fuentes said. “So I’ll listen and try to help. But he has so many people talking to him about the game, I want to be someone he can come to and be himself.
“And that’s the biggest thing about baseball. Just be yourself, have fun and go play.”