Brignac hopes to rediscover hitting Onetime top prospect aims for shot with Phils
DUNEDIN, Fla. — For those who follow top prospects in the minor leagues, it seems like Reid Brignac has been around forever.
That’s what happens when you’re considered one of the game’s best talents under 21. That’s what Brignac was in 2006. He was the apple of scouts’ eyes, a tall, strapping kid with Scott Rolen size, pop and glove, yet capable of playing shortstop.
Steve Henderson remembers that kid. He was the roving hitting instructor for the Tampa Bay Rays when Brignac was tearing up the California League, hitting .326 with 21 homers in 100 games before getting called up to Double-A for the final month of 2006. When stories about Tampa Bay’s future were done at the time, Brignac and Evan Longoria were named in tandem as the future of the Rays’ left-hand side of the infield.
“He could hit the ball out of the ballpark, but he could give you a good at-bat, too,” said Henderson, who is in his second season as Phillies’ hitting coach. “He could hit the ball in the gap. That was one of the good things about him, he had his power in the gap.”
In some ways that seems an eternity ago. Yet Brignac, who was signed to a minor-league contract by the Phillies this winter and invited to big-league camp, is only 28 – hardly ancient, hardly finished if he still has the talent, desire and confidence to continue his quest to be a major-league player.
Brignac believes he still has the first two traits. It’s that third traits he’s working to rebuild. The last three years have been tough on the confidence.
In 2010, the Rays gave him a big-league job as a platoon middle infielder against right-handed pitchers, and he responded by batting .306 through the first two months. Then came the sag. He batted .228 with a .621 OPS the rest of the way and saw less and less action. Still, the next spring he was given the starting shortstop job, but suffered plantar fasciitis in camp and tried to play through it. By the end of April he was hitting .222 and back to platooning. By midseason his average was below .200 and on the bench more often than not.
When Brignac went 2-for-17 in the opening two weeks of 2012, he was banished to Triple-A, where he continued to struggle.
Early last spring training, the Rays sent him to Colorado essentially for nothing. He made the team and was hitting .250 as a bench player over the opening six weeks when the Yankees needed to find a replacement at shortstop for Derek Jeter following an injury and acquired Brignac for cash. However, in 12 starts over the next month, he went just 5-for-44 with 17 strikeouts and was released. He re-signed with the Rockies and spent the final two months scuffling in Triple-A.
“The team was struggling,” Brignac said of his time in the spotlight with the Yankees. “They were like, ‘We need you to come in and hit now, right now. And if you aren’t hitting right now, we’re going to find someone else.’ And they were doing that for a couple of months.
“I played great defensively … it just didn’t fit.”
In need of a place where he could rediscover his confidence and have someone there to believe in him, Brignac jumped at the opportunity to reunite with Henderson. He arrived in Clearwater soon after the turn of the calendar to get to work with Henderson on reclaiming a swing that was tinkered with too much after Henderson became the Rays’ big-league hitting coach in 2007 and fired by the Rays after the 2009 season.
“I want to be more athletic and confident, just go out there and hit,” Brignac said. “I’ve hit my whole life. I’ve had a couple of years where I’ve struggled, a couple of years where I lacked confidence. A lot of people were pulling at me, trying to get me to do different things.”
“He used to stay in the zone longer,” Henderson said. “He started coming out of the zone. I don’t know what the situation was over there (with Tampa Bay) after I left, but I really tried to get him to hit balls through the hole over there. He can drive a ball … we’re just trying to get him back, stay through the ball. He’s been doing pretty good this spring.
“He came down early, we got together and he’s been staying on the program … He’s hitting good right now.”
After grounding out in his only plate appearance against a southpaw pitcher Monday, Brignac is 6-for-17 with two doubles in Grapefruit League games. Whether he can be the right fit with the Phillies to start the season remains to be seen.
The Phillies do have a need for a backup infielder who can play shortstop now that Freddy Galvis is out for a while with a MRSA infection, and Brignac fits the bill. He’s a left-handed bat, which is never a bad thing when you’re seeking to be on a big-league bench. However, with outfielders Bobby Abreu and Tony Gwynn Jr. both hitting well and from the left side, the Phillies might opt for Ronny Cedeno as their backup infielder. The Phillies have to decide Tuesday whether Cedeno is added to the roster, given a $100,000 bonus to go to the minors, or cut outright.
Even if Brignac doesn’t make it to start the season, he has shown enough for the Phillies to keep an eye on how he performs at Lehigh Valley if he’s reassigned.
“He’s still young and has the ability,” Henderson said. “If he can get his stroke back, he has always been able to catch the ball. He was one of the better shortstops (in the minors) at the time. He just has to get that bat going.”