2017 pivotal season for Reds’ Hamilton
Part of the way through the 2016 season, Billy Hamilton realized something that seems exceedingly obvious: He is Billy Hamilton, and not someone else.
Too often in his first few years in the majors, he seemed to have that idea backward at the plate. He tried to follow the cookiecutter goals of the average major league hitter, something he most certainly is not. After all, what works for Cincinnati Reds teammates Adam Duvall, Zack Cozart or Joey Votto does not work for a light-hitting, 160-pound, speedy center fielder.
“That’s what I learned at the end of last year talking to Joey a lot,” Hamilton said. “He said you’ve got to have a plan, you’ve got to have an approach. You can’t be like nobody else. You can learn things from a bunch of people, but I can’t be the type of hitter he is.”
It’s easy to figure out what Hamilton is not with a bat in his hand, but it’s been tougher to determine who he should be. For the first time since he reached the majors in 2013, the 26-yearold has a good idea of how to answer that.
It’s not a guy who always puts the ball on the ground, as much as he’s heard that refrain in recent years. Even for the fastest player in the majors, grounders overwhelmingly result in outs. He tried always hitting it to the left side of the infield, where the throw to first is longer, but thought he wasn’t making good contact.
Midway through last year, Hamilton started working in the batting cages with Votto. After the All-Star Game, he took off, hitting .293/.369/.333 (batting average/ on-base percentage/slugging percentage) before an injury to his side ended his season. His infield hit rate more than doubled, and his infield fly-ball rate more than halved.
His line-drive and ground-ball rates were about the same, and his pull rate even went up. But Hamilton thinks his success came from focusing on hitting line drives up the middle.
“In spring training, I didn’t hit too many balls in the air, which I was proud of,” Hamilton said. “I knew I was making progress when that didn’t happen. The last few years in spring training, I popped up so much. Now my misses are ground balls.”
Hamilton’s breakthrough second half consisted of only 45 games and 197 plate appearances, but that was enough for the Reds to hand him the leadoff spot right as spring training began. It’s a luxury he wasn’t afforded a year earlier, when he was told he’d have to earn it and began the season hitting seventh.
Hamilton was hitting .286/ .304/.429 with a double, a triple and two runs as the Reds jumped out to a 4-2 start.
Still, 2017 remains a prove-it year for Hamilton. His second- half surge last year helped him to a career-best .321 on-base percentage for the season, but he still finished with fewer than 500 plate appearances. If he wants to remain atop the order, he must continue progressing.
On top of that, he’s starting to make real money. This past offseason was his first as an arbitrationeligible player, and he signed for a $2.625 million salary. Each offseason until he reaches free agency in 2020, that number is all but guaranteed to tick up significantly, and the Reds expect to pay for an appropriately pricey performance.
That doesn’t put Hamilton’s standing on the team in danger — if he fails to hit, his salary gains will be more modest and he’ll still give the club value in the field and on the bases — but he knows this is his chance to finally establish himself.
“Of course you want to make money,” Hamilton said. “But to get the money, you have to perform. I’m at a point right now where I know I have to perform.”
“In spring training I didn’t hit too many balls in the air. ... I knew I was making progress when that didn’t happen. Billy Hamilton