On the finish of the 2019 minor-league season, Alex Name checked out his hitting numbers, then appeared himself within the mirror.
A former third-round draft decide who had already modified organizations as soon as, he knew he had simply had the sort of yr that sometimes portends a brief skilled profession.
As a 24-year-old outfielder on the double-A degree within the Cleveland Guardians group, Name had taken 325 plate appearances that yr with the Akron RubberDucks. In 93 of them — a fee of almost 30% — he recorded a strikeout.
It wasn’t the one ugly stat in a season that noticed Name bat simply .205, attain base at a .266 clip and hit solely 5 house runs. Nevertheless it was the most important signal of a basic flaw plaguing the right-handed hitter’s recreation.
“That,” he recalled just lately, whereas reflecting on what grew to become a turning level second in his profession, “just wasn’t gonna get it done.”
Six years later, Name joined the Dodgers as a commerce deadline addition final week with a polar reverse status. Now, the defensively versatile outfielder is among the more durable outs in all of the majors. Because the begin of final season, his .297 batting common ranks eighth amongst MLB hitters with a minimum of 350 plate appearances. Extra essential, over that very same span, he ranks high 60 in strikeout fee and stroll fee (with a 55-to-39 ratio total), and twenty second in chase fee; persistently placing collectively among the higher at-bats in all the game.
“This guy’s just a straight grinder, works at-bats,” normal supervisor Brandon Gomes mentioned after the Dodgers acquired Name from the Washington Nationals in trade for 2 pitching prospects. “Playing against him, he’s always incredibly frustrating to try to game plan for and get out.”
“I’ve faced Alex a few times,” added future Corridor of Fame left-hander Clayton Kershaw. “He’s tough against lefties, a great defender. A good add, for sure.”
The Dodgers, after all, may have made splashier provides on the deadline. They have been linked to different All-Star caliber names, together with Steven Kwan of the Guardians, however didn’t splurge to pay such inflated deadline costs.
As an alternative, they settled for Name, who was a smaller identify however got here with workforce management by 2029. They put their religion in his overhauled offensive ability set, hopeful a private transformation greater than half-a-decade within the making will make him a key piece of their pursuit of a second straight World Sequence title.
“That is my whole game,” Name mentioned on the day he arrived with the membership. “I am going to grind out at-bats, put the ball in play, take my walks, make it tough on the pitcher, lengthen out the lineup.”
The origins of that mindset date to that 2019 season, and the pandemic-altered yr that adopted.
Getting into 2020, Name dedicated to a change on the plate. In what was a crowded pipeline of outfielders within the Guardians system — highlighted at the moment by Kwan, who has since blossomed into among the finest left fielders within the recreation — he acknowledged he wanted a brand new id. If he was going to succeed in the majors, it was going to begin with merely working higher at-bats.
“It’s a bad feeling,” he mentioned, “having a cloud hanging over your head after a season like that.”
The one drawback: COVID-19 got here, the 2020 minor league season was canceled, and Name (like so many different minor-league longshots clinging to big-league goals) was left successfully on his personal.
So, he discovered alternative ways to enhance his bat.
Because the baseball world shut down, Name purchased a transportable Junior Hack Assault hitting machine with a self-feeding ball dispenser. And in every single place he went that yr — from spring coaching housing in Phoenix to his childhood house in Wisconsin to his household’s offseason residence in Indiana — he sought out anyplace “I could find a hitting cage and an outlet” to make use of it, he mentioned laughing.
His focus was easy. Work on hitting fastballs up within the strike zone. Get rid of what had been one of many largest holes in his swing.
“For me, it’s just about having that mentality to where, it doesn’t matter if I have two strikes or if it’s an 0-0 count,” he mentioned. “Believe I’m comfortable in every situation. I’m going to put the ball in play.”
By that winter, Name sought out a extra superior piece of coaching know-how as nicely.
Over the earlier couple years, an organization referred to as Win Actuality had begun manufacturing digital actuality hitting goggles — utilizing data-driven fashions, precise video and computer-generated pictures to recreate digital at-bats towards actual pitchers from a hitter’s viewpoint inside Oculus-style headsets.
A handful of MLB groups, together with the Dodgers, had invested within the system for his or her groups. Within the months main as much as the 2021 season, Name determined to do the identical for himself, shopping for the $300 product (and paying for its annual $200 software program program) to assist couple his new swing with a extra discerning method.
“[I was] just really practicing the zone,” Name mentioned. “Knowing what pitches are my strengths and what pitches I don’t want to swing at until two strikes. Developing that plan and developing that approach.”
The coaching paid off.
At first of the 2021 season, Name was despatched again to double-A Akron. When he arrived, he was knowledgeable by supervisor Rouglous Odor that he would solely be slated to play 2-3 video games per week — a fast reminder of how far down the group depth chart he’d fallen.
“I remember him being very disappointed,” Odor, now the Guardians’ big-league third-base coach, recalled this week. “But he took ownership of his career, and didn’t let what I told him affect him.”
Name’s probability arrived that Might, after Kwan went down with a hamstring harm. And nearly instantly, his COVID-year modifications took impact. Over 180 plate appearances, Name hit .310, drew 21 walks and — simply as he’d hoped — minimize his strikeout fee by half, punching out solely 26 instances.
“He was a totally different hitter,” mentioned Odor, who had additionally been Name’s supervisor throughout his dismal 2019 marketing campaign. “Defensively, he was already to play in the big leagues. He made some unbelievable plays … But offensively, he found his stroke. His plate discipline was more consistent. And he had an unbelievable season.”
By the top of the season, Name had been promoted to triple-A. The subsequent July, he earned a promotion to the majors.
The ascent from there wasn’t linear. In August 2022, he was designated for task and claimed off waivers by the Nationals. In 2023, he performed in 128 big-league video games however hit solely .200, sending him again to triple-A for many of final yr.
Alex Name bats towards the Houston Astros on July 28 as a member of the Washington Nationals.
(Karen Warren / Related Press)
Nonetheless, his plate self-discipline didn’t waver (he struck out solely 78 instances in his 439 plate appearances in 2023, an 18% fee, whereas additionally drawing 53 walks). His VR routine solely grew to become extra ingrained, seeing upward of 54,000 simulated pitches (or, primarily 25 seasons’ value of throws) by his headset every year, as he advised the Washington Publish final month.
All of it has clicked during the last calendar yr, with Name following up a productive return to the majors on the finish of 2024 along with his finest full-season efficiency this time period.
“The type of player that I am, I can hit the ball over the fence, but it’s not really my full game,” Name mentioned. “So for me, it was about trying to create as many opportunities to get on base as possible … I have to be able to hit the ball at good angles.”
Name is one in all solely 4 gamers with 200 plate appearances this season (together with Kyle Tucker, Gleyber Torres and Geraldo Perdomo) who strikes out lower than 15% of the time, chases lower than 20% of the time and whiffs lower than 20% of the time. He has hit .236 with two strikes (higher than everybody else on the Dodgers besides Hyeseong Kim).
He had his first standout recreation with the Dodgers on Wednesday, when he singled, doubled and made a catch whereas crashing into the left subject wall to save lots of an extra-base hit.
Eight at-bats into his Dodgers profession coming into Friday’s recreation, he has additionally but to strike out as soon as.
“I’m always proud of players like Alex, because he wasn’t this big prospect, but he became an everyday big-league player,” Odor mentioned. “He had the urgency to make something happen in order to reach his goal, and his dream.”
And now, Name is aiming to take his profession one step additional — to be not only a productive big-league bat, however one able to taking part in an impactful function on a title-contending membership in Los Angeles.
“I always knew that I could do it and be an established major leaguer,” Name mentioned. “It’s just, sometimes it takes a little bit of time. And I’m grateful that I was given that time, and just continued to get better.”
