PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — In his first spring as Mets manager, Mickey Callaway has endorsed some out-of-the-box ideas, such as not designating a specific closer to work the ninth inning.
Perhaps nothing has seemed further from the box, though, than Callaway floating the idea of Todd Frazier as a leadoff hitter last week.
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Todd Frazier, leadoff hitter? The Todd Frazier who has not once in his major-league career batted in the top spot of the order? The Todd Frazier who’s hit 102 homers over the last three years? The Todd Frazier whose average has dropped from .273 to .255 to .225 to .213 the last four years?
That Todd Frazier?
Yes, that Todd Frazier.
Although you can color us skeptical that Frazier will ever actually be the first Met to step in the batter’s box for a game this season, the idea of Frazier as a viable leadoff man isn’t insane. And it speaks to one specific change the hitter made to his plate approach last season.
Frustrated by that plummeting batting average and a career-worst .302 on-base percentage in 2016, Frazier entered his 2017 with a new plan: to cut down on both the frequency and ferocity of his two-strike swings. He would step closer to the plate to get a better gauge for the outer edge of the strike zone, and he would choke up on the bat to better control the barrel when he did swing.
“I got on the plate a little bit. So I know if the ball is that much off, I can know. I can understand it’s off,” he said. “I took those pitches instead of swinging. It was a conscious effort to believe in yourself and believe you’ve got a better chance sometimes spreading out a little more and trusting your hands.”
The result? One of the most dramatic changes in walk rate in all of baseball.
Frazier’s walk rate (14.4 percent) was sixth in baseball last season, behind only Joey Votto, Aaron Judge, Mike Trout, Matt Carpenter and Edwin Encarnacion. Among the 88 hitters who qualified for the batting title in both 2016 and 2017, only two posted higher gross increases in walks than Frazier’s 4.8 percentage points. Only seven increased their walk rate by a higher percentage than Frazier’s 50 percent.
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Frazier was thus able to maintain a robust .344 on-base percentage even as his average continued to fall, all the way down to .213 last season. He’s still upset about that average, by the way, but his ability to get on base more than compensated for the decline in actual hits.
“As you get older, sometimes you fall back on the customary, ‘I’ve been there before, I know what I’m doing.’ I saw where my average was the year before, and I wanted to get that and my on-base up,” said Frazier. “I took it upon myself to get in that two-strike mode.”
Frazier swung at fewer pitches than ever — both inside and outside the strike zone. The change was more dramatic in the latter, as Frazier cut out a quarter of his chase swings.
“I commend Todd for what he did. That’s a tremendous job making an adjustment like that,” said hitting coach Pat Roessler. “Once the pitchers know you’re swinging at better pitches, you’re not getting that 1-1 pitch off the corner because they know you’re going to take it. They try to get a little more plate, and you make them pay.”
Frazier also increased the number of pitches he saw per plate appearance, with his 4.33 ranking seventh in baseball. That list was topped by former Mets leadoff hitter Curtis Granderson.
“I was aggressive, don’t get me wrong. But there were certain areas that needed to be fixed,” Frazier said. “Getting down two strikes, [it’s] getting to a full count and putting the pressure on him to finally get a good pitch to hit.”
The idea of Frazier at the top of the order derives from the Mets’ lack of a prototypical leadoff hitter and still seems unlikely to come to fruition. But that a 32-year-old veteran altered his approach enough to make that prospect worth pondering is news itself.
Notes
– This was not the first impression Dominic Smith wanted to make with his new manager.
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Smith was removed from the starting lineup for Friday’s Grapefruit League opener after he arrived late for an 8:45 a.m. team meeting. Peter Alonso started in Smith’s place.
“That’s stuff that shouldn’t happen,” Smith said. “It’s unacceptable. That’s why I’m not in there today, and it’s something that won’t happen again.”
“It’s a little shocking,” said Callaway. “We have expectations for guys, and if they don’t meet that expectation, then we have to hold them accountable.”
“Can’t really have that kind of stuff. It’s one of those things where you’d rather be overly early than five minutes late,” said Frazier. “He’s going to learn from it, definitely. He’s not playing today. He’ll be fine. You live and learn and move on. Nothing to be any big news. It’s just one of those things where he made a big mistake and that won’t happen again.”
Smith’s tardiness isn’t a huge story, in and of itself. More than anything, it’s a bad look for a first baseman trying to use the spring to make a strong impression.
It’s probably a bigger deal for Callaway to quickly hammer home his message on accountability. That word has been a focus of the manager’s since the day he was hired, and Smith gave him an early opportunity to practice what he’s preached.
“It consistently takes [measures like] this,” Callaway said of instilling team-wide accountability. “The guys know that the things we’re saying are going to be done. The team knows. I didn’t say anything [about Smith’s benching], but they know.”
“He actually was pretty fair. He asked me what I thought the decision should be, and I agreed with him. That’s the only way it should be,” Smith said. “We’re professionals. At any job, if you don’t show up, you have to pay the price.”
– Five students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, site of last week’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida, brought out the lineup card alongside David Wright.
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“I’ve been a Met fan for my whole life. This is my dream,” said 17-year-old senior Jordan Faber. “It is terrible that it’s under these circumstances. But this is an awesome thing that’s helping me get my mind off of what happened at our school, which is just horrific.”
“I’m just so thankful Major League Baseball is with us,” 18-year-old senior Devon Wiesenfeld said. “Myself, my friends, everybody at Stoneman Douglas is all together as a community, and we’re going to change the world.”
Like many of their classmates, the students were outspoken in their support of gun control.
“We’re the students who are going to make the difference,” said 15-year-old sophomore Bailey Feuerman. “People are hearing us, and we’re being seen around the world.”
“This will never happen again, I promise you. They messed with the wrong community,” Faber said. “This is the last school shooting ever.”
– Zack Wheeler pitched around a leadoff single in his single inning of work Friday, picking up a pair of strikeouts along the way. Wheeler threw 10 of his 15 pitches for strikes, including all three of his secondary pitches. He induced three swings-and-misses on his fastball, which touched 97 on the stadium’s radar gun.
“It just felt good to get that one out of the way,” Wheeler said. “I came out of it healthy, and that’s all I’m really worried about.”
Wheeler threw three first-pitch strikes, including the one Ozzie Albies grounded into center for a base hit. The righty also dropped in a first-pitch curve for a strike — something he thinks he can do more of this season.
Callaway was happiest with the way Wheeler held Albies close to first base after that leadoff single. Although Albies eventually stole second, the Mets had him out before Jose Reyes couldn’t hang on to Travis d’Arnaud’s strong throw to the bag.
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“Wonderfully executed,” Callaway said of Wheeler’s control of the running game, showing he really is more serious about process than results this time of the year.
At this point, Wheeler isn’t concerned about what role he’ll have to start the regular season.
“Pitch like I know how, basically,” he said when asked his plan for this spring. “When I’m healthy, I know what I can do and what I’m capable of. Throw good quality strikes, get ahead of hitters and work off of that.”
(Photo credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports)
