Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports chronicles the intense, in-depth program that Jason Heyward embarked upon this winter in an effort to completely revamp his swing after last year’s career-worst season. The 27-year-old Heyward moved to Phoenix, Ariz. to be nearer to the Cubs’ training facilities. There, he’d work regularly with hitting coach John Mallee, assistant hitting coach Eric Hinske and mental skills coach Darnell McDonald in an effort to effectively rewire his muscle memory. Heyward now bats with his hands considerably lower and more relaxed at the plate, and with his bat more vertical as opposed to wrapped up near his shoulders and neck. Regardless of the outcome, president Theo Epstein was floored by the amount of work Heyward put in this winter.
“I’ve never seen a veteran player work as much as Jason did this winter, let alone right after winning a World Series and having already signed a long-term deal,” Epstein told Rosenthal. “It shows how much he cares, his dedication, his pride and his character. He’s the ultimate pro.”
A few more notes on the reigning World Series champs…
- John Lackey will pitch the 2017 season at the age of 38, but the veteran right-hander tells Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago that he’s not approaching this year as if it’ll be his last. “I feel great,” Lackey said to Levine. “I am just playing this year. At the end of the year, if I feel good, I will keep playing.” As Levine notes, Lackey did wear down a bit with a shoulder injury late in the 2016 season, but he’s been extremely durable in general since returning from Tommy John surgery that cost him the 2012 campaign. Over the past four seasons, Lackey’s averaged 198 regular-season innings per year, and he’s also tacked on another 62 1/3 total innings in the postseason. All told, he’s averaged 213 combined innings per season on his reconstructed ulnar collateral ligament.
- New Cubs closer Wade Davis tells MLB.com’s Richard Justice that he wasn’t anticipating a trade this winter. The right-hander called the trade “a little bit of a shock” but said his transition has been eased by already knowing manager Joe Maddon and bench coach Dave Martinez from his time with the Rays. Justice spoke to Maddon and Davis’ former teammate, Eric Hosmer, about the right-hander’s successful move from the rotation to the bullpen and the demeanor that made the switch possible.
- Anthony Rizzo was out of today’s Cactus League game with a slight bit of back stiffness, which prompted reporters to ask Maddon who the backup first baseman would be during the regular season (video link via ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers). Maddon first noted Javier Baez as an option and also added that Kris Bryant could once again see some time at first base in 2017. The skipper added that catcher Willson Contreras could be a third option, but said that Baez and Bryant would be the primary reserves. Asked specifically about Kyle Schwarber playing first base, Maddon suggested that while the slugger “probably could” learn the craft, it’s not something that’s been worked on and isn’t much of an option in 2017.
Heyward’s new swing may look great and all, but let’s wait to see what it looks like once it’s the regular season.
Much easier to change your swing in a batting cage than in an actual game where muscle memory takes over.
I’m sure you’re relying on a wealth of experience in the baseball industry to be saying this all so conclusively
lol it’s common sense that looking good in a batting cage doesn’t necessarily translate to looking good in a game.
It’s also common sense that if batting cages didn’t help, every team wouldn’t have them.
He should bat 9th that will get him on track with his base running skill he would be so great in that spot and hit batting avg will jump about 25 .Up to 250 BA. Holy cow he will be great then.
um yeah…. I had to take a 2 question test to certify as an expert. Email and password.
ITT: People who think that hitting in a batting cage is similar to facing a MLB pitcher.
Seriously though, I think Heyward is bound to be better, but it’s wayyy to early to see he is gonna be the 120 WRC+ player he once was. For the record, he had a 72 WRC+ last year
Yeah, last year was way off of his normal production, and it would be borderline shocking if he didn’t rebound to some extent… but for every fifteen stories about a guy hitting better in the batting cage maybe one of them actually does it off of real pitching.
Yep he’s bound to be better–how could he not be? Ha!
Jesucristo… there’s always a guy saying stuff like this
I have only seen like 5 abs but it looks really similar to rizzo’s.
I hope he improves in 2017 though, he was painful to watch at the plate.
The good news is that I really don’t think he has anywhere to go but up… Even if he’s bad again, he’s going to have a hard time being THAT bad again.
I guess… but the new approach alone should put him in the right direction to being the reliable contact/speed guy that he was in ATL.
The point of the offseason work was to change the muscle memory.
@chri What a load of BS. Cage work and tee work are the cornerstones of developing and improving the baseball swing. Combined with video and swing data analysis it makes it much easier for a player to make big or small changes permanent to their swing. Add to that John Mallee is one of the best hitting coaches on the planet there’s reason to be optimistic about Heyward this year. I can’t tell you what Heyward’s problems were during the season, but in the playoffs and WS those slo-motion replays of his swing showed him getting the barrel of the bat outside of his hands. With that longer swing path he couldn’t catch up to anything. I’m sure it took all of 5 minutes for Mallee to watch video and determine the root cause and develop a program for Heyward to fix the issue and tweak other parts of his mechanics t o help him be more consistent.
Golfers struggle to unlearn muscle memory hitting a stationary target. Good luck facing major league pitching. Optimism is not justified but effort is always admirable.
The last part of your sentence is what’s encouraging for me. He could just say screw it, take his money, and suck like he did last year, but he appears to want to get better so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. For now, anyways.
The Cubs could really use a true back up first baseman. I can see them letting their rule 5 pick go back to where ever he was before and use that spot to get someone that can really play that position. I could see someone like Jeffry Marte or someone like that to come off the bench for them. He won’t cost much and now with Valbena in the mix along with Cronn and Pujols he won’t get much playing time. He can also play some 3rd base along with corner outfield spots. Look at what happened to Rizzo last year he was stuck on the DL for a long time due to not resting enough and this is a perfect way to prevent this from happening in my opinion
“Look at what happened to Rizzo last year he was stuck on the DL for a long time due to not resting enough”
Anthony Rizzo played in 155 of 162 games?
And they have multiple players that can cover. Bryant can shift to 1b with Zobrist to second and Baez to third or Baez can just play first or zobrist can just play first or schwarber could try first with zobrist in lf or they could bring up candelario to play 3b/1b or Happ who could probably play 1b. I’m not sure the cubs have an issue covering 1b.
Well said Chester. Plus if they were to take the advice of crazysull and sign a one dimensional “backup” he would have to be added to the 25 man roster. So who gets cut?
Building off what Chester said, they signed Chris Dominguez, who has MLB experience, to a minor league contract in case a serious situation were to surface.
Right or wrong, the Cubs are largely allergic to using a roster spot on a back-up 1B. Or, a 1B at Triple-A or Double-A.. 1B-only types tend to be inflexible. The Cubs prefer OF/IF/C types.
That’s largely been the case for the last four or five years, at least.
The same applies for DH options in the minors. Most of their OF draft choices tend to be CF/RF types that can play defense. The player that doesn’t appear willing to put in enough time in the batting cage to naturally improve, gets ignored.
If Rizzo misses an extremely large amount of time, they’ll figure out something with their extreme depth. (Zobrist?)
I’m interested in finding out who you’re even talking about considering no one but Schwarber really missed time last year…
I think he was thinking about 2015 in which Rizzo did miss a stretch of time at the end of the year.
Bryant would probably be the goto fill-in at 1b allowing Baez to slot in at 3b and Zobrist back to 2b.
Candelario is going to be at AAA and has corner infield experience. I could see him being a 1b backup should any of the other players not fill in for whatever reason. Zagunis fits that mold too.
There’s just so much versatility with this team.
hey played 160 games in 2015. 2014?
I mean, he still played 140 games in 2014 lol. I wouldn’t really call that a “long stretch” on the DL…
For him it is though. Which I assume is what kayrall means. He missed time form August 26th until september 15th, which would coincide with that end of the season idea.
Yep, 2014 was in my mind, 2015 came out of my fingers.
no team can afford to waste roster spots on 2 people defensively limited to just 1b, not in the days of 12 man bullpens. You can drop any other infielder there and be just fine defensively.
which basically means the Cubs are incredibly deep at 1b since they can put Zobrist, Bryant or Baez there and actually get a plus defender out of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I love that Heyward is putting the effort in to get better and help the Cubs but let’s not forget, he has two opt outs I believe after year 3
He’s not going to opt out and give up the remaining 86 mill
Of course Heyward busted his a$$ this offseason. He embarrassed himself & the Cubs organization last year. I can’t count the number of “that’s the worst contract in all human history” comments I’ve read on this site (full disclosure: wrote a couple myself – in fairness, I thought it was bad before 2016, but not THAT bad). Nobody wants that level of humiliation for themselves, or to make their bosses look like idiots. Not a comfortable way to live.
If there’s one word I’d use to describe the Cubs organization in 2016, it probably would not be “embarrassed”
Uh oh. Rizzo = David Wright part II?
Because of a little back stiffness in Spring Training? That’s a pretty big reach.
The Hottest of takes! Are you a ws fan?
Ha. Rizzo had a rehab burger and needed to recover.
Especially after getting that huge contract. Good to see him working hard. Hope it works out for him and the Cubs. Theo might be feeling snakebitten on huge deals for OFers. Dont remember Crawford wirking that hard but he was injured so maybe that’s unfair