A few days after Alek Thomas was optioned to Triple-A Reno last month, Drew Hedman sat down and watched a video of the Diamondbacks’ young centerfielder. In one swing, Hedman — the club’s director of minor league hitting — could see that Thomas was finding something he hadn’t shown in a choppy start to the year.
Before his demotion, Thomas had gone just 1 for 36 with a lone single against left-handed pitching. Those struggles were a significant part of the reason the Diamondbacks sent him to Reno. They believe that Thomas is far too talented — and too important to their future — to be shoehorned into a platoon role.
Now, here was Thomas, just a few days into an assignment geared at finding an offensive rhythm, lining a double the other way against a left-handed starter. Minor league pitching is, of course, not major league pitching. But that was enough to raise an eyebrow.
“When you see that type of ball flight, backspinning balls to left field, left-center field, center field, you know that he’s in a pretty good position, you know that his barrel is working in a good way through the zone,” Hedman said. “So I think there were signs of it really early on that, like, okay, there’s some feel for it. But then it’s just been a little more consistent to where, especially over the last 10 days, he looks like Alek Thomas.”
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In 24 Triple-A games, Thomas is now hitting .350/.405/.505. Even against lefties, he’s at .324/.333/.441. There’s that caveat again — minor league pitching. Thomas, once a top-40 prospect, has dominated in Reno before and not seen it translate. But the Diamondbacks are confident that he’s finding something that can work at the big league level.
They did not want to overhaul his swing midseason, but they knew that he needed to make some mechanical adjustments in order to be a productive hitter. Thomas, even in his good stretches, has had a unique swing in which he steps towards the plate with a pronounced leg kick and then pulls off towards first base with his upper body.
In his first few days in the minors, Thomas tinkered with various changes. He briefly ditched the leg kick against left-handed pitching, trying to find a balance between his natural swing and a calmer mechanic that could help him adjust to off-speed pitches and pitches on the outer part of the plate.
Eventually, he settled with a swing that looks mostly similar against righties and lefties. The key, Hedman said, is in Thomas’ weight transfer. He’s now getting his front foot down earlier but keeping his weight on his back leg for longer. Hedman believes that will prevent the swing mechanic that causes Thomas to fall off the plate towards first base, which in turn leads him to “hook” pitches towards the right side of the infield.
“If moves tend to be late and rushed or crash-y, if you get a pitch close to you, you have to create some type of space to be able to get the barrel there,” Hedman said. “If it’s not in sync, an easy way to create space is just to rotate and now I have some space in here. I think that can make you susceptible then to late movement, different speeds of pitches.”
In watching Thomas, his swing still looks mostly similar to how it did when he was in the majors. A rival evaluator, though, said that the difference in the timing of Thomas’ weight transfer is evident. That, in turn, could keep his momentum more on line towards the plate, enabling him to impact pitches.
“You can swing with momentum just by having all of your weight go,” Hedman said. “Or you can move in a little bit more of a controlled manner. I think we’re seeing a lot of that control in his swing right now.”
For the Diamondbacks, the equation of getting Thomas right is a crucial one. Despite their success, they have gotten little production from their outfielders outside of Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
Thomas had a .579 OPS in 123 plate appearances. Jake McCarthy’s box score stats have been better of late, moving his OPS to .622, but he’s still struggling to make hard contact. Pavin Smith has showcased his eye for the strike zone but holds just a .199 batting average and a .663 OPS, along with subpar defense.
At his best, Thomas can fill that void.
“Our best team has Alek Thomas starting in centerfield every single day,” manager Torey Lovullo said. “We need him. Because of what he brings to us defensively, but he’s also a really good hitter, really good baseball player.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Alek Thomas working towards D-Backs return