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Adley Rutschman knows he's picked a bad time to slump. The Baltimore catcher is hitting .136 over his last 12 games as the Orioles remain neck-and-neck with the New York Yankees in the race for the American League East. With neither the Orioles nor Yankees able to string wins together and create separation, the race appears set to go down to the final days of the season.
And those final days are almost here, with the Orioles' postseason push underway.
The Orioles have 18 games remaining and are a half-game behind the Yankees as of Monday morning. Rutschman, meanwhile, is trying not to let his frustration boil over.
“Baseball’s an interesting game. Hitting is as much a mental thing as it is a physical thing, so I think there are so many aspects,” he told Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner about his slump.
Zooming out, Rutschman's struggles go back to the All-Star break. He's a sub-.200 hitter since then with a hard hit rate (27.4%) and barrel rate (3.2%) both significantly lower than they were in the first half (40.1% and 8.1% respectively). He's actually striking out less in the second half, but with a wRC+ of 65 since the break and an on-base percentage of .282, the quality of contact just isn't there.
“Is my load not allowing me to get my best swing off when I do get pitches in the zone?” Rutschman speculated. “It’s such, like, minor things in your swing that can make you miss the ball by a fraction. That’s why I think hitting sometimes is kind of waves, because sometimes getting that feel, once you have it, you’re like, ‘OK, I got it.’ You take things from the cage and you apply them in the game, but obviously, it’s different in the game; you have all those external factors.”
“I think for me right now, we’re trying to look at stuff from a fundamental standpoint, and then swinging at quality pitches,” he added.
A look at Adley Rutschman's mechanics
Statcast data shows Rutschman is hitting under the ball significantly more than he did last year. That would explain why he's actually hitting fewer ground balls than he did in the first half, even though fewer are finding holes or leaving the yard.
Rutschman believes it could be a workload issue. As the season goes on and a player tires, he might make compromises in his swing.
“I’m starting to compensate a little bit here, and then, a week later, you’re like, ‘Oh, shoot, my hands are right here now,’” he said.
Orioles co-hitting coach Ryan Fuller seemed to agree with Rutschman's analysis.
“Faster pitches, if you’re a little bit late, your body’s going to compensate to make some moves to be able to get to the ball, and that’s where we’ll see him get out of his posture a little bit,” he explained. “It’s the same thing when you’re doing rounds in the cage. You’re doing fastball-changeup, little different timing, finding the move that lets you be on the hardest pitch you’re going to face while adjusting to the softest pitch you’re going to face. And he’s been working extremely hard on that.”
Ultimately, the rookie is going through what every hitter goes through at some point. With the postseason approaching, however, he is running out of time to figure it out. He remains undaunted.
“I’d like to be at my best when October hits,” he said.
