In a season that has become all about playing the kids, one of the Blue Jays’ best surviving prospects is taking advantage of the opportunity and, in his third chance, finally showing his stuff in the big leagues.
Addison Barger began this season behind left-hander Ricky Tiedemann, currently recovering from Tommy John surgery, and infielder Orelvis Martinez, currently serving an 80-game PED suspension, on the Jays’ list of young players on the cusp of getting their first big-league chance.
The 24-year-old from Washington state was the first of the trio to make it to the majors, but his late-April promotion lasted barely a week as the left-handed hitter went just 1-for-18.
When he was sent back to Buffalo, he told then-Bisons teammate Spencer Horwitz, “Whoa. That was intense.”
A second call-up in mid-June started much better. Barger had his first pair of multi-hit games within the first week and his first extra-base hit, a double, but then went into a 2-for-28 skid and returned to Buffalo again.
Brought back a third time when Bo Bichette went on the injured list July 20 with a calf strain, Barger has returned a different hitter.
“I’ve changed my setup, changed my hand placement a little bit,” Barger said Tuesday. before going 1-for-4 in the Jays’ 5-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles at the Rogers Centre.
“I’m more wide, a little more closed up. Just trying to 鈥 be more efficient.”
Assistant hitting coach Matt Hague, who was the hitting coach in Buffalo last season, believes some of the things that Barger got away with in the minors weren’t working at the game’s highest level.
“There were a couple of tendencies that were popping up with him against certain pitchers,” Hague said. “We sat down and got the overall idea just to get rid of some of the unnecessary moves that exposed him a little bit his first couple of times he was here.”
It’s a big change over a very small time period. “Yeah, we were grinding,” Barger said. But it has worked so far.
In this third stint in the majors, Barger is hitting .320 with a 1.090 on-base-plus-slugging percentage. Included in those numbers are the first two home runs of his big-league career, the first coming in Baltimore last Monday.
“That felt great,” the third baseman/outfielder said. “It would have been nice to have it a little sooner but it’s nice to see the work I’ve been putting in is producing some results.”
The results have been rewarded, too. Barger’s start on Tuesday was his fourth since taking over for Justin Turner in the second inning on July 29, when Turner was traded to Seattle midgame.聽
“He’s slowed down, he’s made a few changes,” manager John Schneider said before Tuesday’s game. “He still hits the ball really hard 鈥 and I think he’s had good at-bats since he came back.”
He had another one Tuesday when, with two out in the bottom of the sixth inning against left-hander Gregory Soto, Barger stayed on a two-strike slider and got enough of the pitch to drop it down the left-field line for a two-run double that capped the Jays’ five-run frame. It was his聽sixth extra-base hit in nine games.
“There were certain slow, off-speed pitches that got him out of position,” Hague aid before the game, and the slider was just that at 84.8 miles per hour.
While the swing and setup changes have a lot to do with Barger’s new-found success, so does having time to adjust to being at this level. Often young players need to have the big leagues demystified for them before they can stick around.
Many players don’t make it to the majors to stay when they’re first called up. That includes Carlos Delgado, Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista, Mike Trout and, most recently, Jackson Holliday, the Orioles’ super-prospect who homered for Baltimore’s first run Tuesday to name a few.
“It’s a much bigger stage, so much different than being at Triple-A (where) you’re getting barely any fans or anything. The environment here is just way more crazy,”聽Barger said.
“It’s an adjustment, and I think it just takes time. Some people get used to it quicker than others, but it just takes a little time to get comfortable.”
There’s still work to be done聽鈥 Barger struck out three times Tuesday to go with his big double聽鈥 but in this third stint with the big club, he seems much more comfortable both with the stage and the new batting stance. The Jays are going to give him lots of opportunities over the next couple of months to get used to both.
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