Dodgers News: Roberts Keeping Faith Jason Heyward’s Revamped Swing Gets Back on Track
A couple weeks ago, Jason Heyward was the talk of Dodger camp. He had revamped his swing in the winter after signing a minor league deal with LA in December. The veteran put that new swing on display hitting a pair of loud home runs over his first few games of the spring, backing it up with a .400 batting average over his first 10 at-bats. From that point on he had just 1 hit in 17 at-bats before a 2 hit afternoon against his former team on Friday.
So, it’s all still a work in progress.
“I don’t think that anyone expected it to be linear,” manager Dave Roberts said this week. “I think he started off really well, and then he hit a little cold spell, and is working through some things.”
Via Jack Harris, LA Times
The swing looked better on Friday. Heyward went 2-4 against the Cubs, narrowly missing his third homer of the spring in the fourth inning. Earlier this week, he talked about getting a bit back into bad habits at the plate looking for quick results.
“At times, you tend to do things where you’re putting a Band-Aid on stuff and you want to get a quick result,” Heyward said. “But when you have ability, you want to tap into that. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
By all accounts, the former All-Star is still expected to make the team on opening day. His resume and his connection to former Braves teammate Freddie Freeman are enough to at least give him that chance to start the season. But, if he struggles, how long the runway is will be one of the bigger early season questions.
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