For seasoned veterans like San Diego Padres second baseman Jake Cronenworth, it’s unusual to do something unique in spring training. Most of the month is spent just getting the appropriate work in, and by the time Opening Day is in sight, most players are beyond bored and more than ready to start the real games.
But Cronenworth did something he’s never done before in the Padres’ 3-0 win over the Chicago Cubs yesterday. He hit a home run to the opposite field, and according to AJ Cassavell of MLB.com, it’s the first time Cronenworth has ever done that.
The home run was a wind-driven "bomb," and the temperature was up in the Padres camp in Peoria during the game. That same wind helped trigger a 27-run explosion the other day when the Padres played the Seattle Mariners, but Cronenworth said the blast was related to his offseason work.
“It’s stuff I’ve worked on in the offseason and in spring yraining, to be able to do that,” Cronenworth said. “Not necessarily changing my swing, but becoming more efficient in the way that I move toward the ball.”
The Padres would definitely welcome a power surge from their second baseman. Cronenworth had a down year last season offensively, but he has gone yard 80 times in his six-year career, according to Cassavell. Cronenworth isn’t a pull hitter, but he does hit to all fields, and the underlying advanced metrics in this particular home run were intriguing.
It left the bat at 104.3 mph, Cassavell added, and a few days before that Cronenworth hit 105.3 on a double to left. That’s the first time he’s hit 104.3, and that velocity came on a ground ball.
“I felt like I’ve always had a good swing,” Cronenworth said. “But my ability to drive the ball the other way was limited to a line-drive double to left-center or a line drive down the line. It was never the smoked ball that turns the outfielder like I get pull-side.
“I think the way that I’m moving now and the work I’ve done in the offseason is allowing me to do that.”
Cronenworth is working with a new hitting coach in Steve Souza this year, and that could be a part of what happened yesterday.
“His bat-to-ball [skill] is elite, his decision-making is elite, he does a lot of things that show that it’s in there,” Souza said. “We’re just basically trying to unlock him and put him in a position where he can use all the field, instead of being limited to pull-side damage.”
Souza added that Cronenworth isn’t chasing opposite-field homers. He just wants to see a good swing path, and the basic idea is to get Cronenworth’s weight off his back foot quicker this season. That could boost his swing speed from last season’s average of 70.9 mph, according to Cassavell, which could also result in increased production.
“Instead of that near miss as a 100-mph flyout to the warning track, now maybe it’s a 102-mph double,” Cronenworth said. “Or it carries and it’s a homer.”