Jake McCarthy Looking to Rediscover True Self at the Plate
Yesterday I had a chance to catch up with Jake McCarthy to talk to him about his off season, how he tried to prepare himself for this year, and how he feels about the roster moves the team has made.
It's no secret that he had a tough year in 2023, one that ended with an oblique injury that caused him to miss the postseason. Prior to that, his production had fallen off a cliff compared to his breakout 2022 season. In that year he hit .283/.342/.427, .769 OPS while batting third in the order for much of the second half. The underlying batted ball metrics suggested that might have been over performance however, as lower exit velocities led to just a .243 expected batting average and .357 expected slugging according to Baseball Savant's statcast metrics.
In 2023 he slumped right out of the gate in April batting just .143 with one homer before getting demoted to Triple-A Reno. He spent a month raking in the Pacific coast league hitting for both average and power before getting called back up. From late May through mid August McCarthy hit .278/.356/.361 . The on base percentage was excellent, but he hit just one homer, and was not driving the ball. Rather it seemed like he was just trying to slap the ball, get on base, and run. Demoted again to Reno in mid August to make way for Tommy Pham, McCarthy did not get back to the big league roster until mid September and garnered just 21 plate appearances the rest of the way.
Speaking at the winter meetings in Nashville last December Torey Lovullo revealed his thoughts and what he said to McCarthy during his end of season interview.
"He has the ability to go straight bat-to-ball when he needs to", Lovullo said. "But in those counts where he can get behind a ball and drive it out of the ballpark, we want that to be the case...... We know it's in there. There are some swinging issues, some timing issues, and we want him to be dynamic.....we know it's in there"
McCarthy has indeed shown that the power. Over three stints in Reno since 2021 he's slugged 30 doubles, 13 triples and 23 homers in 529 at bats. Even in the supercharged Pacific Coast League those are strong power numbers and his league and park adjusted wRC+ of 134 was 34% better than the league average over that time.
For McCarthy it's a matter of getting back to his true self. "I definitely think it's [driving the baseball] not a trait I need to develop" he said. "It's just something I need to do a better job of getting back to. It's in there. I've always been able to drive the ball. I think it's more of just doing it more often."
The question then becomes how does he get back to that and find it at the major league level. McCarthy said he doesn't think he needs a total swing overall however. "Having good separation, being on time, being fully loaded" are the keys for him to be able to drive the ball consistently.
"It's not a matter of bat speed or strength, or anything like that. It's just a matter of swinging at the right pitches, putting the barrel on it, taking a full pass.. We're not anywhere near a full swing overhaul. I try to stay away from things like that. I love my game, I love what I can do....it's just a matter of getting to my optimal form"
It was a normal, albeit shortened off season for McCarthy. He said he typically comes back to camp a little bit heavier than what he plays at. Currently at about 215 pounds, the rigors of a 7-8 month season will cause him to lose some pounds. The priority for him was to be healthy with his oblique, which he said was fully healed by mid November.
The elephant in the room concerning McCarthy's future is the team made several off season moves, bringing in free agents Joc Pederson and Randall Grichuk, severely limiting his pathway to playing time in the majors this season. In addition the team also offered the White Sox a choice between Dominic Fletcher and McCarthy in a recent trade for for Christian Mena. The White Sox chose Fletcher. McCarthy acknowledged these facts, and is well aware of them.
"Obviously you want to have a clear cut job but I really think it comes down to if I play how I want to play, then I don't really concern myself with anything that's going on. I feel that there are a million things that can happen throughout a season. I think trying to play GM, trying to see into the future, really isn't healthy for a baseball player. All I can do is go out and play the best that I can. I want to make hard decisions for them.....it really comes down to I have to play how I know I'm capable of."
Not one to pout or get down when being demoted to Reno, McCarthy has continually responded to demotions by hitting the ball great and earning his way back to the major league roster. "I don't want to be there, but the better I can play, the less time I spend down there. Again it just comes down to if you don't like it, play better."
At the end of the day McCarthy believes if he can just get back to his true self, everything will work out for him. He's a world class athlete with a lot of tools who has shown the ability to hit for power in the past. Don't count him out just yet.
