The Stance Change That Saved Manny Machado’s Season

The Padres slugger has significantly heated up this month thanks to a mechanical adjustment. Tom Verducci explains in his Breakdown of the Week.

Manny Machado has a .964 OPS in July. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

This article was originally published as part of Verducci’s View, a weekly baseball newsletter from Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci. Every Monday, Tom empties out his notebook over email and covers MLB’s hottest topics, provides in-depth analysis through both text and video breakdowns, looks forward to what’s worth watching during the week and more. If you want to be featured in his new mailbag, please email newsletters@si.com with any questions about MLB or his decades in the sport.

On May 8, Manny Machado of the Padres was hitting .202/.313/.355, including .100 against pitches 95 mph and faster. It had nothing to do with bat speed or age. His timing was poor. So, he did something about it.

He opened his stance a bit more, rested the bat on his shoulder in his pre-pitch setup rather than holding it high and angled, and began his step-in leg kick earlier. It took a couple of weeks for the changes to take root, but Machado found his rhythm. Since then, Machado has been crushing just about everything, especially elite velocity. You can see how he did it here. And you can see the results in the video here.

Highest SLG vs. Pitches 95+ MPH Since May 28

Player, Team	SLG
1. Willy Adames, Giants	.967
2. Max Muncy, Dodgers	.885
3. Luis Garcia Jr., Nationals	.773
4. Jake McCarthy, Rockies	.769
5. Kyle Karros, Rockies	.759
6. Manny Machado, Padres	.738

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