MINNEAPOLIS — In previous years, Jo Adell went into the winter trying to piece together a game plan from incomplete information.
The Angels outfielder had played sparingly in the majors, so he was never totally confident in determining what needed to change.
“I had to pull bits and pieces of my experience to create a way to go into the offseason to figure out what I needed to correct,” Adell said. “As opposed to having the everyday experience to be able to really find out what doesn’t work and what does.”
Now, he feels like he knows what works.
After 451 plate appearances in 130 games this season, Adell said he learned a lesson about what he needs to do as a hitter. Adell scrapped his leg kick in favor of a toe tap in late July, and his OPS jumped from .649 to .771. He had 125 plate appearances with the new approach.
Overall, Adell finished with a .682 OPS and 20 home runs.
“Me avoiding the leg kick is probably final,” said Adell, whose season was ended by an oblique injury. “I think I’ve gotten to the point where I found something that’s simple and allows me to get to the ball and make better decisions, and that’s what I have to do at the plate. I’m looking forward to continuing to work on that and getting that the way it needs to be.”
Adell’s admission that the toe tap is the correct swing is significant, because it took him months during the season to get to this point. Angels coaches wanted him to hit this way from the start of spring training. He wasn’t comfortable doing it until finally relenting before the July 30 game.
The raw numbers were clearly better – his batting average went from .192 to .248 – and the peripheral numbers also trended in the right direction. Adell’s whiff rate was 30.3% with the leg kick, and 28.5% with the toe tap. His chase rate improved from 30.0% to 28.8%.
Adell said he was particularly pleased with his performance with runners in scoring position after making the change. He hit .267 with an .838 OPS in 35 plate appearances with a runner in scoring position while he was using the toe tap. He struck out just five times.
“That’s what I’m going to take into ’25,” Adell said. “Knowing that less is more. With that move, it allowed me to put up numbers for the team. Get on base more. Walk more. See pitches better.”
Angels manager Ron Washington said Adell made “tremendous improvement,” but he said there’s more work to be done, particularly with his mental approach.
“We’ve got to learn how to quit giving away so many at-bats,” Washington said. ”Not that he realized when he was in those at-bats that he was giving them away, but when you look back at it, and now that he’s not playing he can realize how many he gave away. That’s a part of his winter. He has to learn how to handle every single at-bat. He’s still gonna give some away. We do that, but not as many as he gave away.
“But he had a tremendous year. His defense went to another level. He settled down on the base paths a little bit. He got us some big hits in some big situations.”
Adell, 25, is arbitration-eligible this winter, with three more seasons to go before free agency. He is expecting a mostly normal winter of workouts, with his oblique injury only impacting the first few weeks of his offseason.
NOTES
Outfielder Bryce Teodosio is going to be out for a few days with a fractured finger, Washington said. Teodosio got his right hand too far up on the bat when he was trying to bunt on Tuesday night, suffering the fracture. He remained in the game and collected his first major league hit on the next pitch. He was then removed from the game as his finger turned “black and blue,” Washington said. “It’s nothing he can’t play with,” Washington said on Wednesday. “We just have to get the swelling out.” …
Outfielder Kevin Pillar, who is on the injured list because of a left thumb sprain, said he still can’t move his thumb, but he is still hopeful of returning before the season ends. Pillar, 35, has said he’s leaning toward retiring after this season. …
Washington proudly reflected on the time he played at Target Field in a Twins old timer’s game in 2010. Washington, who was the 58-year-old manager of the Texas Rangers at the time, said he’d been preparing for the game for two months because he wanted to show his players what he could do. Washington said he had three hits. He hurt his hamstring playing center field, but stayed in the game at second base. “I’m a gamer,” Washington said with a smile.
UP NEXT
Astros (TBD) at Angels (LHP Sam Aldegheri, 1-1, 2.45 ERA), Friday, 6:38 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM