PHOENIX — In his first live batting practice of spring training, his hands positioned further back than usual, his weight firmly on his back leg, Jason Heyward turned and exploded on an offering from All-Star Tony Gonsolin, rocketing the pitch over the right-field wall at Camelback Ranch.
The home run offered an early glimpse into what Heyward’s new coaches and teammates had raved about for weeks.
“You’re going to see why he was a first-round pick,” Freddie Freeman asserted. “He wants to be so good, too. It’s in there, and I think he might have unlocked something.”
Heyward is not getting ahead of himself. This is a time for optimism for all 30 teams and every player fighting to claim a spot on an active roster, but the 33-year-old veteran has played long enough to know not to make too much of a late February at-bat in a simulated setting.
Still, the blast provided tangible proof of what those around him see — a swing change that could breathe new baseball life into the discarded 13-year veteran.
“We’ve got to let that play out,” Heyward said. “I know I’ve got to do these things, right, like ‘A-B-C,’ to go out and get the best swing off each time. There’s going to be bad swings, plenty of them, but over and over, am I in a good position to be as consistent as possible?”
That’s what the Dodgers sought to help him find this winter.
They signed Heyward to a minor-league deal in December. Within days, Heyward was in the cage working with Dodgers hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc in Pasadena. The five-time Gold Glover was receptive to new ideas.
“If you have the last year and a half the way I had,” Heyward said, “you’d expect to make changes.”
Van Scoyoc was not surprised by Heyward’s mindset.
“I think that’s become a little bit more commonplace when you’re at the end of your career and you don’t want it to end,” Van Scoyoc said. “Why not try?”
In the six seasons before signing an eight-year, $184 million contract with the Cubs, Heyward averaged a .784 OPS while hitting below league average just once. Over the past seven seasons in Chicago, he averaged a .700 OPS while hitting above league average just once.
The low point came last year, when he slashed .204/.278/.277 with one home run in 48 games. He was mired in a 4-for-34 slump after an 0-for-4 day on June 24. That turned out to be his final game of the 2022 season. Heyward was placed on the injured list with knee inflammation days later. By August, the Cubs announced they’d be moving on from him in the offseason. Heyward still had one year remaining on his deal.
Freeman saw an opportunity.
Around that time, he started lobbying Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman to take a look at his good friend and former Braves teammate.
“I put Jason’s name on the radar, then I put it on again and just kept going and going and going,” Freeman said. “Then, Jason and I started talking pretty much every day. He was filling me in on the offseason and his route getting to the Dodgers. I just made sure to let Andrew know how wonderful of a man that guy is.”
While working out in Los Angeles in January, Heyward made an additional stop before flying back to Chicago. He drove to Newport Beach to stay with Freeman and work out for a week.
Heyward and Freeman were tied at the hip on their path to the majors. They were drafted in the first and second rounds, respectively, by Atlanta in 2007. They both debuted in 2010. That year, Heyward finished second in Rookie of the Year voting. Freeman finished second the following season. After four straight seasons missing the playoffs, the Braves made it to the postseason three of the first four years with Freeman and Heyward on the squad.
“He just wants to win,” Freeman said. “I think anyone who knows Jason knows that’s all he cares about.”
There wasn’t much of that toward the end of Heyward’s tenure in Chicago. His offensive deficiencies played a role, though he will always be remembered for the rousing speech he gave before the end of the Cubs’ curse-crushing Game 7 World Series victory in his first season with the club.
The following year, the Cubs lost in the National League Championship Series. They never made it past the wild-card round in any of Heyward’s final five seasons. Over the last two years, they lost 179 games. Meanwhile, Heyward’s struggles worsened. When he made contact, he could still do damage — his 115.3 mph max exit velocity in 2021 ranked in the league’s top 5% — but his walk rate dipped. His strikeout rate ascended. He began chasing at an alarming rate.
This winter, the Dodgers heeded Freeman’s advice and extended Heyward an opportunity. On a minor-league deal, the risk was minimal.
“Obviously a really strong track record, fantastic athlete, excellent defender,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said. “From just the industry and obviously Freddie, a tremendous teammate. Layering on the fact that our hitting guys were like, ‘Hey, we feel like there are some things we can get after,’ and Jason’s open-mindedness to do those things, those were all big pluses.”
In Los Angeles, Heyward knew he would compete for playing time. He knew he had a chance to win.
Most importantly, he knew he had a team that still believed in him.
“They called first,” Heyward said. “They called first, second and third.”
Heyward noticed similarities between Los Angeles and St. Louis, where he played for one year prior to signing his mega-deal in Chicago. In 2015, he slashed .293/.359/.439 and helped the Cardinals to a 100-win season. His stay in St. Louis was brief, but it was one that pitcher Michael Wacha won’t forget.
At the time, Heyward was already an accomplished major-leaguer who “would get all the good cleats,” as Wacha remembered. Wacha, then a promising 23-year-old, just so happened to wear the same size 13. “I got you,” Heyward would tell him before slipping him a new pair.
“J-Hey was one of the better teammates that I’ve ever had,” Wacha said. “He’s the best right fielder I’ve ever had out there. He saved me a lot of runs. Just a great dude. Professional. Goes about it the right way, sets an example for whoever’s watching.”
Those are traits the Dodgers are looking for, particularly in a clubhouse looking for new leaders after Justin Turner’s departure. Before their first full-squad workout of spring training, Heyward was among the players manager Dave Roberts summoned to address the group. Heyward talked about the joys of being in a place you’re expected to win.
“If he has success and does really well for us, it’s impactful not just for the 2023 season — it’s impactful for many, many years beyond,” Freeman said. “What he can do for a Gavin Lux, a Miguel Vargas, the young guys, those are the things most people don’t see. He already took Gavin and Miggy out for a lunch while he was there for the two weeks in Los Angeles. It’s just the little things, how he can connect.”
Of course, he’ll need to do more than that to stick on a Dodgers team with championship aspirations.
The Dodgers signed outfielder David Peralta this offseason, but they didn’t make a splash signing in center field after Cody Bellinger’s departure (coincidentally, to the Cubs). Instead, they left the competition open for playing time at both outfield spots opposite right fielder Mookie Betts. They brought Heyward, Bradley Zimmer and Steven Duggar in on minor-league deals to compete with Peralta, Chris Taylor, Trayce Thompson and intriguing prospect James Outman.
Right now, all signs point to Heyward making the roster, especially with Taylor likely to spend more time in the infield after Lux’s ACL injury.
“I’m very bullish on the swing, the player, the person, how he’s going to help our ballclub,” Roberts said.
That confidence grew as Heyward spent more time around the Dodgers’ hitting coaches, who wanted him to be more efficient in his movement and find a more direct path to the ball. Heyward believed in the swing adjustments, many of which he had explored or considered before.
“The focus is on just being in a good position consistently,” Heyward said. “When you get to that spot of landing, being able to fire the right way instead of putting Band-Aids on top and trying to cheat to a ball and wanting to compete so bad that you don’t focus on what’s important in the box.
“What’s been nice, it’s been natural. Trust my ability. Trust that these positions that you were in at one point in time, that works. That stuff plays. Also, that, like, I can do this s—.”
The early returns bring promise.
Home runs in spring may not mean much, but they carry more weight when they come against major-league pitchers. A week after homering off Gonsolin, Heyward turned on another pitch Wednesday afternoon against Andrew Heaney, taking the Rangers pitcher deep in Cactus League play.
Coming off their stunning early playoff departure, the Dodgers hope they’ve found something in an outfielder coming off his own abrupt exit.
“I really believe in Jason and his talent,” Van Scoyoc said, “and I think what we can get out of it can be special.”
Rowan Kavner covers the Dodgers and NL West for FOX Sports. He previously was the Dodgers’ editor of digital and print publications. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner.
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