You need to see what Adolis did at bat -- and you really need to see his truck
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CLEARWATER, Fla. – Adolis García is a big man with big power and an even bigger truck.
“It’s like a monster truck,” he said recently.
He wants to bring it all to Philly this summer.
García went 4-for-4 with a home run in Tuesday’s 2-0 Grapefruit League victory over the Twins at BayCare Ballpark. He barreled a first-pitch sweeper from Twins right-hander Bailey Ober in the fourth inning for a home run. He singled in his other three at-bats, hitting every ball hard: single in the first (102.5 mph), homer (103.7 mph), RBI single in the sixth (110.5 mph) and single in the eighth (112.4 mph).
“The mentality is to have good at-bats,” García said via the team’s interpreter. “To swing at strikes.”
García didn’t need a game like Tuesday’s, although he entered it batting .192 (5-for-26) with one double, one RBI, six walks and two strikeouts. But it felt good to see positive results from all the work he has done this spring.
“They’re working really hard with me to have my ‘A’ swing back,” García said. “What I believe is that there’s no good swing at a bad pitch. First and foremost, we’ve got to work at going at the good pitches. And once we get that good pitch, we can start working from there.”
García had a 35.8% chase rate last season with Texas, which ranked among the bottom 10% of all hitters in Major League Baseball.
He entered Tuesday’s game with a 21.3% chase rate this spring.
How has he done it? It’s not like there’s a magic drill in the batting cage to make somebody chase less.
“I just tell him that he has three or four in his pocket that he can use a day,” Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long said. “If you’re chasing [35.8%], you’re probably chasing six, seven times a game. If he knocks that down to three or four … But you don’t go in saying, ‘You can’t chase.’ No, you can chase. But you only have so many to use. If it gets a little wild at times, we’ll reel it back in. It’s more of a mindset.”
García’s swing got an adjustment, too. He had spent the offseason incorporating a bat tilt to his pre-pitch setup. Essentially, he had his bat pointing almost directly at the pitcher.
Long let García use it early in camp, but recently he asked him to make a change. A few days ago, García, Long and assistant hitting coach Rafael Peña went to Carpenter Complex to work on straightening his bat in his pre-pitch setup.
Think Kyle Schwarber.
“That’s the biggest thing,” Long said. “It took him too long to get to contact. It wasn’t efficient at all. It’s a much simpler move, and it has allowed him to be way more consistent and get to pitches a lot better.”
García didn’t fight Long and his staff about the suggested change, either.
“He’s very coachable,” Long said. “He wants to be really good.”
García said this week that he is having fun with his new team. He already has developed a presence in the clubhouse. He not only is a big guy, but he gets along well with his teammates.
But he also has a presence outside the clubhouse. His truck generated attention earlier this month when WMMR’s Preston & Steve Show visited Clearwater. They snapped a few photos of García’s Apocalypse Hellfire 6x6 parked behind the ballpark.
He got the rig about a month ago.
“I love it,” García said. “My son loves it.”
García’s son is 9. His daughter is 4.
“They love it,” García said. “It’s fun to drive off road. It’s really, really fun.”
The Phillies will leave Clearwater for Philadelphia next Monday, when they play their final Grapefruit League game. Before that, a car carrier will bring the players’ cars to Philly.
It’s unclear if the Hellfire will fit on it. But García hopes to bring it north.
“We’ll see if it fits in the parking lot [at Citizens Bank Park],” he said.
Either way, García will be at the Bank. He hopes the adjustments he has made to his mindset and swing will make him a force in the Phillies’ lineup.
“I feel good here,” he said.