Q&A with Reds hitting coach Alan Zinter

CINCINNATI -- In the age of a pandemic and social distancing, Reds hitting coach Alan Zinter is finding ways to help his hitters. Doing that remotely with players dispersed in different parts of the country is hard enough, but Zinter hasn’t even been on the job very long since he was hired by Cincinnati in October.

For the past 2 1/2 weeks, Zinter has kept in touch with everyone via phone, text, email and social media.

“We’ve got guys going to public parks here in Arizona,” Zinter said on Friday. “A lot of guys are just trying to get into a batting cage, maybe at a neighbor’s house. Just talking with them on their routines, making the best of their situation and trying to stay positive and giving them some good feedback on what they are capable of doing with what they have available to them at this point.”

Here is a portion of other topics covered in Friday's media conference call with Zinter:

Question: What’s the biggest challenge facing the hitters?

Zinter: I think it’s more of the mental side of it. Being able to wake up every day and see this as a challenge and make sure your mind doesn’t start to wander. We are human beings. It is a gloom thought process right now. It’s not fun to get up and hear the news and listen to all this going on, but if we can maintain our focus and try to seek out the positives and keep our mind there ...

Q: When baseball resumes, do hitters have an advantage over pitchers?

Zinter: If I was a pitching coach, I think it would be really tough to figure out how much our pitchers should be throwing right now, where they should be throwing, how long they should be throwing. From the hitter’s point of view, it’s like not too many guys are going to be able to face live pitching or even get batting practice from a coach. They are hitting into nets. I don’t know if there’s an advantage or disadvantage one way or another. I think that both are challenging at this point to be able to stay sharp.

Q: Thoughts on what you saw at Spring Training while working with Aristides Aquino, who struggled during camp?

Zinter: He shocked the world last year in a month’s worth of play and then he also showed the other side of it where he wasn’t so good. During Spring Training, we were hoping that he could find his consistent base between that, where he’s more consistent and more productive. We’ve been working with him on just repeating his good swings, understand he’s got long levers, a big body, lots of movement in the box with his open stance and staying straight up. It’s getting to the point of how he can repeat that and be able to do that on a daily basis.

Q: How do you work with Joey Votto, a hitter who is very experienced?

Zinter: Just build a nice relationship with him and have cool conversations. I’m not coming in here dumping everything I know on Joey Votto and saying, ‘Hey Joey, I think you need to do this,’ because that would be ridiculous. It’s having common sense and building a cool relationship with him. He respects me coming in and what I need to do. I respect who he is and what he’s done in this world. I understand he’s done some unbelievable things in this game, and I can learn from him. Hopefully through conversations, he will get a good sense of what I am here to do and that I’m here to help support our players.

Q: Nick Senzel’s attempt to change his approach last year backfired. How are you helping him now that he’s returned to his old one?

Zinter: In Nick's case, he tried to do some physical changes last year and everybody was trying to help him out to do that, and that's great. He didn't feel comfortable in that because he didn't think that's who he was. We had some great conversations, and he wants to do what he wants to do, and I'm there to support him and help him understand [his physicality] -- the way he gets into the box and what he does -- and get him to understand how to do that more consistently and how it unfolds each and every day. He's enjoyed that, and I think we're in a good spot with Nick.