How new Rays outfielder refined his swing

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry’s Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. PETERSBURG -- Weeks before the Rays acquired Jonny DeLuca, Tampa Bay made a strong impression on the young outfielder.

No, not the team or the organization. He liked what he saw from the Tampa Bay area.

“I literally just went to one of my good buddy’s weddings in November, and it was in Tampa. I came back and told my parents -- I went to the St. Pete Beach/St. Petersburg area, and I was like, ‘Man, this place is kind of awesome. I love this place,’” DeLuca said recently. “After that, you see trade rumors and you’re like, ‘OK, this isn’t the worst thing in the world.’ It’s a good spot to be in.”

The Rays hope it’s a good spot for DeLuca and Ryan Pepiot, their return (and likely replacements) for outfielder Manuel Margot and Tyler Glasnow. Pepiot is poised to claim a spot in Tampa Bay’s rotation, while DeLuca’s profile matches that of Margot: a right-handed hitter capable of playing all three spots in the outfield.

The Rays see further similarities between Margot and DeLuca, who debuted for the Dodgers last year.

“Someone that can beat you in the batter’s box, can beat you with his legs on the bases and certainly defensively,” Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander said. “Players like him -- and we just traded one away in Manuel -- they help you win baseball games. And it might not always be obvious how and why and where it lands in a stat line or box score, but skill sets like this help you win in ways that are obvious and oftentimes not so obvious.”

DeLuca is still developing in some ways, too. He wasn’t a highly touted prospect when he entered the Dodgers’ system; he was an unsigned, 39th-round pick out of high school in 2017, then a 25th-round pick by Los Angeles out of Oregon in 2019. DeLuca figured he was selected mostly for his athleticism in the field and on the bases, not for his performance as a light-hitting switch-hitter in college.

So, as he entered the world of professional baseball, DeLuca made the decision to stop switch-hitting. It had been years since he faced right-handed sliders that spun away from him and two-seamers that bore in on him, but he held his own as a right-handed hitter in his Rookie-level pro debut that summer. At that point, DeLuca said, he “definitely saw what it could be” if he put the work in.

He continued to put on muscle and refine his swing as the pandemic wiped out the 2020 Minor League season. He said he began working in high school with private hitting instructor Craig Wallenbrock, who is credited for his career-changing work with J.D. Martinez and others, and his time with the Dodgers led him to meet Doug Latta, another highly regarded hitting guru best known for transforming Justin Turner’s swing.

They dug in on DeLuca’s swing, especially how his lower half moved, to create more power. For all his obvious strength and athleticism, DeLuca hit only 11 home runs in 111 games at Oregon and slugged just .384 in his pro debut.

“I felt like I was decently strong, and I wanted to be able to translate that into hitting the ball far and over the fence,” DeLuca said.

It all started to come together in 2021, when he put himself on the prospect radar by slashing .264/.348/.519 with 22 homers and 20 steals in 101 Class A games. He went deep 25 times in the Minors in 2022 and slashed .294/.390/.566 in the upper Minors last year.

While the Rays have plenty of everyday and/or left-handed-hitting outfield options in Jose Siri, Randy Arozarena, Josh Lowe and Luke Raley, DeLuca noted with pride that his numbers in the Minors last season were actually better against right-handed pitchers (.296/.391/.583) than lefties (.276/.356/.476).

“You’re always going to face more right-handed pitching, so I knew that I needed to get better at that,” DeLuca said. “I’m always going to continue to learn and try to get better.”

DeLuca can handle himself well in center field, and the Rays view him as a plus defender in the corners. He’s also a potential threat on the bases, having ranked 16th in the Majors last season with an average sprint speed of 29.7 feet/second -- just a tick behind Siri, who led the Rays at 29.8.

“We’ve long appreciated players with a well-rounded skill set that are good athletes,” Neander said, “and [DeLuca] very much fits in that bucket.”