Newman, backed by new stance, eyes resurgence

BRADENTON, Fla. -- Kevin Newman is cognizant of the chatter.

Regardless of platform, there is a large, loud ensemble of fans who wanted Oneil Cruz, the über-strong Statcast darling, to be the Pirates’ Opening Day shortstop. That hasn’t changed with Pittsburgh's No. 3 prospect, per MLB Pipeline, set to start the season in the Minors. If anything, the cacophony has only grown more thundering. More raucous. More voracious.

Newman can’t control what’s said. He can't control the roster. He can’t control the lineup. All Newman can control is how he adapts, how he works to make last season an outlier.

“I don’t really pay attention to all that stuff. It’s just a matter of coming in [and asking], ‘What can I do today?’” Newman told MLB.com. “I can get that much better today. That’s what I focus on.”

The thesis of Newman's offseason was hitting. That's no surprise. By the numbers, Newman was the worst qualified hitter in the league last season. His .574 OPS was the lowest. His 54 wRC+ was the lowest. There’s no sugarcoating that reality. So Newman sought external assistance.

He found it in Doug Latta, the instructor who has been dubbed “The Swing Whisperer.” And then Newman got to work.

The adjustments Newman and Latta curated are subtle. Compared to last season, Newman is standing more upright, with his hands lower. The new stance allows him to be more centered, more balanced, and with lower hands, Newman has a quicker path to the ball, creating just a little more time to react.

“With my new move, I feel like I do have a split second longer, which is a huge difference,” Newman said. “I'm getting better and better every single day, understanding that time and getting that timing down.”

“The easier we move with less tension, the more pronounced our vision and our feeling of keeping the game slow in half a second,” Latta said. “It’s funny when people talk about staying slow or slowing the game down in a game that’s inherently quicker than most people really understand. But a lot is tied to our movement.”

On the subject of movement, the intangible element of Newman’s offseason work is “body awareness.” As Latta explained, “The swing is the product of how the body moves.” Development of body awareness, then, allows a hitter to recognize when an adjustment is necessary.

That body awareness is important during the season. No player is ever truly 100 percent. The body is going to feel different day to day. With a more nuanced understanding of his body, Newman can tweak his stance based on his physical state, but always have a starting point of which he can return.

While working in Southern California with Latta, Newman had the opportunity to be around a player who directly understood his struggle. Like Newman, Isiah Kiner-Falefa -- now with the Yankees -- has become one of the game’s better defensive shortstops. And like Newman, Kiner-Falefa had his difficulties at the plate.

“Mentally, the mindset of it, always feeling that we had to prove something at the plate,” Kiner-Falefa said. “We were able to talk through stuff. Now, I have somebody to communicate with and a bunch of other guys as well, but it helps when we’re both very similar.”

Newman’s offseason work is yielding early returns. In five games, he is 5-for-14 with two doubles and a no-doubt three-run homer on Tuesday. The production is encouraging, but spring numbers aren’t to be taken at face value; Newman hit .606 last Spring Training before his season to forget. The results only matter when the games, themselves, do.

Barring the unforeseen, Newman is projected to be the team’s Opening Day shortstop. For now, he’s afforded that stability, but Cruz looms. The highly regarded prospect will likely play for Pittsburgh this season. It probably won’t be in a bench role, either.

Of that, Newman has no agency. The roster, the lineup are out of his domain. But he can control how he performs. With a new stance, with new knowledge in tow, Newman begins the quest to silence the noise. Even if he doesn’t hear it.