Mariners suggest validity to Lewis' power

BALTIMORE -- As Mariners rookie Kyle Lewis continues pounding home runs in the opening two weeks of his Major League career, the obvious question looms: Is this power real?

The 24-year-old right fielder hit 11 homers in 122 games at Double-A Arkansas this year with a .398 slugging percentage. He’s totaled 30 homers in 287 games in four seasons in the Minors, while slugging .417. But 10 games into his big league career, Lewis has smacked six homers and three doubles with an .850 slugging percentage entering Saturday night’s game against the Orioles.

Surely, Lewis isn’t going to keep putting up those numbers, unless one is thinking that he can maintain a pace for 97 homers over a 162-game season. But is he capable of being a consistent power producer for the long run?

Those who’ve seen Lewis play insist the answer is yes and suggest that his power numbers in the Minors were suppressed first by a torn ACL that he had to overcome in 2016 and, this year, by the circumstances of performing at pitcher-friendly Dickey-Stephens Park in Little Rock, Ark., in a Double-A league where the current live balls used in MLB and Triple-A weren’t deployed.

Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto and director of player development Andy McKay have noted all year that Lewis was grading out at the top of all the Mariners’ Minor League hitters in quality of contact and exit velocity metrics, but not always being rewarded for his efforts.

But that approach is paying dividends at the MLB level, where Lewis homered off standouts Trevor Bauer and Sonny Gray in his first two games and hasn’t slowed since. On Friday, he became just the fourth player in MLB history with six homers in his first 10 games and the second Mariner -- joining Alvin Davis in 1984 -- with nine extra-base hits in that span.

“That’s Superman over there,” said rookie shortstop Donnie Walton, who was called up from Arkansas with Lewis on Sept. 10 after the Travelers’ playoff run ended. “He’s been doing that all year, but it just didn’t show because we play at a field where it doesn’t fly. It doesn’t have these baseballs. But we all knew.

“Jake Fraley and Evan White and all of us talked about it,” Walton said. “We were like, ‘If [Lewis] just gets to the big leagues, it’s gonna show.’ I think he flew out to the warning track a million times and hit a ton of balls hard right at people. We knew it was going to happen.”

Statcast numbers don’t lie. Lewis’ exit velocity on the 25 batted balls he’s put in play in his first 10 games has averaged 93.6 mph, well above the MLB average of 87.5. He’s not just pulling the ball hard, but has launched several well-struck opposite-field homers.

Statcast categorizes any hit with an exit velocity of 95-mph plus as hard-hit. Of Lewis’ 13 hits so far, 12 have been 95-plus and 11 have been over 100 mph. The lone exception was an 81.7 mph double he pushed down the first-base line in Friday’s 5-3 loss after ripping a 107-mph homer to left-center.

At 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, Lewis looks the part of a big league slugger and his early results have borne that out.

“The power numbers, they all talk about how he was playing in Double-A and in Arkansas, where it’s impossible to hit home runs and the baseball is different,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “All those things are real. People say, ‘Ah, it’s an excuse. But they’re real.’

“What we’ve seen here, Kyle has big-time opposite field power. We’ve seen that at T-Mobile. We saw it in Pittsburgh. He can get the ball in the air. He’s still got a lot to learn. He’s in here early, which is great to see every day, talking to some of our veteran guys, looking at video, out shagging fly balls early. He knows he’s got a lot of work to do in his game.”

For the 2016 first-round Draft pick, it’s a matter of keeping things simple. Lewis said that he’s staying in the moment, trying to put the barrel on the ball, focusing on his preparation -- all the things that don’t make for great sound bites, but do make for good hitters.

“Every day is still a learning process for me,” Lewis said. “I’m just trying to work and keep my head down, honestly.”

When it comes down to it, Lewis is a gifted athlete who worked hard to overcome a serious knee injury and is seeing everything come together now that he’s finally healthy and getting his opportunity.

“I think the biggest thing with Kyle is they just made sure he stayed on the field this year,” Servais said. “There are areas in his game -- defense, base running -- where he has a lot of growth left. But we certainly like what we’ve seen at the plate. He’s handled his at-bats very well. He’s off to a great start.”