More relaxed Yaz eyeing bounce-back '22

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Mike Yastrzemski was one of president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi’s earliest success stories, developing into a fixture of the Giants’ outfield after being acquired in an unheralded trade three years ago.

Yastrzemski established himself as a big league regular in 2019, before continuing his ascent in '20, when he placed eighth in National League MVP Award voting after hitting .297 with a .968 OPS and 10 home runs over 54 games in the pandemic-shortened season.

While the Giants won a franchise-record 107 games last year, the 2021 campaign was a bit disappointing for Yastrzemski, who ranked second on the club with a career-high 25 homers but batted only .224 with a .768 OPS over 139 games.

Yastrzemski said he attributed the dip in production to simply not feeling comfortable in the batter’s box at various points last season.

“I was just being rushed,” Yastrzemski said. “I was trying to do too much. There were a couple things like that where I just couldn’t feel comfortable at the plate. When I didn’t feel comfortable, instead of taking a step back and realizing why that was, I tried too hard to get back to doing the same thing and put too much pressure on myself. I never really relaxed.”

This spring, however, the Giants are seeing a more relaxed Yastrzemski at the plate, stoking optimism that the 31-year-old could be poised to return to the elite form he showed over his first two seasons in the Majors. Yastrzemski hit his first home run of the spring in Friday afternoon’s 10-2 loss to the Guardians at Scottsdale Stadium, hammering a two-run shot to right-center field off Aaron Civale.

“Even before the home run, the swing, the rhythm, the relaxation in the batter’s box is different than we’ve seen in previous springs,” San Francisco manager Gabe Kapler said. “He knows it. Our coaches know it. He’s just looking very comfortable in the batter’s box. It was nice to see him square one up and feel really good about that.”

While the left-handed-hitting Yastrzemski remained dangerous against righties last year (.848 OPS, 23 homers), he took a significant step back against lefties (.513 OPS, two homers), an unusual development considering he posted reverse splits earlier in his career.

“I think the biggest difference between ‘19, ‘20 and ‘21 was how much damage and how good he was against left-handed pitching,” Kapler said. “That was just an everyday, well-above-average, All-Star-caliber player at the Major League level. Last year was more like a productive platoon bat. When he’s at his best, it’s lefties, it’s righties, it’s comfort seeing pitches, it’s comfort hitting in two-strike counts, it’s comfort hitting velocity. It’s the most dangerous version of Yaz.”

Yastrzemski believes one of the issues stemmed from his final Cactus League game of 2021, when he was hit on the left hand by a pitch from A’s left-hander Sean Manaea. While he escaped serious injury, Yastrzemski had a difficult time putting the incident fully out of his mind, which affected his performance against lefties.

“That wasn’t fun,” Yastrzemski said. “But I had a couple of really good at-bats against some lefties so far this spring, so I felt really relaxed up there. It just feels like things are kind of coming back together.”

Yastrzemski spent the offseason in Nashville working out with close friend and Giants catcher Curt Casali at Vanderbilt University, where he worked on softening up his front foot to help with pitch recognition and to give him more time to make better swing decisions at the plate. He found one silver lining to the delayed start to Spring Training -- it allowed him to spend a little more time at home with his daughter, Quinley Mae, who was born in December.

“If there was going to be a time where it happened, it was a good one for me,” Yastrzemski said. “Being able to be there with her the whole time was amazing. They grow up so fast. Even the extra two weeks was special to have.”