Hilliard back: 'A completely different player'

DENVER -- Through no request of his own, Rockies outfielder Sam Hilliard makes folks dream.

He is 6-foot-5, around 240 pounds, and is blessed with the ability to hit pitches from anyone a long way -- including the Brewers’ Josh Hader and the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard during his callup year of 2019, plus any number of Dodgers last year when most of his teammates could do little to nothing in Los Angeles. He has also turned in some of the fastest sprint times among Major League players.

Look at the Rockies’ less-than-scintillating home run stats at home, their worst-in-baseball homer performance on the road, and the lack of lefty-hitting power. Then close your eyes and try not to dream.

But Hilliard and the Rockies have no choice but to be awake and alert. He returned from a lengthy retooling at Triple-A Albuquerque Friday with a pinch-hit infield single against the Dodgers at Coors Field, while Saturday marked his first game back in the starting lineup. So you have to be on the lookout for the reasons he entered with a .132 batting average in 21 Major League games this year, and struck out some 43 percent of the time in his first 42 Triple-A games.

But what if Hilliard, 27, is ready to turn some dreams into reality?

Hilliard was called up when the Rockies had to place outfielder Yonathan Daza on the injured list for MLB COVID and contact tracing protocols. But in his final 11 games at Albuquerque, he batted .344 with five home runs -- and just six strikeouts.

Hilliard entered the game with a respectable 15 home runs in his first 84 Major League games -- enough to make one wonder how much the power will enhance when the contact increases. Hilliard is ready to show us all what he learned while being humbled.

“You could split my time [in Albuquerque] in half,” Hilliard said. “You'd see two different players. At the beginning, I talked myself into a really big hole. And then at about the halfway point during my time there, I kind of was a different guy, when I made that mental switch -- and there was a little bit of a physical adjustment.

“Like I said, that was just a completely different player. And that second half, when I was down there, I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. And I'm not even going to look at that first half of that. ... That wasn't me, it was someone else that was down in the dumps. And I was able to pull myself out of that.”

In the grand scheme, none of Hilliard’s struggles should be a mystery. Yes, he has many physical tools. But at Wichita State, he split his time between pitching and playing the field, and he wasn't selected until the 15th round of the 2014 Draft. In other words, he came into pro ball a project.

“There's always going to be something to work on, some adjustments still to be made,” said assistant hitting coach Jeff Salazar. “But we obviously want him here. He's too good of an athlete. There's too many ways on the field that he can [contribute], even the infield single.”

Rockies hitting coach Dave Magadan said Hilliard’s demotion was to work on ongoing swing traps -- getting long and loopy against the fastball, directing his swing to the opposite gap. Fix those, Magadan noted, and Hilliard produces power with backspin. But the Rockies have to be patient.

“Last night's a good thing -- he got an infield hit, a cheapy, but it's contact, right?” Magadan said. “Which puts you in a positive frame of mind. And you go from there.”

Options are funny. Sometimes, a team tells a player a situation isn’t permanent, he just needs to make the specific adjustment while playing with big league intensity. But there is a comedown and there are emotions.

As Hilliard put it, “Obviously, I had an opportunity, and if I was mad at anyone, it was myself.”

Albuquerque manager Warren Schaeffer and hitting coach Pedro Lopez monitored the adjustments that manager Bud Black and the Major League staff felt were necessary. But Hilliard said he appreciated them being somewhat hands-off, because the approach gave him time to find the right hand positioning, the right attitude and the confidence he needed.

Will the rockets off his bat follow? Even when striking out often, every now and then, the rockets come. So the real question is not the dream highlights, but the day-to-day consistency.

“I really feel like I can put the ball in the seats a little farther whenever I’m not trying to,” Hilliard said. “So there’s no reason for me to ever try to do that."