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

ATLANTA -- Rockies outfielder Randal Grichuk offers proof that being willing to change back can be as productive as being willing to change in the first place.

After falling short of production goals last season, Grichuk went to the Marucci Sports facility in Baton Rouge, La., for testing at the Baseball Performance Lab to design a bat customized for his physique and swing mechanics. Since missing the first month of the season because of a bilateral sports hernia surgery before the season, Grichuk has boosted the Rockies offense with a .307/.373/.438 slash line.

But something’s not different.

Grichuk is going with the same bats he used last year. He made the decision during his rehab assignment at Triple-A Albuquerque, when he went 3-for-33 with one double.

“My depth from the plate and mechanically I changed, but the bats, I switched back,” Grichuk said. “In Triple-A, I wasn’t feeling great from taking the time off from hitting after surgery. I didn’t quite feel the moves that I had changed during the offseason. I was tinkering a lot and I wasn’t playing well with those bats.

“I don’t think the problem was the bats. But as a hitter, you need to find the feel, so I ended up switching back.”

In normal times, Grichuk may have given the bats a longer try. But he was playing catch-up after missing Major League camp. He pointed to one of the players who inspired him to visit the lab -- the Cardinals’ Paul Goldschmidt, last year’s National League Most Valuable Player. 

“Same thing happened with Goldschmidt,” Grichuk said. “Goldschmidt went there before last season and he said the bat they gave him wasn’t the one he would have liked or picked, but he said, ‘I’m going to stick with it.’ With me, the bat they gave me wasn’t one I would’ve picked, but obviously there were reasons behind it.

“If I hadn’t had the surgery, I truly think I would have stuck with it. But it kind of threw me off physically, and I think hitting is 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical.”

The bat wasn’t the only project he abandoned this year. Early last season, Grichuk switched from contact lenses to glasses, partly to combat Denver’s dry climate. He found himself going back and forth on day and night games, and had trouble finding flip-downs to fit the glasses. This year, he has found contact lenses that work in any conditions.

Grichuk batted .337 (29-for-86) in May, sixth-highest in the NL. He has slowed recently -- 7-for-43 (.209) this month going into Friday night at Atlanta. But he has held his patience, and it paid off with a two-run double in the 10th inning to key Tuesday’s 7-6 victory at Fenway Park.

“I definitely hope it gets me back on track,” Grichuk said. “There were a few opportunities in the last week that I haven’t gotten it done. It’s frustrating. Tonight getting it done is hopefully fresh air, and it starts a run in situations like that.

“But I feel like I’m not getting too high and not getting too low. I’m trying to stay even-keeled the whole time, regardless [of] how it looks.”