El animal. La bestia (the beast). Leon (lion).
Those words flashed on the screen prior to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s return to the Dominican Winter League on Tuesday, as the Toronto Blue Jays slugger made his season debut for Leones del Escogido. There may not have been fans, but at least there was a bit of fanfare.
The last time Guerrero Jr. played for Escogido, he was an 18-year-old with just two years of minor-league experience. He struggled to a .553 OPS in 26 games, starting 25 of them at third base.
Now, he's two years into his MLB career — still finding his way at the plate, and in the field. Reuniting with Escogido provides him with an opportunity to work toward reclaiming third base with the Blue Jays (which he's intent on doing) while taking some extra hacks in the process.
Assessing Guerrero Jr.'s play in the field will have to wait, because he debuted as a designated hitter. But Escogido did clarify in a tweet that he will "primarily act at third base during his time with the team."
At the plate, Guerrero Jr. went 0-for-4 with an RBI and a strikeout. Not exactly a glistening debut, but hey, it's one game.
In the interest of intensifying the microscope a little further, here's a breakdown of how each of his at-bats went.
First at-bat: Strikeout
Strikeouts never look good in the box score, but sometimes the process is prettier than the result. In this case, you could call this a good at-bat if you really wanted to.
Consider the situation: it was Guerrero Jr.'s first live, competitive at-bat since September and he was facing a lefty (he has a .718 OPS against lefties, .801 OPS against righties).
He took a ball high and outside to start, then another ball that was marginally below the zone, before fouling a ground ball toward the third-base dugout. Then he took another ball, high and marginally outside, before fouling a pitch to the backstop. Full count.
After fouling one more ball back and out of play, Guerrero Jr. swung through an off-speed pitch that would've likely been ball four.
Still, it was a seven-pitch at-bat that included a couple of good takes and a trio of foul balls. Not the worst strikeout anyone's ever had.
Second at-bat: Groundout
This one was short and ... not sweet.
Guerrero Jr. took strike one, which appeared to be a slider. Then he swung at the second pitch, a curveball, and chopped it to the shortstop.
The ball took a high hop, prompting the fielder to rush and throw errantly up the line, but Guerrero Jr. was out on the tag.
Third at-bat: Groundout
In the fifth inning, Guerrero Jr. stepped to the plate in a high-leverage situation: runners on the corners, two out, down 3-0.
He fouled the first pitch to the backstop, then took a fastball well below the zone to even the count. The third pitch was destined for the bottom of the zone, but Guerrero Jr. pounded it into the dirt instead and was out easily at first.
Fourth at-bat: Groundout, RBI
Guerrero Jr. came up in the seventh with runners on the corners and, again, he mashed a baseball straight into the ground.
This one was a breaking pitch that descended over the middle of the zone. The silver lining is that Guerrero Jr. hustled to first to avoid a double play, which allowed the runner from third to score.
With a hat trick of groundouts on the night, Guerrero Jr. displayed a microcosm of the glaring launch-angle woes from his 2020 season with Toronto. His average launch angle was just 4.6 degrees this year (MLB average is 11.9), meaning his 93rd percentile hard-hit percentage and exit velocity produced far more ground balls than line drives.
For context, he batted .400 on 85 balls in play this past season in which his launch angle was five degrees or above. Clearly, it's something to work on this winter.
And he'll have more time to do that. A (hopeful) 2021 season is still several months away.
