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Pat Burrell played in the big leagues for 12 years, so he understands better than most that teams will invariably go through hot and cold spells over the course of a 162-game season.
As the Giants’ hitting coach, Burrell's job is now to help steer the club’s bats out of their current collective funk. San Francisco’s lineup entered Saturday having scored four runs or fewer in 12 consecutive games, its longest such stretch since 2018.
“I see the same things you see from time to time throughout the year,” Burrell said Wednesday. “You have to go through things like this to really enjoy the good. We started off the year and we were really doing great things. We were getting hits, driving in runs and everybody was feeling good. And then we hit a little bit of a low point. These things happen. This is all part of it. This is the grind, right? This is the part that you see guys press a little bit. You see guys try to do a little too much. It’s our job as a staff to keep these guys relaxed, keep it simple with them.”
Here’s what Burrell is seeing from three hitters whose struggles have been particularly pronounced through the first two months of the regular season for the Giants.
Willy Adames (.619 OPS, five homers)
Adames, 29, enjoyed a career year at the plate last season when he slugged 32 home runs and amassed 112 RBIs for the Brewers, but he has yet to find his offensive groove in the first year of his franchise-record $182 million deal with the Giants. He opened the season as San Francisco’s No. 2 hitter, but he’s been moved down in the order to try to take some pressure off him at the plate.
Adames has been working with Burrell and the rest of the Giants’ hitting coaches to lower his leg kick to help him let the ball travel and catch it deep, though he still entered Saturday only 5-for-42 (.119) with 13 strikeouts over his last 12 games.
“A leg kick comes and goes with a lot of guys,” Burrell said. “It’s bigger at times. At times of comfort, it can get bigger, and the results can be there. When you’re not feeling as good and the leg kick is big, a lot of times it can mess up your timing. What we were trying to do is just simplify things a little bit to give him some more time to make better decisions.
“We know that Willy is a guy that can carry this club for weeks at a time. Nobody is more frustrated than him right now. We can’t forget that. This is their livelihood. These guys, there’s so much pressure, and they feel it. On our side of it, we want to simplify things for these guys to clear their heads, because if you go out there with a clear head, you perform.”
LaMonte Wade Jr. (.557 OPS, one homer)
Wade, 31, has been an on-base machine throughout his career, but he’s recorded a career-low .278 OBP through his 48 games of the year, creating a black hole at first base for the Giants. Wade has struggled to lock in his timing and hasn’t started two of the club’s past three games against right-handed starters, which suggests that he could be running out of time to turn it around.
“I think the work isn’t translating in [game situations], which is very frustrating,” Burrell said. “We all know what’s at stake for him as a [pending] free agent. I’m sure he’s putting a little bit of undue pressure on himself, which is all natural. This is all part of it. It’s how you manage it. To his credit, he hasn’t given in one day. He has worked his [butt] off. In my opinion, from what I’ve seen over the years, when you’ve got guys that are relentless workers, that just keep fighting for it, they get results.”
Patrick Bailey (.510 OPS, one homer)
Bailey, 26, has continued to bring value through his Gold Glove Award-winning defense, but he’s endured a particularly rough start at the plate, where he entered Friday with the second-lowest OPS among Major League hitters who have taken at least 150 plate appearances this year.
Burrell pointed out that Bailey didn’t get a ton of at-bats in the Minors since he reached the Majors so quickly on the strength of his glove, which has forced him to continue to develop as a hitter at the big league level. That task has become only more difficult considering Bailey is the Giants' only switch-hitter, and he's also charged with managing the pitching staff.
“I think the world of him as a hitter,” Burrell said. “There’s been periods where he’s carried the club. There’s been periods where he’s hit third. We know it’s in there. Is he going to go through the same things everybody else does? Of course he is. And is it more magnified because he’s a catcher? I think so, because of the physical nature of the position. Now, he’s done a lot of really good work lately. He’s just simplified [things]. He’s just trying to have competitive at-bats. That sounds easy, but I like where he’s at.”