Yonder Alonso Figured It Out

Yonder Alonso, up until 2017, had looked like James Loney — a 1B without any power. Alonso could reach base at a decent clip, hit for a decent average, but never slugged above .400 in a full season. In 2,343 PA from 2010 to 2016, Alsonso slugged 39 HRs total. On a rebuilding Athletics team with their sights set on the number one draft pick, Alonso fit in — but on any team hoping to compete this season, he would have likely been relegated to backup.

It’s fortunate for him and the A’s, then, that he was given the starting job for this season, because Alonso has managed to discover his power stroke like no one else in the big leagues. Alonso sits just behind teammate Khris Davis and rookie phenom Aaron Judge in the AL HR race with 16 long balls, despite having almost 50 fewer PAs than either of them. So what’s the deal with Yonder?

The key is as follows — elevation, elevation, and elevation. Alonso always made quality contact, tended to pull the ball but not at ridiculous rates, and kept a relatively low FB%.

Almost all of Alonso’s batted balls ended up as ground balls. Notice the green continent between first and second base — shift territory. Alonso was a dead duck to the shift, which is why he saw his BABIP dip significantly below average during 2016.

As a result, Alonso decided to change up his approach. Hitting ground balls into the shift doesn’t produce anything except outs and double plays, so maybe Alonso could beat the shift by hitting over it. Newsflash — it worked.

Alonso has sold out in favor of fly balls, and it’s working. The bigger leg kick and uppercut, as detailed by Eno Sarris above, have Alonso hitting for far more power and far better elevation than ever before — as a result, he’s cut his GB/FB ratio from 1.32 in 2016 to 0.53 in 2017, and he’s been able to drive the ball more while getting under it, resulting in the best contact of his career. Alonso is hitting in the same class as Corey Seager and Eric Thames, instead of Ben Zobrist and Steven Piscotty.

But it’s not just home runs. After all, Ryan Schimpf is doing what Alonso is doing (to a much greater extent). Alonso has seen his K% and BB% skyrocket, which means he’s seeing more pitches — more pitches that he can drive. Alonso is waiting for better pitches, and as a result, is making better contact.

But the biggest edge that Alonso has now is that he’s retained his spray prowess — if anything, he’s enhanced it. Alonso is pulling less and going opposite more, which leads to a clean spray chart like the one above. Spraying the ball to all fields separates Alonso from pure pull-hitters and makes him a dangerous threat.

Alonso is also still hitting line drives at the same rate that he’s done before — he’s just traded hard ground balls into the shift for fly balls that sail over fielders’ heads.

Yonder Alonso has managed to transform himself from a weak-hitting 1B like James Loney to a serious power threat like Freddie Freeman. Alonso can club long balls over the fence, or spray line drives all over the field. He’s made himself un-shiftable, and he’s hitting everything hard. And it looks sustainable — his HR/FB% and BABIP are both in line with the contact that he’s been making.

And he couldn’t have picked a better time to realize his potential. Alonso is a free agent at the end of the season, and the only big names on the 1B market were Lucas Duda and Eric Hosmer. Suddenly, there’s a new name now — Yonder Alonso.