Alex Call faced significant struggles in the 2019 minor-league season, batting just .205 and striking out nearly 30% of the time. After reflecting on his performance, he made key adjustments. Six years later, he has excelled as an outfielder for the Dodgers, boasting a .297 batting average and ranking among the top players in strikeout and walk rates. His improvement has garnered recognition from team management and opponents, making him a valuable addition to the Dodgers roster.
At the end of the 2019 minor-league season, Alex Call looked at his hitting numbers, then looked himself in the mirror. A former third-round draft pick who had already changed organizations once, he knew he had just had the kind of year that typically portends a short professional career. As a 24-year-old outfielder at the double-A level in the Cleveland Guardians organization, Call had taken 325 plate appearances that year with the Akron RubberDucks. In 93 of them - a rate of nearly 30% - he recorded a strikeout.
Six years later, Call joined the Dodgers as a trade deadline addition last week with a polar opposite reputation. Now, the defensively versatile outfielder is one of the harder outs in all the majors. Since the start of last season, his .297 batting average ranks eighth among MLB hitters with at least 350 plate appearances. More important, over that same span, he ranks top 60 in strikeout rate and walk rate (with a 55-to-39 ratio overall), and 22nd in chase rate.
Collection
[
|
...
]