Seattle Mariners shortstop J.P. Crawford swinging free after epiphany

PEORIA, Ariz. – His legs felt strong and connected to the ground. The swing, which starts with the legs, was in sync and easy.

The result – a line drive off the barrel with minimal effort – was ideal. It all seemed so new, yet so familiar for J.P. Crawford.

No, this wasn’t the swing that smashed a solo homer – a line drive that had 108 mph exit velocity and traveled 401 feet for his first homer of the spring – in Sunday’s 8-1 win over the Rockies.

That swing and result was because of an epiphany about three hours earlier.

While Crawford was going through his normal daily hitting progression, he was taking “flips” where a hitting coach underhand tosses pitches from behind a screen about 10 feet away. It’s a fundamental drill where a player works on timing of the swing as a “pitch” travels toward them at slower pace. It’s a controlled situation.

As Crawford smashed the flips, searching for something that wasn’t there for most of last season, it all came together.

“I felt something that I haven’t felt a long time,” he said.

“I haven’t felt it over a year.”

He didn’t feel much of anything but discomfort last season.

An oblique strain in late April sidelined him for a month and it never quite felt the same in the weeks after he returned. Just about the time the oblique started to feel normal, he was hit by a pitch and suffered a fractured hand.

It led to abysmal numbers: a .202/.304/.321 slash line with 16 doubles, two triples, nine homers, 37 RBIs, 52 walks and 102 strikeouts in 451 plate appearances.

Last season, he only hit four balls with exit velocities of 108 mph or higher and only 14 of 105 mph or higher.

“I couldn’t get in a rhythm and every time I started to hit good, those injuries popped up,” Crawford said. “It pretty much hurt every time I swung the bat. I had to take it as that. Every day was a grind just trying to get right, trying to get healthy to play and it was tough.”

What he felt in the cage on Sunday dated back to the better days of the 2023 season – his best in the big leagues. In 638 plate appearances, he posted a .266/.380/438 slash line with 35 doubles, 19 homers, 65 RBIs, 94 walks (most in the AL) and 125 strikeouts.

“I was just messing around with my lower half, trying to see what’s a good spot to be in,” he said. “And it was like a light bulb went off in my head, like, ‘Oh, this is what it’s supposed to feel like.’ ”

What he felt was strength in his legs, loading the swing from the ground up and allowing the rest of the body to follow.

“It’s where all the power and all the (bat) speed comes from is your lower half,” he said. “If that’s not in a good place, nothing else is going to be in a good place. Last year, I didn’t have that under me and obviously I had a (bad) year. Yesterday was a sign that I needed.”

But it wasn’t just that one swing. Crawford replicated that feeling over and over. Taking it from flips to the pitching machine and later to on-field batting practice.

“It was a feeling thing,” he said. “I was taking easier swings and the ball was jumping off the bat.”

He knows that people thought he was overswinging at pitches during his struggles last season, trying to launch homers instead of making quality contact. But he said it was due to his swing never being in sync.

“When my lower half’s not in a good spot, it looks like I’m overswinging, but it’s just because I’m not in a right position to hit so my swing looks long and slow,” he said.

When manager Dan Wilson remarked about how “easy” Crawford’s home run swing looked in the game, there was a reason for it.

“It’s when my lower half is under me in the correct way,” Crawford said. “I made the same move, I felt like I made the same swing. It’s just that my body was in a better place to fire from, and it looked easier.”

Baseball is a little easier now that he became a father for the first time over the offseason. His daughter, Korra, has changed his entire world.

“ I’m in a great spot,” he said. “I worked … this offseason in the weight room, trying to get right. And I had my daughter, she made everything on the mental side just go away.

“I saw the big, bigger picture. It doesn’t matter if you go 0 for 4 or 4 for 4, you got home to your daughter and a family that loves you and cares for you deeply, there’s not a better feeling than that.”

But that feeling in the cage Sunday was still pretty good.