New swing, new outlook, new Moose: Reinvented Moustakas lifts Royals over Twins
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In front of Ned Yost rested a table. The black-clothed table was a familiar one for him -- he revisits it after every home game. It houses two microphones and a few recorders and serves as an armrest for the Royals' manager.
After Tuesday's 6-5 win over Minnesota, though, the table served as a platform -- nearly literally -- for Yost to explain just how much his third baseman has grown in the last year.
Mike Moustakas, much maligned after a lackluster 2014 season, continued his torrid start to this year with a 3-for-5 night Tuesday, launching a two-run home run and driving in the winning run with an eighth-inning single. On the season, he is now hitting .327 with three home runs.
"It's almost you want to stand up on this table and scream, 'I told you so,'" Yost said. "But I'm not going to do that. I'm not an I-told-you-so type of guy."
Instead, Moustakas' bat has done the talking. Armed with a new approach and a tweaked swing, Moustakas has thrived this season, spraying hits to all fields and displaying the power stroke Kansas City knew he always had.
But potential has turned into profit this season, the Royals reaping the rewards of a new and improved Moustakas.
"To see a guy change his style as much as he has, to me," Yost said, "I can't recall another guy in my managing career, in my coaching career, that has made that big of an adjustment in a winter's time."
Moustakas stumbled to a .212/.271/.361 slash line in 2014, a season when he even journeyed around the Triple A Pacific Coast League instead of cruising the American League. His status as a can't-miss prospect had been forgotten, a label as an underachiever slapped on the now 26-year-old.
But Moustakas changed his swing and, in turn, his outlook. When asked to compare himself now to himself 12 months ago, Moustakas' answer was swift and simple: "Night and day."
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"I took my lumps," he said. "I took my bumps, my bruises. It's just kind of what happens in baseball. You're not always going to have success in this game. You go 3 for 10, you're considered a Hall of Famer in your career. Just trying to put all that in perspective. I was young. I wanted to do so good when I first got up here. Now, it's just all about the team."
And Tuesday, Moustakas' game-deciding at-bat culminated in a single down the left-field line. Facing left-handed closer Glen Perkins, Moustakas fouled off three pitches before poking it the opposite way, scoring Paulo Orlando and giving the Royals their 11th win of the young season.
At this point last season, the Royals would not have gotten such an at-bat from Moustakas. Yost even scoffed at the idea.
"There's a huge difference," Yost said.
Yost described why Moustakas lifted so many lazy flyballs and frustrating pop-ups: His bat head dropped during his swing, sapping solid contact from each effort and resulting in poor at-bats. Now, Moustakas' bat head stays upright, allowing him to drive the ball to all fields.
He already has 12 hits this season to the left of second base. Last season, in 140 games, Moustakas had 29 such hits. He had never hit a home run to the opposite field. On Opening Day, he guided one out to left-center field.
Yost saw a different Moustakas immediately in spring training, "right off the bat" during his first batting practice session in Arizona. So Yost decided to insert Moustakas in the No. 2 spot to start the season, injecting his third baseman with confidence and infusing the top third of the lineup with extra pop.
"I think we can all pretty much agree now that the two spot has been pretty good for him," Yost said.
You can follow Matthew DeFranks on Twitter at @MDeFranks or email him at matthew.defranks@gmail.com.
