On Tuesday in Baltimore, Rafaela tried something different to spark his offense. For the past month in the batting cage, Rafaela had been practicing a new stance in which he brought his hands down a bit, angling his bat upward, rather than holding his hands above his head and his bat flat, almost parallel to the ground. The new stance was designed to allow him to get into his swing quicker and catch up to fastballs. The process of getting a feel for the new stance, locking in cues and timing was gradual, but Tuesday, hitting coach Pete Fatse suggested to Rafaela he was at a point to try the adjustments in batting practice.
“(Manager) Alex (Cora) was throwing and it was homer to left, homer to right, homer to left,” Fatse said. “So it was like, ‘OK, let’s do it again, but just bring your hands a little bit more up.’ It was interesting how we got to where we are now. But yeah, this is exactly what we have been striving for for a while.”
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Part of what Fatse and assistant hitting coaches Luis Ortiz and Ben Rosenthal have been helping Rafaela with is relaxing his hands at the plate. They gave him a cue where he very subtly taps his elbows together before the pitch. In the cage, he does another more pronounced drill where he brings the knob of the bat to his knee before his swing, reminding him to lower his hands from his natural position up high. It’s also helped him stay in line with the mound.
