ANAHEIM — Back in the first week of the season, Jo Adell was at the plate in Miami, with an 0-and-2 count. There was one out, and a runner at third base.
Adell punched a fly ball into right field, making a routine out but driving in a run.
That snapshot illustrated the progress for a player who might, finally, be finding his footing in the majors.
“Absolutely,” Adell said, recalling that moment. “Just slow the game down, look at what the situation was. There was a chance to score a run. Whatever the thought process of what I wanted to do personally was out the window at that point.”
Aside from simply hitting a fly ball, Adell managed to make contact on an 0-and-2 count and hit the ball the other way, which have been two of the keys to his early-season success.
“I think before this year, he was all pull,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “We challenged him in spring training to use the right side of the field. Hit some balls between first and second. Hit some balls in the right-center field alley, and he’s taken to it. It’s sort of opened up his offensive game. He’s not just one dimensional. The results are starting to pay off.”
While it’s too early to say definitively that Adell, 25, has truly arrived after a few years of failing to meet the lofty expectations his prospect status brought, the signs are encouraging.
Adell is hitting .316 with two home runs and a .925 OPS through 43 plate appearances. Coming into the season, he had a .214 average with a .625 OPS.
Adell has pulled 27.5% of his balls in play this season, down from 43.8% prior to this season. Both of his homers are to right field.
Adell has cut his strikeout rate from 35.4% to 23.2%. He already has five hits in 22 at-bats with two strikes, a .228 average. Adell came into the season with a .149 average with two strikes. The major league average this season is .165.
“Huge credit to him,” hitting coach Johnny Washington said. “The hitting staff put together a plan. He embraced it. It’s been a huge change for him. He’s comfortable with it. It’s just about him getting more reps, trying to stay disciplined in the routine and his process. When he gets an opportunity to play, just go in there and win pitches, win at-bats.”
Opportunity has come and gone for Adell. At times, like when he was first promoted to the major leagues as a 21-year-old in 2020, Adell received opportunity when he probably wasn’t ready. Adell hit .161 in that first season, striking out in 41.6% of his plate appearances.
After that, the Angels continued putting veterans ahead of him on the depth chart for the next few years. The idea was to avoid handing Adell a job until he proved he had made the necessary adjustments.
Although he tore up Triple-A in 2021, 2022 and 2023, many of the same problems surfaced each time he got a taste of the majors. He struck out too much, with a pull-heavy, over-swinging approach.
Those issues prevented him from getting the most out of his elite power and speed.
With new hitting coaches this year, Adell has finally made significant changes.
“For me, it’s just getting there and looking for a pitch to hit and not looking to do too much, just simplifying what I’m trying to do,” Adell said. “If they make a mistake, I’ll be able to put one in the seats, but that’s not the primary goal. … I think that’s shrunk the zone for me, and I’ve made better decisions. It’s been more consistent, so I’m going to stay the course with that.”
Adell said now he’s “a lot shorter to the ball” and he’s focused on hitting the ball up the middle. Adell said he’s more conscious of simply putting the ball in play because even poorly hit balls can be hits because of his speed.
“Anytime I put the ball in play,” he said, “I put pressure on the defense.”
And he’s not focused on pulling the ball over the fence because he’s confident he can hit it over the right field fence too.
His improved approach has finally won him increased playing time. During the first two weeks of the season, Adell was clearly behind Mickey Moniak and Aaron Hicks on the depth chart. Now, Adell has started seven of the last 10 games. Moniak and Hicks have both slumped, so Adell seems primed to get some runway for extended playing time.
“We haven’t been doing much offensively, and the times that he’s played, he’s done something,” Ron Washington said. “The more you do, the more playing time you get. Right now, he’s getting playing time.”
While Washington has appreciated Adell’s improvement at the plate and in the field, the Angels are working through some base running issues with him.
Adell has stolen five bases, but he’s been caught four times. He was credited with a stolen base when he ran past second base and was tagged out on April 10.
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Washington joked that the Angels need to “tie a rope to him,” to keep him from making outs on the bases.
“It’s a learning curve right there,” Washington said. “He’ll get better as we move through the year.”
Adell said he’s adjusting to the philosophy of the Angels’ new coaching staff.
“The thought process this year is a little bit different on the bases,” Adell said. “Obviously the guys that can really run, including myself, they want us to be really aggressive. And that hasn’t been the case in years prior. We’ve had kind of restraint on the running game. For me, it’s just learning how to take those bases, when there’s a smarter play.”
UP NEXT
Twins (RHP Bailey Ober, 1-1, 4.91 ERA) at Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 1-3, 6.75 ERA), Friday, 6:38 p.m., KCOP (Ch. 13), 830 AM
