Kansas City Royals’ Hunter Dozier opens up about root of his issues at the plate
For a plummeting team in an abruptly rudderless season, the All-Star break was a particularly welcome chance to reset and refresh and redirect.
Eighteen games back in the standings after losing six of seven to that point, a playoff berth and even a winning season had long since ceased being even a mirage for the Royals.
But still salvageable with a post-All Star surge was a chance to gather momentum towards 2022 and generate some tangible progress to scrape away the stigma of losing 100-plus games in each of the last two full seasons.
A 9-2 victory over Baltimore on Friday night at Kauffman Stadium made for a fine first impression, but by the end of the weekend it looked like just another false start in a season laden with those. The Orioles, lugging the worst record in the American League, clobbered the Royals 8-4 on Saturday and 5-0 on Sunday behind former Royal Matt Harvey — who had been 0-9 with a 10.20 ERA in his last 12 starts.
So entering their next game on Tuesday at National League Central-leading Milwaukee, the Royals have lost 17 of 21 and 29 of 37 to stand at a season-worst 18 games under .500 (37-55). Maybe they’ll surprise us and demonstrate some broader resilience or energy yet.
But most likely the only true intrigue ahead will be furnished in bits and parts and pieces: from the never-ending mystery of Adalberto Mondesi’s health to the trajectory back to the big leagues of young pitchers Jackson Kowar and Daniel Lynch, from the adventures of Bobby Witt Jr. to who might be traded.
These last few months also will provide some meaningful insight on what’s up with apparent pillars of the future who have faltered and why.
And in this respect, at least we can see a glimmer of hope in the recent resurgence of Hunter Dozier, who not only went 4 for 4 with two doubles on Sunday (and 7-12 over the weekend) but also after the game offered fresh insight on what’s gone awry this season as he’s languished below .200.
After what he called a “lost” 2020 season (.228 with six home runs and 12 RBIs in 44 games) that started with struggling to get his lungs and energy back after a bout with COVID-19, Dozier had what he considered the best spring training of his career and appeared poised to resume his formidable form of 2019 — when he hit .279 with a .522 slugging percentage, 26 homers and 84 RBIs.
Instead, on opening day he suffered a quirky right thumb injury on what seemed a routine swing. And that precipitated not only an 0-for-16 start but an entire sequence of associated issues, he said Sunday.
Initially as he spoke Sunday in a postgame Zoom call with the media, Dozier still seemed reluctant to elaborate on that as he suggested that “for whatever reasons my swing kind of changed through the course of the year … I don’t really know how that happened or what happened.”
As he continued speaking, though, Dozier seemed to get more comfortable with the idea that providing a reason isn’t the same as making an excuse.
Especially when the reason starts with accountability.
“I’m to blame,” he said. “Opening day, when I blew up my thumb, I know I only missed a couple games, but it was bugging me for a couple weeks and I didn’t do a good job of dealing with it.”
Meaning ...
“I kind of created some bad habits,” he added, “because I was trying to protect (the thumb).”
So he started “flying open” in his stance and looking as if he were trying to pull everything even when he was actually trying to take a pitch the other way.
“But I guess in the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘Don’t get blown up …’” he said, adding that it all got into his head. “When I wasn’t having success, I started searching. So it all falls on me (and) how I just didn’t really handle the situation well. And I kind of got away from what makes me a good player, makes me a good hitter.”
It might reasonably be asked why Dozier, or the Royals, didn’t sooner or better recognize that this was affecting him more than it should have been, as well as why they didn’t act on it in a stronger way than sitting him occasionally or rigging up different padding.
As it happens, the only time he spent on the injured list this season was after a collision with Chicago’s Jose Abreau in May that left him with concussion symptoms.
But it might also be reasonably surmised that Dozier is proud and surely stubborn and like most athletes wants to earn his keep, and perhaps in the wake of the four-year contract extension he signed only a few months before all the less inclined to gripe.
Whatever the case, perhaps this has been a learning experience in more ways than one for Dozier.
“I can’t let an injury that affects me one to two weeks affect my first three months of the season; that’s just a bad job on me,” he said. “I was working hard, probably too hard. Thinking about it probably too much, trying to change something when in reality I didn’t really need to change anything.”
Managing a wry chuckle, he added, “I just kick myself because it took me three months to really see that.”
It’s a shame in several respects.
But, now, since raising his average to .192 from .145 in the last few weeks, Dozier has about two and a half months to demonstrate this is who he really is.
And to reinforce his claim to being a part of the future for a team that, alas, is better served now to be thinking more about that than the present.
This story was originally published July 18, 2021 at 7:19 PM with the headline "Kansas City Royals’ Hunter Dozier opens up about root of his issues at the plate."