Washington Nationals: Mechanical change helps Matt Wieters heat up

Don’t look now, but Washington Nationals catcher Matt Wieters is slowly starting to heat up a little bit at the plate thanks to a recent change in his swing

After a season-long struggle at the catcher position for the Washington Nationals, Matt Wieters is finally providing some production there. He’s finally starting to resemble the catcher he was for a time with the Baltimore Orioles.

Wieters has particularly turned the page in August. In the month, he’s hitting a lofty .306 with a homer, two doubles, four RBI and even walking almost as much as he’s striking out.

The ball has been flying off his bat this month, and some of the advanced metrics make it seem somewhat sustainable.

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He has a hard contact percentage of 51.5 percent in the month of August when previously that figure was just 30.3 percent. His BABIP is .313 too, which is only a touch higher than the league average, meaning this kind of performance is sustainable.

But the big question is, what’s changed for the seemingly hapless hitter Nats fans have gotten used to being an automatic out?

For starters, some of the BABIP luck has rectified itself. He had a .224 figure entering August, which is shockingly low. But that doesn’t explain the spike in hard-hit percentage.

Well, it appears as though a large part of the success has come down to a small mechanical change he’s made in the load phase of his swing.

Take a look at this clip of a strikeout he had at the start of the season against the Colorado Rockies facing their closer Wade Davis.

You’ll notice his hands way up and bat facing downwards, a familiar stance for him as a National. But because of this, when he gets ready to swing, it leaves his hands very high up, and the slider dives down and in. This is a difficult pitch to hit anyway, but he’s too late and can’t even get close to it, as he tries to get his hands down.

Then compare it to a clip of his RBI single from Tuesday night. You’ll notice a very slight difference in the stance, but that change has made a big difference in the speed he gets to the ball.

He almost starts with his hands just below his shoulders now. Because of this, when he loads up for his swing, his hands are lower and can be quicker to the ball when it gets there.

As we’ve seen in August, he’s been able to put a lot more bat on ball and it’s produced results. There may yet be hope for the veteran backstop if he can continue to make the most of this tweak to his swing.

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Matt Wieters’ time in D.C. has been a huge disappointment on the whole. The Washington Nationals will at least be happy to see his progression of late with the bat, even if it’s too little too late.

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