Michael Chavis thinks he might have played some outfield in high school. But even so, he knew the minute that Ron Roenicke informed him Tuesday morning that left field was going to be his spot for Tuesday’s Red Sox game in Philadelphia it was going to be a whole new world.
(Tuesday's doubleheader between the Red Sox and Phillies can be listened to by clicking here.)
“No. I can't because I've never done it,” Chavis said with a chuckle when asked about his thoughts on playing the new position. “I’ve taken some reps in the outfield in BP and stuff like that. I've worked with Goody (coach Tom Goodwin) before the games just getting used to seeing some balls and flipping my hips and stuff like that. I haven't played professionally. I think I played a couple of games in high school here and there, maybe. But never legitimately played outfield at all before. I'm excited about it today. I like to think that I'm pretty decent at catching fly balls in the infield, moving back toward the outfield. Obviously it's a little bit different. But just flipping my hips and running to a spot versus just coasting or the generic things most people mess up on with fly balls is something I'm definitely going to be aware of. Putting my head down and running to a spot is going to be a big key for me. I know going to Tampa, that's going to be a whole different scenario with the dome and how you can't take your eye off the ball because it's so tough to see the ball there. For right now I'm just going to run to a spot and catch the fly ball.”
As new as making the adjustment from third and first base to second was last season, this is a whole new ballgame.
But with Bobby Dalbec’s playing time at first base seemingly becoming a priority for the Red Sox, and the team rotating the likes of Christian Arroyo, Jose Peraza, Yairo Munoz and Jonathan Arauz at second, a new part-time spot needed to be found for Chavis.
“So I’ve talked to him a little bit about it a while ago,” Roenicke said. “I know he wanders out there once in a while to shag and I think the big advantage would be to get him the lineup that’s what it’s all about. I want to give him the most opportunities he can to get out there and play. He’s a good athlete, he catches fly balls well, he’s got good hands, and I think if we just restrict him to second and first, we also have Arroyo up here now and with Dalbec also being up, it limits his playing time. So we want to give him the most opportunity we can offensively and get him out there. And plus, being able to play more positions is beneficial to him and his future, whether he’s an everyday player or whether he ends up being a utility player that should keep him in the big leagues longer and help him stay there. So I’m hoping the outfield works out. I know it’s not always fair to put a guy out and ask him to learn a new position in the big leagues. We kind of did that with him at second base last year. I thought he did really well with that. Hopefully this year it goes the same in the outfield.”
“There isn't really one specific time that I can really think of because it's been one of those things where it's been thrown out here as like an option,” Chavis said of having the opportunity presented to him. “Or they're like, 'Can you if the need comes up?' You know me, as long as I can get in the lineup I'm going to figure it out and do whatever I can to get in the lineup. We had a couple of conversations like that to see if I wanted to or if I could and I told him I would be more than happy to do whatever I could to be in the lineup.”
Chavis has struggled at the plate for much of the season, coming into Tuesday with a .234 batting average and .639 OPS with a team-worst 45.2 percent swing and miss percentage.
But, according to the former first-round pick, he feels the lessons learned throughout this out-of-the-ordinary season will pay off in the long run.
“I feel like my approach and my mental state has been a lot better lately, and that directly correlates to that on-base percentage,” said Chavis, who is riding a five-game hit streak having reached base four times Sunday. “When I’m swinging at a bunch of pitches out of the zone, I’m just trying to do too much and trying to create results instead of just letting them come to me. That’s pretty much what it is, it’s just going out of my way where I’m like I want to hit, I want to chase that hit, I want to chase the result instead of just letting it come to me, whereas then I’ll swing at a pitch in the dirt, I’ll chase something out of the zone instead of letting that be ball four or ball three to set up a 3-1 count or anything like that, so that’s definitely correlated between the results and what I’m trying to do. So just having the mental state and comfortability in the box right now is the biggest thing.”