The harmonic convergence between the resurrected Jason Heyward and the rampaging Los Angeles Dodgers crystallized fantastically one night in Baltimore final month.
It was within the prime of the second inning at Camden Yards when Heyward smashed a three-run house run off the right-hander Tyler Wells, opening the gates to a five-run inning.
An inning later, Jake Marisnick pinch-hit for Heyward.
Damage? No. Ejection? Nope.
The Orioles had modified pitchers, inserting the left-hander Cole Irvin. And the Dodgers, being the Dodgers, adjusted accordingly.
“I advised him the state of affairs, that my wager was that they have been going to make use of a lefty the remainder of the best way,” mentioned Supervisor Dave Roberts. “I advised him, ‘You probably did your job to assist us win this recreation.’ And he was like, ‘Doc, I’m in.’”
Roberts added: “For me, that’s all the pieces, to have a participant of his stature have full buy-in.”
For Heyward, 34, the non-public victories in his 14th season within the bigs have come within the small moments. He not performs daily, and he’s not the middle-of-the-order beast he had at all times appeared destined to turn into. However he can nonetheless assist a crew, which is greater than the Chicago Cubs appeared to suppose after they determined to chop ties with him final August.
“It’s been a enjoyable yr of baseball,” Heyward mentioned of his time with the Dodgers throughout a street journey to San Diego final weekend.
Discounting the pandemic-shortened 2020 marketing campaign, Heyward’s on-base plus slugging share (.797) is his highest over a full season since 2015. He has produced the perfect remoted energy (.216), house run share (4.2 p.c) and stroll price (11.5 p.c) of his profession. And earlier this month, in opposition to Oakland’s Kirby Snead, Heyward socked his first house run in opposition to a lefty since Could 2021.
Better of all, Heyward is clearly having fun with the trip.
It was a bit over a yr in the past when Jed Hoyer, Chicago’s president of baseball operations, knowledgeable Heyward that the Cubs would launch him after the season. With one yr nonetheless remaining on the eight-year, $184 million deal he signed with the Cubs earlier than the 2016 season, it was an ignominious ending to a chapter of his profession that had its disappointments, however which additionally included his management taking part in a key position within the crew successful its first World Collection in 108 years.
Issues started to disintegrate rapidly. The Cubs began to interrupt in youthful gamers whereas unsuccessfully defending their world title in 2017, they platooned a bit extra and, Heyward mentioned, they “began to attempt to be shape-shifters.” Some gamers accustomed to taking part in daily have been requested to tackle completely different roles, which led, in Heyward’s opinion, to an “identification disaster.”
“I perceive transition — nothing is fixed, nothing lasts ceaselessly,” Heyward mentioned. “However that was the powerful a part of that group, particularly with a number of the youthful guys.”
By 2019, it was clear that these Cubs have been in want of a significant overhaul. When Heyward’s O.P.S. dropped to profession lows in consecutive seasons — .627 in 2021 and .556 in 2022 — it was evident that his time there was completed.
Due to a proper knee harm, he performed his final recreation for the crew on June 24, 2022, having batted .204 with a .278 on-base share over 48 video games. When Hoyer spoke with him in early August, Heyward questioned if his profession was completed.
“You don’t know if somebody’s going to give you the prospect to play,” Heyward mentioned. “So I used to be real looking about that.”
The Dodgers known as in early December and invited him to spring coaching on a minor-league deal. They made no guarantees, however they laid out their imaginative and prescient in clear, concise phrases.
“That is what a job would appear to be for you,” Common Supervisor Brandon Gomes mentioned. “That is what our hitting guys are pondering. It will be you coming to L.A. and Arizona this winter and spending lots of time attacking some swing adjustments, and we really feel if you are able to do that, then there’s actual upside left in how one can carry out.”
The Dodgers liked what they knew of Heyward’s work ethic and his repute within the clubhouse. Freddie Freeman, pals with Heyward since they performed in opposition to one another in youth baseball tournaments after they have been 16, heartily endorsed him.
“It felt like the right marriage between our tradition, what he might convey on the sphere, off the sphere within the clubhouse, and his means to only get to work with our group and sort of do a belief fall for what they noticed for him,” Gomes mentioned. “And now we’re seeing him carry out at an extremely excessive stage.”
Possibly to some, it could have been simple for Heyward to take his 5 Gold Gloves, his World Collection ring and the hundreds of thousands he had earned and simply disappear. Particularly after years of listening to exterior critics eviscerate his Cubs contract as one of many recreation’s worst.
“I believe if you take a look at contracts and gamers and the sport of baseball, taking a look at profession numbers, there are lots which are under mine,” Heyward mentioned of the place his contract ranks traditionally. “There are lots worse which have performed out lots worse. Guys have been on the sphere much less. All that sort of stuff. And that’s not by any means to level the finger away from me. I’m proper there within the thick of it. I like to play the sport, and I perceive the failures.”
Apart from, essentially the most troublesome a part of his descent with the Cubs, he mentioned, wasn’t even his personal private failures. It was the rebuild over his ultimate seasons in Wrigley.
“The hardest factor for me was not making an attempt to win daily,” he mentioned.
When he took that Dodgers cellphone name, he knew they’d do all the pieces to win. So setting apart his ego and accepting a minor-league deal was simple, he mentioned.
“The great thing about it’s, it’s a collaborative effort,” Gomes mentioned. “It’s, ‘Hey, right here’s what we’re pondering.’ After which Jason saying, ‘Properly, I’ve both tried that earlier than, or I can’t fairly pull it off. Do we’ve got one other option to go about it?’ An open dialog that each events run into with an open thoughts.”
Heyward has excelled on the particular position the Dodgers have carved out for him. The fixes in his swing, the at-bats in opposition to right-handers, the defensive agility that is still. Within the clubhouse, he’s all the pieces the Dodgers hoped.
“I’ve leaned on him lots over the course of the yr,” mentioned James Outman, a rookie outfielder. “Baseball mentor. Life mentor, actually. He needs to win. And you may inform he needs his teammates to do effectively. And it’s coming from a super-genuine place.”
From Outman to Mookie Betts to David Peralta and Clayton Kershaw, Heyward name-checks veterans and newcomers alike, praising the Dodgers for his or her means to match expertise with character.
“The factor that’s cool is to have a gaggle with lots of veterans with some younger guys combined in, lots of good examples,” Heyward mentioned. “I really feel like all of us feed off of one another. And, in fact, it’s enjoyable to play with Freddie once more, to have that come full circle.”
Chosen by Atlanta with the 14th (Heyward) and 78th (Freeman) picks within the 2007 draft, Heyward and Freeman got here via the Braves minor league system collectively and rapidly established themselves as the way forward for the franchise.
Heyward bought to the majors first as a phenom within the spring of 2010, when his prodigious batting follow blasts have been clearing the right-field fence on the crew’s spring coaching complicated and damaging vehicles within the car parking zone. Freeman joined him as a full-time participant within the majors a yr later. By 2013, each had been All-Stars and Atlanta, after a short rebuild following its earlier glory years, was as soon as once more a contender.
However Atlanta, seeking to reduce prices, cut up up the longtime teammates. Heyward, who was nearing free company, was traded to St. Louis after the 2014 season because the Braves reset for the longer term.
Almost a decade later, Heyward and Freeman are again on the sphere as teammates, this time in a unique hue of blue.
Freeman shudders at a number of the contract-related grief Heyward has endured over the previous few seasons.
“All that detrimental stuff, you’ll be able to simply throw away as a result of when Jason, it’s solely going to be constructive as a result of he’s such an exquisite human,” Freeman mentioned. “And he introduced a World Collection to Chicago, so I don’t know the way you could possibly ever be saying something unhealthy or imply about Jason Heyward. What he does within the metropolis, the inside cities, what he’s nonetheless doing in Chicago, if imply issues are popping out of your mouth about Jason, you should re-evaluate your individual life.”
In a single nook of the Dodgers’ clubhouse, hanging between the lockers of Freeman and Heyward, is a photograph of the 2 of them posing collectively. It was taken throughout an April rain delay within the guests’ dugout in Wrigley Subject, and it encapsulates a lot: The present of a lifelong friendship. Glory days in Wrigley Subject. Heyward’s rebirth in Los Angeles.
Of their blinding smiles, you’ll be able to nonetheless see the bliss of a few 16-year-old boys who simply love taking part in baseball — and admire the sudden likelihood to as soon as once more do it collectively.
“It’s been a very long time since we’ve gotten to be teammates once more,” Freeman mentioned. “I get to see him daily now. And I’m simply having a blast.”