Ryan Fitzgerald hits his second dinger of the spring in Red Sox win over the Braves
Red Sox minor leaguer Ryan Fitzgerald has been impressive to start spring training. He crushed a solo homer in the win over the Twins on Saturday. Fitzgerald continued to swing a hot bat and slugged his second home run in the Sox win over the Braves on Monday.
The 27-year-old infielder is a long shot to make the Sox Opening Day roster. However, he’s definitely generating a buzz around his play on the field and his bat at the plate.
Fitzgerald came to the Sox back in 2018 as an undrafted free agent out of Creighton University. The 6-foot infielder quickly made an impact becoming a 2019 Carolina League All-Star. He would also earn the honors of 2019 Red Sox minor league Defensive Player of the Year award.
Fitzgerald has always been a good defender in the field. The former Creighton Blue Jay has focused on becoming a better hitter as a professional.
When the coronavirus pandemic shutdown baseball, Fitzgerald went home to Chicago and focused on improving his bat speed.
“Going into 2020, I had worked on bat speed all offseason,” Fitzgerald said to the Press Herald last season. “I had done it going into the 2019 season as well. 2020 was phenomenal being able to train the way I do without having to worry about playing the next day. I really kind of focused on a lot of small things. You could burn yourself out pretty much every day if you don’t have to play the next day.”
Fitzy, as NESN color analyst Kevin Youkilis has been calling him had his best season offensively in 2021. He hit .270 with 16 homers, 58 RBIs in 108 games between Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester.
This spring Fitzgerald is turning heads in camp with his approach at the plate, his mullet on his head and he’s hoping to let his play on the field ultimately do all the talking.
“I’ve always said, I’ve got nothing to lose,” Fitzgerald said to MassLive’s Chris Smith. “I came out of Indy ball. There’s zero expectations for me. And I play that way. And that’s a dangerous player when you’ve got nothing to lose. I still feel like I have nothing to lose. So just try to keep that mindset and if I can crack the squad here in Boston and try to help them out any way I can, that would be great.”
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C. Koss also opening some eyes