WooSox catcher Ronaldo Hernandez has a new plate approach that has his manager's attention
The WooSox catching situation has already been a carousel to start the season.
Jorge Alfaro opts out. Stephen Scott called up from Portland. Caleb Hamilton called up to the big leagues.
Now we have come full circle with Alfaro signing a major league deal with the Red Sox and Hamilton getting DFA’d, with a chance of ending back up Worcester.
The only consistent all year long has been Ronaldo Hernández, who has been on fire over the last month of baseball played for the WooSox. His manager has noticed a huge change with his plate approach from last season.
“It was a huge deal last year when he was struggling early.” WooSox manager Chad Tracy said on Hernández. “It wasn’t just that he was struggling but he wasn’t even getting on base at all because he was swinging outside the zone. Not just the walk totals, but the number of chases has decreased by 12-15% from a year. We couldn’t really dive into mechanics until we are swinging at strikes. Once we are swinging at strikes, we can get into everything else.”
After a rather slow start to the year where he hit .212 in April and .192 in May, Hernández is swinging one of the best bats on the team. In the month of June, the WooSox catcher put up a slash line of .306/.411/.542. He has decreased his strikeout percentage by 8% so far this season and has increased his walk rate by 8%.
To pair with the percentages both going in positive directions, Hernández only struck out 6 times in 90 plate appearances and walked 12 times in that span. He only walked 21 times all last season for Worcester. He already sits at 24 walks this year.
Hernández is still looking to make his debut in the MLB. He was called up when the Red Sox were dealing with COVID issues last season, but never got into any game action on either side of the ball.
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