WASHINGTON — Despite the incredible 2015 seasons from teammates Bryce Harper and Max Scherzer, an almost equally intriguing Nationals storyline is the season-long slump of Ian Desmond.
The two-time defending Silver Slugger for National League shortstops has a hitting line of just .219/.263/.347 through 76 games. He also leads all NL shortstops in errors (18), causing many to speculate that the pressure of a contract year is causing a distraction for the former All-Star.
Chad Dukes posed the question to MASN analyst F.P. Santangelo, who explained why players get into slumps like this, and how Desmond might be able to get out.
“He looks like he’s pressing. He looks like he’s swinging harder than he has in the past, and he’s always been an aggressive guy that swings hard,” Santangelo said. “I don’t know what kind of state he’s in mentally. He’s been in between a lot of places.
“You can see he’s in between…at the plate, looking curveball, getting fastball; looking fastball, you get a curveball. Now you’re in between both pitches and you’re trying to cover them both. As a hitter, you’ve got to sit on the fastball. If you get a fastball, you’ve got to get it, and you adjust to the curveball.
“I’ve seen him in between at shortstop, not just with the errors, but with the decision-making process. ‘Do I take the bag myself or do I flip it?'”
Including this year’s gloomy numbers, Desmond has a career hitting line of .265/.312/.424, and has three-straight seasons with 20 homeruns, a premium for his position. Coming off a 2013 campaign in which he slashed .280/.331/.453, he was offered and declined a lucrative contract extension from the Nationals, rumored to be upwards of seven years, $107 million.
Considering how his batting line numbers have decreased in each of the last two seasons, the growing narrative is that Desmond would be lucky to get such an offer in free agency this coming offseason. However, Santangelo believes no money in free agency has been lost until the 2015 season is complete.
“I don’t think he’s cost himself any money until his stats are said and done, printed on the back of his baseball card at the end of September,” he argued. “I’m looking for him to snap out of this thing. He’s too good. He’s too good of a person. He’s been a leader of this team over the last three or four years. He’s played harder than anybody else on this team.
“That said, it’s got to turn around for him. How do you turn it around? That’s the magic question.”
Santangelo goes on to recount his first year of arbitration, and the pressure that can be placed on a player by his family and representation.
“My whole life, I played to win a baseball game. I played to beat you, and I found ways to beat you. I looked up at the end of the night and I’d be 2-for-4 or 2-for-5,” he said. “All of a sudden, for the first time in my career, I’m playing for my family. I’m playing for me. It was about me getting two hits, all of a sudden, it was about me getting three hits.
“It was about me hitting .280 and getting paid. And I hit .214.”
He admits that he doesn’t know the exact details of Desmond’s struggle, but said the key to getting out of a downward spiral is to simplify the routine, focus on the moment and think less.
“I can’t get inside someone else’s head. I don’t know what he’s going through…I don’t give advice to players,” Santangelo said. “But if I ever talked to him, I would love to just tell him, ‘Just play to win. Do something tonight to beat the opponent, whether it’s a walk, whether it’s a sacrifice bunt, whether it’s a sacrifice fly…go see some pitches. Try to contribute to the ball club and think about the win.’
“You simplify the game when you’re struggling. Write down your goals. That’s how I got to the big leagues. I had no talent at all, but I used to visualize every day, I used to write goals down every day. And they aren’t outcome goals…you just write down, “I want to have four good at bats. I want to swing at a good low strike. I want to make all the plays tonight. I want to do something to help my ball club win.’
“So you write down all of these goals before the game. You come back to your hotel room or apartment after the game and you check boxes, and you say, ‘Did I accomplish this?’ And you do it every single day. Now, all of a sudden, the focus is off of me hitting .280, and it’s about doing something on daily basis to help my ball club win.
“You start with baby steps right now, if you’re Ian Desmond. How about a walk? And a stolen base? And a run scored? Now you’re back in the dugout, and instead of that awkward silence when you’ve gone 0-for-4 with three strikeouts…now you’ve walked, you scored a run and there’s some high-fives. Now you’re loose and you feel like you’re a part of this again…the big things will come.”
“There’s nothing to say he won’t be the hottest player in baseball for the second half of the season. Have we seen that yet? No.”
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