ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Harrison Bader didn’t feel right. He had hit just .217 in his 14-game Yankees debut before the playoffs began last year. When he gripped his bat, he felt uncomfortable, as if he was squeezing the handle too hard. He didn’t know what to do. So, while at home in the days leading up to the American League Division Series, he picked up an autographed bat given to him by good friend Pete Alonso, the Mets’ slugging first baseman. As he took some practice swings, he liked the flared handle that more resembled that of an ax instead of a traditional knobbed bat. His swing felt smoother than it had in quite some time. In Game 2 against the Guardians, Bader used his own version of the bat, and he stuck with it for the rest of the playoffs, crushing four of his whopping five postseason home runs with the new wood.
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He has brought it into this season, and the Yankees are hoping the new bat will help Bader unlock an offensive upside they believed he had when they acquired him from the Cardinals at the last trade deadline. So far, it’s paying off, like when he ripped a two-run single that provided the go-ahead run in a key 3-2 win over the Rays at Tropicana Field on Saturday night.
“Really just kind of random, but it worked out,” Bader said.
Bader, of course, was being modest. There’s little that’s random when it comes to how the center fielder prepares. He’s big on visualization, taking time before games to think about what he hopes to accomplish and how he plans to do it. In the outfield, Bader is all about nuance, often circling the landing spot of a fly ball so he can catch it on the run and have just a little more momentum for his throw to a base.
Alonso’s bat had been on Bader’s mind for a while. Alonso, who crushed 40 homers last year, had occasionally suggested to Bader that he try it out. “When I told him I was using his bat, he was like, ‘I told you,’” Bader said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, why do you think I use it?’” Bader and Alonso were teammates at the University of Florida.
Bader found two key hits in the bat Saturday afternoon. He wasn’t in the starting lineup. Manager Aaron Boone had hoped to give Bader a day to rest since his rehab assignment to test his strained oblique was cut short and he had played three games in a row. But Boone called on Bader to pinch hit in the seventh inning with the Yankees down 2-0, Willie Calhoun on first base and no outs. Bader flipped a single into right field off Jalen Beeks, but the Yankees stranded Calhoun and Bader to end the inning.
In the eighth, Bader helped them break through. DJ LeMahieu’s double scored Anthony Rizzo from second base with one out. And after Calhoun popped out, Bader served Kevin Kelly’s first-pitch slider into shallow right again, bringing in Gleyber Torres and LeMahieu for the one-run lead that the Yankees wouldn’t relinquish.
“It’s really satisfying,” Bader told reporters about the win as the team’s player of the game championship title belt rested in his locker.
“He definitely brings some intangible things about him,” Boone said. “Obviously, there’s a settling feeling about him being in the lineup and being in the middle of the diamond with as well as he plays out there — and the threat he is at the plate as well, the threat he is on the basepaths. But I think there is a joy that he plays the game with that I do feel like is a little bit infectious.”
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Bader also crushed a three-run homer that tied the game Friday before the Yankees lost to the Rays 5-4.
When the Yankees traded starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery for Bader last year, many questioned the move. Montgomery was a solid back-end rotation piece who was also homegrown. Though the Yankees needed a starting center fielder, Bader was on the injured list at the time with left Achilles tendonitis and didn’t play his first game in pinstripes until Sept. 20. Long considered a defensive star, he had just a career 97 OPS+ through his first five MLB seasons.
Boone said he thought the new bat might help things click for Bader.
“I switched bats at times when you’re going through something,” said Boone, who played 12 MLB seasons. “You change a model or the length or the weight or something and all of a sudden it gets you going. There’s probably a little bit of a mental component to it or just changing something up or finding something that’s more comfortable but more equipped for you, and I think they’re probably able to measure that a little more now.”
Bader said he feels the difference with the new bat the most when he’s halfway through his swing. His wrists don’t turn over as violently. It feels like one motion.
“You do feel a break in a swing, a release of energy, and sometimes that can be beneficial,” he said. “Other times it can be detrimental. I think I just have something that puts you in a natural position. … It’s just smoother. The swing doesn’t have different pieces. You don’t really feel too much of a break.”
And the Yankees’ center fielder can thank his friend and Mets star for the assist.
“I feel really comfortable,” Bader said. “(The bat) puts my hand in a really good position. It’s more repeatable, and it’s more direct to the baseball. It’s just passively working really well for me and putting myself in a good position to hit.”
(Photo: Kim Klement / USA Today)