The harmonic convergence between the resurrected Jason Heyward and the rampaging Los Angeles Dodgers crystallized superbly one night in Baltimore final month.
It was within the high of the second inning at Camden Yards when Heyward smashed a three-run dwelling run off the right-hander Tyler Wells, opening the gates to a five-run inning.
An inning later, Jake Marisnick pinch-hit for Heyward.
Harm? No. Ejection? Nope.
The Orioles had modified pitchers, inserting the left-hander Cole Irvin. And the Dodgers, being the Dodgers, adjusted accordingly.
“I instructed him the scenario, that my guess was that they had been going to make use of a lefty the remainder of the way in which,” mentioned Supervisor Dave Roberts. “I instructed 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 every part, to have a participant of his stature have full buy-in.”
For Heyward, 34, the private victories in his 14th season within the bigs have come within the small moments. He not performs day-after-day, 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 assume 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 most effective remoted energy (.216), dwelling run share (4.2 %) and stroll fee (11.5 %) of his profession. And earlier this month, in opposition to Oakland’s Kirby Snead, Heyward socked his first dwelling run in opposition to a lefty since Might 2021.
Better of all, Heyward is clearly having fun with the journey.
It was slightly 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 enjoying a key position within the crew profitable its first World Sequence in 108 years.
Issues started to disintegrate shortly. 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 enjoying day-after-day had been requested to tackle totally different roles, which led, in Heyward’s opinion, to an “identification disaster.”
“I perceive transition — nothing is fixed, nothing lasts endlessly,” 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 had been in want of a serious 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 finished.
Due to a proper knee damage, 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 possibility to play,” Heyward mentioned. “So I used to be life like 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 task would appear to be for you,” Basic Supervisor Brandon Gomes mentioned. “That is what our hitting guys are considering. It will be you coming to L.A. and Arizona this winter and spending a variety 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 cherished what they knew of Heyward’s work ethic and his status within the clubhouse. Freddie Freeman, buddies with Heyward since they performed in opposition to one another in youth baseball tournaments after they had been 16, heartily endorsed him.
“It felt like the proper marriage between our tradition, what he may convey on the sphere, off the sphere within the clubhouse, and his capability 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 degree.”
Possibly to some, it will have been simple for Heyward to take his 5 Gold Gloves, his World Sequence ring and the hundreds of thousands he had earned and simply disappear. Particularly after years of listening to outdoors critics eviscerate his Cubs contract as one of many recreation’s worst.
“I believe whenever you take a look at contracts and gamers and the sport of baseball, taking a look at profession numbers, there are so much which are beneath mine,” Heyward mentioned of the place his contract ranks traditionally. “There are so much worse which have performed out so much 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.”
In addition to, probably 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 last seasons in Wrigley.
“The hardest factor for me was not attempting to win day-after-day,” he mentioned.
When he took that Dodgers cellphone name, he knew they might do every part 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 considering.’ After which Jason saying, ‘Effectively, I’ve both tried that earlier than, or I can’t fairly pull it off. Do we’ve 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 every part the Dodgers hoped.
“I’ve leaned on him so much over the course of the yr,” mentioned James Outman, a rookie outfielder. “Baseball mentor. Life mentor, actually. He needs to win. And you’ll inform he needs his teammates to do nicely. 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 capability to match expertise with character.
“The factor that’s cool is to have a bunch with a variety of veterans with some younger guys combined in, a variety 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 shortly established themselves as the way forward for the franchise.
Heyward received to the majors first as a phenom within the spring of 2010, when his prodigious batting observe blasts had been clearing the right-field fence on the crew’s spring coaching advanced and damaging vehicles within the 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 quick rebuild following its earlier glory years, was as soon as once more a contender.
However Atlanta, trying to lower prices, break 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 long run.
Practically a decade later, Heyward and Freeman are again on the sphere as teammates, this time in a special hue of blue.
Freeman shudders at a number of the contract-related grief Heyward has endured over the previous few seasons.
“All that destructive stuff, you may simply throw away as a result of when Jason, it’s solely going to be optimistic as a result of he’s such a beautiful human,” Freeman mentioned. “And he introduced a World Sequence to Chicago, so I don’t know the way you might 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, it’s essential to 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 Area, and it encapsulates a lot: The reward of a lifelong friendship. Glory days in Wrigley Area. Heyward’s rebirth in Los Angeles.
Of their blinding smiles, you may nonetheless see the bliss of a few 16-year-old boys who simply love enjoying baseball — and respect the sudden probability 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 day-after-day now. And I’m simply having a blast.”
