From worst to nearly first: Inside Michael Harris II's midseason turnaround for Braves

New York Times

a day ago

ATLANTA — Seldom has there been a midseason turnaround as resounding as that of Atlanta Braves center fielder Michael Harris II, who went from having the worst OPS (.551) among all major-league qualifiers before the All-Star break to having the third highest (1.144) since the break.
It's a transformation that involved, among other things, watching video alone on a cross-country flight to Sacramento, getting back to the way he once did things and hearing some reassuring wisdom from Hall of Famer Chipper Jones.
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'I knew what kind of player I could be, and I'm starting to feel that now,' said Harris, whose .398 average in 30 games since the All-Star break is second best among MLB lineup regulars, after his .210 average in 93 games before the break tied for third lowest.
Harris was 4-for-4 with a two-run homer in Monday's 13-9 series-opening loss against the Chicago White Sox, which ended Atlanta's five-game winning streak and gave Harris a majors-leading .430 average and 1.251 OPS since July 25.
'I guess it's better late than never,' he said of his stunning turnaround. 'Find it going into the next season and even making a push here in the late season, just trying to help the team win. So, it feels good.'
The Braves scored eight runs after the fifth inning, after falling behind 10-1 on a night when Spencer Strider got hit hard for the third consecutive start.
Jurickson Profar had two homers and five RBIs to continue his recent tear. Harris led off the eighth inning with a single and, with the Braves still trailing 13-5, manager Brian Snitker pinch-ran for him with Eli White to get Harris off his feet.
The Braves ended up batting around in the inning, with Profar's three-run homer getting them within 13-9, and had the bases loaded with two out when Harris' would-be spot came up. White struck out to end the inning.
'I was trying to do him a solid, getting him off his feet,' Snitker said. 'The last thing I thought in my mind was we're gonna bat around and his spot come back up. He's played every inning in every game (recently) and I just thought, give him an extra bat and then get him off the seat. God, I had no idea we were going to bat around, and I'm like, holy cow. Just trying to give the kid a break and it blows up.'
Strider was charged with 10 hits, seven runs and two homers, and exiting with none out in the fourth inning. His recent woes — Strider has allowed a staggering 29 hits, 20 runs and seven homers in 11 2/3 innings over his past three starts — have been as pronounced as Harris' resurgence.
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Harris has hit .500 with nine extra-base hits and 15 RBIs during an 11-game hitting streak, including a run of eight consecutive multi-hit games that ended Sunday and tied a Braves franchise record. The out-of-contention Braves have won eight of 10, and he has played arguably the biggest role.
'He's been unbelievable,' Snitker said. 'Just what he's doing, the consistency, and how he kind of found what he's doing has been awesome to see.'
Harris raised his average and OPS from .210/.555 on July 21 to .260/.706. He has 46 hits in his last 26 games, the most by any Brave within such a span since Martin Prado had 47 in 26 games spanning May and June 2010.
'I told him many times how much respect I have for him, because even when he wasn't hitting, he was out there helping us defensively,' Snitker said. 'I mean, he never took (the hitting woes) out there. He was making great plays and busting his rear, and it says a lot about the individual doing that.'
Harris' improvement began in the last games before the All-Star break, at the end of a two-city trip to face the Athletics in Sacramento and the Cardinals in St. Louis.
The Atlanta-area native had been working with hitting coach Tim Hyers for much of the first half on trying to get his hands higher to begin his batting stance, up near ear level instead of down around his stomach. However, Harris, 24, couldn't get comfortable with it, despite having hit with his hands up there during his amateur and minor-league career. He lowered his hands in the first week of his MLB career in May 2022, after being called up from Double A and struggling in his first few big-league games.
He lowered them, then brought them up as the pitch was being delivered, an extra 'load' step added to help him get into rhythm. And it worked. Harris hit .347 with a .946 OPS in his next 27 games and finished his first season with a .297 average, 49 extra-base hits (19 homers) and an .853 OPS in 114 games, winning NL Rookie of the Year with 22 of 30 first-place votes (Strider was runner-up and got the other eight first-place votes).
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In 2023, his second season, Harris hit .293 with 54 extra-base hits and an .808 OPS in 138 games, his stats slipping some but still quite good for such an outstanding young defensive player.
However, in his third season, he was hitting just .250 with a .653 OPS in 67 games before missing two months with a strained hamstring. He finished the year at .264 with a .722 OPS, and Harris' 102 OPS+ was a mere 2 percent above a theoretical average MLB player, down from 133 in his rookie season and 116 in 2023.
Snitker attributed his 2023 stats to a slow start and missing so much time with the injury. The Braves were eager to see what Harris could do if he stayed healthy for a full season. Teammates believed Harris was an All-Star selection waiting to happen, a five-tool talent who just needed to stay healthy.
'That was one of the first things Matt (Olson) told me at spring training,' said Hyers. 'We were in the first couple of (batting practices), and he goes, 'Tim, that's one of those talented guys we have, if not the most talented guy we have. He's a special talent.''
So imagine the angst when Harris got off to a nightmarish start this season, and kept slumping. He hit .179 through 18 games. He had a .588 OPS through 52 games. At the end of June, he was hitting .212 with a .559 OPS for a team that was 38-44.
Snitker kept him out of the lineup for a couple of games but said Harris was working hard with Hyers to get things turned around at the plate.
'The whole year he's tried to find that spot (with his hands), and he just couldn't find it,' Hyers said. 'Whenever he lowered them (after first being called to the majors), his hands went back up to that spot (after he loaded). Because his whole life, he swung from there. But over time, our bodies want to go to comfort. So he started to kind of load out here in no-man's land (Hyers demonstrates hands away from body) in a weaker position.'
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A week after Harris was benched for two games and went 0-for-11 in a July 4-6 series against Baltimore that included a three-strikeout game, he watched a lot of video from his minor-league career during the Braves' flight to Sacramento.
He noticed how free and easy he looked while hitting .305 with only 39 strikeouts in 196 plate appearances at Double-A Mississippi before being called up, and how he did it with his hands up, for a more direct path to the ball.
He thought about something Braves great Jones told him just before the break.
'Chipper told me it's better to swing up to down than down to up, so being up there is a good thing,' Harris said. 'And I feel like everything's been a lot cleaner since then and I haven't had to think as much.'
It's what he had worked all season trying to get back to, but this time, after watching the video, he was committed to doing it in games. He was out of the lineup for the series opener in Sacramento, then went 0-for-8 in two games there while keeping his hands up, not loading from the lower position.
'It felt a little weird, like my hands were way higher than they actually were, because my hands were down for the past three years,' Harris said.
However, at St. Louis in the last series before the All-Star break, Harris went 4-for-10 with two doubles. He was on his way.
Before Monday night's game, Harris recalled that conversation with Jones.
'We were trying to find something and trying to get those hands in the right spot,' Harris said. 'And ultimately it came down to me just saying, all right, I'm just going to raise them up. It can't hurt. I was doing it my whole life, so if I made the change to moving down after getting called up, why not be able to go back up now?'
The kid from Stockbridge High outside Atlanta went back home, figuratively speaking, to the place where his hands work best. The results have been resounding.
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