To Unlock His Potential, He Needed to Come Home

Minutes earlier than Major League Baseball’s buying and selling deadline final season, Paul DeJong, the shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals, acquired a notification on his telephone. It was a message within the group group chat from heart fielder Harrison Bader, certainly one of DeJong’s closest pals.

“He said, ‘Sorry, guys, but they told me I’ve just been traded to the Yankees,’” DeJong recalled. “I didn’t believe it at first. I was like, ‘Why the heck did we trade our best outfielder?’ I was honestly shocked.”

That was the response all through the St. Louis clubhouse that afternoon as phrase unfold that the Cardinals had agreed to ship Bader, who’s from Bronxville, N.Y., to the Yankees for the left-handed beginning pitcher Jordan Montgomery, a uncommon one-for-one swap between playoff contenders.

The transfer was a stunning pivot for the Cardinals, who in late 2018 had positioned Bader as their heart fielder of the longer term. A dynamic athlete with golden locks unfurling from his cap, he had emerged as an elite defender and base runner with the potential to change into an above-average hitter. But his outcomes up to now had struggled to stay as much as his hype.

“It was challenging,” Bader mentioned about getting traded. “As happy as I was to be in the new organization — especially the Yankees, my hometown and everything — I just still couldn’t get over the fact that I felt like I had so much unfinished business in St. Louis.”

This weekend, as Bader returns to Busch Stadium to face his former group for the primary time, the commerce seems to have been the virtually legendary win-win. Montgomery solidified the St. Louis rotation down the stretch final season, and he has continued to pitch effectively this yr regardless of his group’s woes. Bader, even with time missed due to accidents, has lastly regarded just like the participant the Cardinals at all times thought he might be.

“It was only a matter of time before it really clicked for him,” mentioned Stubby Clapp, the primary base coach of the Cardinals, who had managed Bader within the minor leagues. “When you get him on the field and he’s healthy, he’s going to do good things. He brings everything to the team that you need.”

The greatest distinction for Bader since he joined the Yankees is his energy on the plate. Including his sturdy postseason final yr, through which he batted .333 with 5 residence runs and a 1.262 on-base plus slugging share, Bader has slugged .480 throughout 58 video games via Thursday. While the pattern is small, that determine is 75 share factors increased than what he posted in 533 video games with the Cardinals.

There are causes to imagine his surge is greater than a small-sample mirage. He has drastically minimize his strikeout charge, from 26.1 % with the Cardinals to 17.4 % with the Yankees and has additionally elevated his launch angle, which has resulted in additional fly balls. Fewer strikeouts and extra fly balls is mostly a very good recipe for a batter who performs residence video games on the hitter-friendly Yankee Stadium. That’s very true for somebody who beforehand performed half his video games at Busch Stadium, a park that favors pitchers.

“Busch is really big,” Bader mentioned. “Look at the dimensions of the field and how the ball plays.” He added, “Those big, long lofted fly balls go to the base of the wall there.”

He would know, and never simply due to all of the fly balls he ran down in heart discipline. No participant has suffered the perils of hitting at Busch Stadium greater than Bader, whose .634 O.P.S. at that park is the worst for any participant with no less than 500 profession plate appearances. In his 865 plate appearances away from Busch Stadium as a Cardinal, his O.P.S. was .820 — the identical O.P.S. that the Hall of Famers Rickey Henderson and Harold Baines had for his or her careers.

“I think Busch could have gotten in his head a little bit, because he does have a lot of natural power,” DeJong mentioned. “I think maybe he got mentally a little discouraged by it.”

The proverbial change of surroundings is probably the least scientific of the cures that folks in baseball prescribe for underperforming gamers, however that doesn’t imply it might’t work. That mentioned, when the Yankees are concerned in a change-of-scenery swap, the participant in want of beginning over is often heading away from New York.

And but, each DeJong and Jordan Hicks, a Cardinals reliever, mentioned New York was the proper place for his or her buddy to play, for causes that went past the hitter-friendly stadium. “He was born and raised there,” Hicks mentioned.

“It’s like coming home for him,” DeJong mentioned. “I think that means a lot to him. I think he’s super emotional as far as, like, how much he cares and values little things like what uniform he wears, or where he’s playing, or who’s around him. I think those little environmental things can really be positive triggers for him.”

The highlight has by no means actually fazed Bader. Having grown up within the suburbs of New York, he’s aware of the town’s frenetic environment and the strain that comes with taking part in for certainly one of its skilled groups.

“I’m extremely comfortable here,” he mentioned. “I’m extremely comfortable, but it’s an incredibly uncomfortable environment. There’s a lot of pressure at all times. There’s a lot of noise. Even when you wake up in the morning and you start your day, it’s just — if you take a step back and you kind of zoom out for a second, I mean, it’s absolutely insane.”

He added: “I find ways to just settle into those moments where the noise couldn’t be louder, the fans couldn’t want more success. All these things make me better.”

Bader has made the Yankees higher, too. This season, they’re 24-11 in video games through which he has performed and 21-25 with out him. Naturally, these data additionally reveal the most important drawback for Bader since he arrived in New York: staying wholesome.

He was on the injured checklist with plantar fasciitis when the Cardinals traded him on Aug. 2, and he didn’t make his Yankees debut till Sept. 20 — 42 video games later. He strained an indirect throughout spring coaching and missed the primary 30 video games of this season, after which missed 16 extra with a hamstring damage.

The Yankees acquired Bader so they may transfer the 6-foot-7, 282-pound Aaron Judge again to proper discipline, his major place. Instead, due to Bader’s accidents, the Yankees have had to make use of not simply Judge in heart, but in addition Isiah Kiner-Falefa, an infielder and catcher who earlier than this season had by no means performed the outfield in a significant league recreation.

Finding a option to maintain Bader on the sphere is essential for the Yankees, but in addition for his personal future in baseball. A free agent after this season, the 29-year-old stays, within the phrases of Hicks, “one of the best outfielders I’ve ever seen play the game.” If he retains enhancing on the plate and avoids one other damage, he might be one of many extra sought-after gamers within the coming low season.

That such a payday is feasible reveals simply how far Bader has are available lower than a yr since he final wore a Cardinals uniform. Being traded stung, however as a lot as he liked his time in St. Louis, leaving was in all probability a blessing.

“It was a really important reminder,” Bader mentioned. “Everybody has grand plans all the time. There’s always going to be a situation in life, whether it’s related to your career, where somebody just yanks the rug out from under you, and you have to find a way to just keep moving.

“And so far, it’s worked out.”