One player poised for a potential breakout year is Gavin Lux, who tore the cover off the ball during Spring Training and has since carried that momentum into the 2021 regular season.
Lux set a goal of refining his swing mechanics over the offseason and elaborated on some of the changes he made. “I think in my setup I’ve raised my bat off my shoulder and I’ve kind of quieted it down the excess hand movement I had last year,” he explained.
“It’s just a more repeatable swing and it’s less susceptible to slide steps and over the course of 162 games it’s just more repeatable and sustainable.”
The 23-year-old made some tweaks to his swing on his own but also worked closely with Los Angeles Dodgers hitting coaches. “I think it was kind of both,” Lux said of where the changes came from.
“I wanted to simplify, I wanted to be more repeatable, and I think they agreed with that as well. Everybody was on the same page with that, so that made it easier as well to make that adjustment.”
After falling short of expectations last season, Lux noted that his biggest goal this year is growing as a player, and not necessarily putting up better numbers. “Statistically, not really. For me, it’s just figuring out a process that works for me every day and my routine,” he said.
“Just growing as a player every day and just trying to get better. Statistically, I’m not super worried about it.
“At the end of the day if I take care of my process, my routine and what I’m supposed to do, it’ll take care of itself and the results will be there. It’s just finding a routine and sticking with it.”
Lux calls 2020 season ‘learning experience’
Lux previously mentioned that he wants to move past last season but also hopes to learn from the experience. “It’s cliché but it was a learning experience,” Lux said of his disappointing 2020 campaign. “Honestly, now it’s in the past and I’m not thinking about it.
“I’m definitely moving forward. But it was a learning experience. It was probably a good thing for my career to struggle early on, learn how to deal with failure. So I think it was a good thing, honestly.”
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