Although the Los Angeles Dodgers optioned Trey Sweeney to the Minor Leagues, he showed some upside and impressed the club throughout Spring Training.
Sweeney was traded to the Dodgers back on Dec. 11, and he has enjoyed his relatively short time with his new ballclub so far.
“It’s been really good,” Sweeney told DodgerBlue.com. “Obviously, I took the first week or two to try to meet everybody and get comfortable with all the staff and all the players.
“Now I’m really enjoying it here and the staff. I feel like they got a good plan for me and they know what they want. They’ve been open with me. It’s been a fun transition, a little easier than I was expecting.”
After the trade, Sweeney heard a lot of good things about the organization from other people when he got traded, which made him really excited to come over to a new team.
“It’s been everything I imagined,” Sweeney said. “Everybody’s been really good to me and welcoming. I’ve had a great time so far.”
The in-game results have been promising as his first three hits were either to the left side or up the middle. When facing the Cincinnati Reds, he showed off the power in his bat with a solo home run in the eighth inning.
With his new club, Sweeney worked on making some swing changes, and he’s been able to keep his upper and lower halves connected throughout his swing.
“I guess it’s just kind of a timing thing right now, it’s syncing up my leg kick with my own barrel movements,” he said. “So I didn’t have as much of it last year so trying to add it back in, add the rhythm back in, you know just syncing up the timing.”
Manager Dave Roberts also praised his new shortstop’s skills and what he could bring to the team.
“I like Trey,” Roberts said. “I think acquiring him this past offseason, there’s a lot of upside. He can really defend at short, we’re going to play him some at third base.
There’s some things that our hitting guys detected with his bat that I think we can clean some things up, but there’s real bat to ball in there, good foot speed. Man, he’s got a really good skillset.”
Trey Sweeney’s reaction to being traded
Drafted by the New York Yankees with the 20th overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft and was quickly their No. 5 ranked prospect in 2022. However, fast forward two years later and he found out he would be headed to Los Angeles.
“It was in early December when I got called, the Yankees’ farm director called me and told me I was traded,” Sweeney said. “It was a little weird at first, kind of in shock, but yeah, it was weird saying goodbye to all my teammates from there.
“About a week later it sort of set in. I came out here and visited for the day. Then it felt real and I was getting really excited after that.”
Sweeney spent all of last season with Yankees Double-A affiliate Somerset, where he hit .252/.367/.411 in 100 games.
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