How Blue Jays’ Lukes turned around his struggling swing
“I just knew it. I was like, ‘I’m back.'” After a mid-April visit with an old friend who’s something akin to a personal hitting coach, Nathan Lukes made a small swing adjustment that’s unlocked his recent stretch of success at the plate.
TORONTO — When Nathan Lukes went home to Arizona in mid-April to be with his wife following the birth of their second child, he decided to connect with an old friend who’s something akin to a personal hitting coach.
Lukes has known Danny Lutz for almost a decade and trusts the opinion of the former collegiate player. The two looked at recent video of Lukes, who was on paternity leave from the Toronto Blue Jays, and Lutz immediately noticed that the left-handed hitter was lowering his front elbow during his setup in the batter’s box.
Lukes took batting practice with Lutz and worked on raising his front elbow so that it was almost parallel to the ground and when he returned to the Blue Jays, he got the chance to test out the tweak in a game.
“It’s just crazy how in baseball it can be one simple thing that turns everything around,” Lukes said. “I just knew it. I was like, ‘I’m back.’”
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That small mechanical change is largely what’s been behind the recent offensive contributions for Lukes, the fourth outfielder who’s played a key role in recent games.
On Thursday, Lukes started an eighth-inning rally against the Boston Red Sox by lining a single up the middle before eventually scoring the tying run in the Blue Jays’ 4-2 win. Then, on Friday, he ripped a single to right in the eighth to break a tie and drive in two runs that lifted Toronto to a 5-3 win over Cleveland.
In Saturday’s contest, Lukes continued to add impact by drawing two walks, including one with the bases loaded, and then in Sunday’s loss, he lashed an opposite-field RBI double before coming around to score.
It’s a nice stretch for an outfielder who’s had to make the most out of sporadic playing time.
“He’s a consistent player,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said after Friday night’s contest. “And I think when playing time isn’t really concrete, it can be tough. But he’s doing pretty well in that role. Pretty simple swing. And, confidence is a big thing.”
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That confidence simply wasn’t there for Lukes during spring training. He wasn’t seeing the ball well and couldn’t make consistent hard contact during Grapefruit League at-bats. Nonetheless, the Blue Jays showed faith in the 30-year-old who’d played in 51 games with the club over the 2023 and ’24 campaigns and brought him North as a backup outfielder.
He couldn’t find himself at the plate in the early going, though.
“At the beginning of the season walking into the box it was just like, ‘Damn, here we go again,’” said Lukes, who collected just four hits over his first 24 at-bats.
However, his trip home to be with his wife, Taylor, daughter, Remi, and newborn son, Jett, offered a reset. Lukes was able to soak in some family time before hitting the cages with Lutz.
The two discovered that Lukes’s lowered elbow was resulting in him shifting his body too far to the first-base side. The result would be grounders, strikeouts and an inability to barrel the ball.
“With my swing, I have to stay to the centre of the field,” said Lukes. “So that’s where my direction has to go. With my elbow down, my direction was basically going into the [first-base] dugout. It was far from where I need it to be.”
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In his first game back with the Blue Jays, on April 19 against Seattle, Lukes entered in the 11th inning as a pinch-hitter and laid down a successful sacrifice bunt. The next day, he drove a 95.9-m.p.h fastball from Luis Castillo deep into centre field for a sacrifice fly and then later added a single.
Lukes has since continued to build on that, with three walks and eight hits, including one homer, over his last 25 plate appearances. He’s playing with a level of confidence that’s different than what he felt during the spring and early April.
“Now, walking into the box, it’s like, OK, it’s my turn. Let’s get it,” said Lukes. “I know something good is about to happen.”
Fellow outfielder George Springer said Lukes’s comfort at the dish is visible.
“He always seems to put a good swing on a pitch,” Springer said recently. “I always feel like you’re going to get a great at-bat out of him.”
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With the return of centre-fielder Daulton Varsho this week, the path for Lukes to get time in the outfield became a little murkier. Springer and Anthony Santander will get plenty of reps in right and left, leaving Lukes to share opportunities with the left-handed hitting Alan Roden and right-handed Myles Straw.
That’s nothing new for Lukes, as it’s been his situation since breaking into the majors after a nine-year minor-league career. He’s learned to embrace the mentality of “being prepared to play every single day,” even when he’s not a starter.
If he continues to hit, though, things will fall into place for Lukes.
“I’ve been finding a lot more barrels,” he said. “And sometimes, even when you’re not getting hits but you’re finding barrels, that still helps your confidence.”
