ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — It’s a fine line that a major league team must walk with a struggling young player. The team wants to show confidence in the player, but not allow him to fail so much that he loses confidence in himself.
Angels manager Ron Washington said the team is still on the right side of the line with Nolan Schanuel.
“I have no problem constantly running him out there and letting him try to figure it out,” Washington said of his rookie first baseman. “I haven’t seen where he has disbelief that he can do something. I see it’s not happening. I see him handling that it’s not happening. I don’t see him handling it in a panic way.”
Schanuel, 22, is less than a year removed from playing in college. He rocketed to the majors barely a month after he was drafted last summer, and he hit .275 with a .732 OPS in 29 games last season, which earned him the Angels’ first base job heading into 2024.
But Schanuel has started off this season hitting .095 with a .431 OPS. He was not in the lineup on Tuesday against Tampa Bay, but Washington said that was more because he wanted to get Miguel Sanó in after he swung the bat well the night before. Schanuel will play again on Wednesday, Washington said.
“Once he gets out of his way, and starts understanding that he can and believing that he can, I think he’ll take off, because he can hit,” Washington said. “In this game, everybody goes through struggles. And his just happens to be right now at the beginning of the year.”
Washington would like to see Schanuel be more aggressive. Last year he swung at 63% of pitches in the zone, which is slightly below the major league average of 66%. This season, though, Schanuel has swung at 48% of pitches in the zone.
Washington said the way to get the message to Schanuel is by “constantly repeating it over and over and over. That’s it. He’s the one who has to go out there and do it.”
DRURY OUT
Infielder Brandon Drury was not in the lineup…
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