TEMPE, Ariz. — Within the last year, Jo Adell transformed himself from a subpar outfielder to a Gold Glove finalist in right field.
Now, the Angels are going to ask even more of him.
Adell and Mickey Moniak are the two leading candidates to win the Angels’ center field job now that Mike Trout has been moved to right field.
Moniak has already played 184 major-league games in center, but Adell has only played 15.
Bo Porter, who coaches the Angels’ outfielders, believes that Adell will have no problem going to center because of the improvements he made last year in right.
“First and foremost, it’s just being able to slow the game down,” Porter said. “When you have the type of athleticism that he’s working with, sometimes it goes too far. I think in the past he was trying to make plays that probably weren’t there.
“Once we were able to get him to slow the game down, he was able to go through his progressions and make the plays routine.”
Porter also said they wanted Adell to go more aggressively back on balls. By helping him on balls over his head, he had more confidence coming in on balls.
“I think once I became a little bit more aggressive, out on balls over my head, and really were able to get to the track a little easier, that really helped my defense overall,” Adell told reporters. “And I think that’s a big thing in center, being able to get back and cover ground, and so that’s what we worked on. So I look forward to continue to do it.”
Porter said he thinks center field will be better for Adell’s newly refined skills.
“It frees him up even more,” Porter said. “When you start to think about the ability in center field, being able to play gap to gap, the way he can close on a baseball. We’ve seen it in right field, and it translates to center field as well, because he can really range and go get baseballs.”
Adell, 25, was a center fielder when the Angels took him with the 10th pick in the 2017 draft. He has moved around the outfield throughout his time in the minors and the majors, usually splitting his time in the corners.
“It’s not the first time that I switched positions,” Adell said. “I’m up for the challenge and ready to go. … Center field was the only position I played growing up. I’m kind of excited to get back.”
In some ways, center field is actually easier than the corners, Porter said.
The difficulty is that there is more ground to cover, but the trade off is that the center fielder gets to see the ball from straight ahead of the plate.
“You love the fact that everything is in front of you,” Porter said. “You have the ability to go left and right, and you have priority over the corner (outfielders), so I think that’s going to help him. You look at his aggression in terms of wanting the ball, I think that’s going to play well in center field.”
Angels manager Ron Washington said one of the major points of discussion this spring will be the outfielders working on their communication, so there are no problems with the outfielders colliding.
“I’m certain that we’re going to keep talking about communication,” Washington said, “because I don’t want (Moniak or Adell) running into Mike.”
Porter said even though the outfielders might not have played together in the precise alignment that they will this year, they have all been together enough to make the transition easy.
While left fielder Taylor Ward, Trout, Adell and Moniak have all played tighter, the Angels might also try some new faces in center field. Washington said Luis Rengifo and Tim Anderson will both get looks in center this spring.
NOTES
Rengifo, who is a free agent at the end of the season, said there have been no talks so far of a contract extension. He said he’s been happy with the Angels. “I played almost six years with the Angels,” he said. “I feel at home. But I can’t control that.” …
The Angels have set the rotation for their first five spring training games, beginning on Saturday at home against the Seattle Mariners. Right-hander Jack Kochanowicz will start against Seattle, followed by left-hander Reid Detmers, right-hander Kyle Hendricks, right-hander José Soriano and left-hander Tyler Anderson in the subsequent games. Left-hander Yusei Kikuchi is expected to pitch sometime shortly after that. Kikuchi has said he prefers to pitch less frequently than other starters in spring training. Kikuchi faced hitters for the equivalent of two innings during Tuesday’s workout. …
Another part of keeping Trout healthy will be managing him on the base paths. Washington said the Angels won’t stop Trout from running, but they will emphasize to the 33-year-old that he needs to be judicious. “Mike is not a spring chicken,” Washington said. “We’ll let Mike decide how he wants to run the bases. We certainly will tell him, please pick and choose. But I certainly don’t want Mike hitting the ground 60 times to get 50 stolen bases. If it works out that way, it works out that way, but I want him to pick and choose when he decides to be stealing bases.”