Grichuk Confident in Return

(Busch Stadium) With his uniform number the same and his usual locker in the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse, there isn’t too much noticeably different on the outside for Randal Grichuk. But the outfielder, who was recalled this afternoon by the team, reports he is in a different state of mind.

“I feel a lot more confident,” said Grichuk. “Swing feels a lot better. Kind of good to take a step back and breathe. Be able to work on some things in a less intense atmosphere, a less pressure atmosphere. Really be able to just kind of simplify things.”

Optioned to Palm Beach (A) on May 29th, Grichuk was to work on his swing with instructor George Greer–and without the pressures of needing to perform on the 25-man roster. But while there wasn’t the pressure of big league games, Grichuk applied his own pressure to get things right.

“Obviously, I knew I was down there to work,” he said. “I wasn’t going to play in any games so I wanted to get after it. We swung a lot the first two days.”

Grichuk’s hands took the worst of it as the two-hour hitting sessions took their toll.

“I kind of mentioned the hands were a little sore, a little blistered, and starting to bleed and bother me and affect my swing,” said Grichuk. “(Greer) was like take what you need, feel good, and then call it a day. We kind of toned it back after the first few days, but the first few days was down there grasping what he was trying to teach.”

Working on his swing was something Grichuk had started in St. Louis before he was optioned. The “new” swing and work won’t be noticeably different at the plate, as Greer focused on more of the approach.

“It’s pretty different,” explained Grichuk. “The kind of stuff I was doing up here was more mechanical. Now it’s more of a rhythm and timing thing–just a feel for it versus so much more mechanical.”

At the time he was sent down, Grichuk was amongst the Cardinals leaders in home runs, extra base hits, and RBIs. But he also led the team in strikeouts.

“I think with power comes strike outs,” said Grichuk. “If you’re going to give up some of your power, you might give some of those strikeouts away. But that’s the type of hitter I am–I’m going to strikeout, hopefully we can keep it to a not ridiculous amount. And I’m going to drive the ball when I put it in play. Hopefully, we can lower the strikeouts and continue to drive the ball.”

The willingness to work was there from the start, but it took a bit longer for the change of scenery to really kick in and allow Grichuk to get back on track.

“Of course, nobody wants to leave,” he said. “Yeah, probably a few days ago, I really kind of felt like I got out of my head and a lot more feel for my swing and just kind of felt like I was going up there swinging and having fun and not really thinking too much. Just kind of hitting what was thrown to me and staying with my approach that I have up there and not venturing away from that due to thought process.”

The result has been an 8-game hitting streak and home runs in five of his last six games.

“I kind of felt a little bit of pressure,” admits Grichuk. “You can see writing on the wall whenever you’re struggling and you’ve got guys playing well or guys coming off the DL, whatever it may be. I think I put a little too much pressure on myself the last week, week and a half I was up here. That’s a dangerous thing. When you’re thinking in the box, putting pressure on yourself–causes you to swing at bad pitches, causes you not to swing at good pitches, causes you to not have the normal swing you would. Your body doesn’t react the same. Yeah, I put a lot of that on my self. Hopefully, this go-round go out there and just play hard and see what happens.”

While it’s about rhythm and timing, there’s no code word or trigger in this new approach at the plate.

“Honestly, it’s just staying out of my head,” said Grichuk. “Not really thinking about ‘don’t chase’ or ‘hit your pitch’ or ‘sit fastball, sit slider’ that type of thing. It’s more so, just go up there and whatever you’re sitting on, stay with the plan. I think when you stay out of your head, you take balls and your body gets in a good position and you see balls. But when you start thinking too much, you kind of start feeling for it a little bit and you might swing at that bad pitch or you might not swing at the good pitch. So, just go out there and react and play the game.”

photo credit: Bill Greenblatt/UPI, Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports