One of the most interesting storylines throughout camp has been the Cleveland Guardains' surprising Rule 5 Draft selection Deyvison De Los Santos. The organization's 15th overall prospects have an abundance of potential that Cleveland is hoping they can tap into.
The only issue is that Deyvison must remain on the active roster in order for the Guardians to retain the rights to him. De Los Santos is very aware of this situation and is doing everything he can to make an impact on this team. This includes making necessary swing adjustments.
"Chris Valaika and the hitting team really dove in with him over the last five days and made some slight adjustments," said manager Stephen Vogt. "He had five at-bats on the backfield the other day and really saw and started to get more and more comfortable with the slight adjustments he's making. That's a really good sign."
De Los Santos is hitting a mediocre slash line of .265/.265/.382 up to this point of spring training. However, these recent swing adjustments have clearly had an effect on the overall production. Over the last seven days, Devy has hit .385/.385/.692 with an OPS of 1.077 including a double and a home run.
Whatever it was Valaika told him to fix, it's clearly working. Vogt also gave a lot of credit to De Los Santos for being open to these changes. The young prospect has welcomed all of the advice that the Guardians' staff has given him.
Vogt said that, "He's responding really well to the coaching and has bought into what we've asked him to do. He has owned it, he has asked for it. Anytime you can partner with the player and you get them to want that as well. I like what I'm seeing and. He came from another organization at 20 years old, is just getting comfortable with everybody here and for him to put the trust into the hitting group, and vice versa, I think we're headed in the right direction."
Time will tell whether this adjustment will be what it takes to succeed at the big league level.
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