How D-backs' Nolan Arenado Rediscovered His Swing

Nolan Arenado heating up for Diamondbacks

For Arenado, it was his third homer of the year. He also had a key RBI single on a line drive to center in the seventh, extending the D-backs lead to 5-2.

The eight time All-Star, five time Silver Slugger is in the midst of a hot streak, and may be turning his season around after a very slow start. Over his last five games he's batting 7-for-19, .368 with three homers and nine RBI.

Manager Torey Lovullo gave his assessment of what's been different the past week.

"I think he's got a really consistent contact point. He's back in a good hitting position," Lovullo said.

"He's finally balanced out the top and bottom half of his body to where he knows where that ball is going to be and the swing is matching everything and moving forward. Totally under control, feet under him, and just driving towards that contact point."

That's in stark contrast to how Arenado looked the first couple of weeks of the season. He seemed to be cheating on fastballs and getting caught in between against breaking and off-speed. The quality of contact was poor, and the swing decisions were lacking.

But suddenly it's all seemingly coming together. Arenado discussed what's been different as well, and he agreed with his manager on where the change has taken place.

"I'm just trying to get back and load a little bit earlier and make good decisions," he said. "I've put a lot of work in the cage with leg-kick, toe-tap kind of thing, give myself a chance to recognize it and attack."

This is the work to sync up the top and bottom half that Lovullo spoke about

Arenado's full-season line is still not where it needs to be in order to be an asset to the team on the offense. He's batting .224/.232/.373, .605 OPS for the year. He's walked just once and struck out 16 times through his first 69 plate appearances.

His early season Statcast batted ball data, average exit velocity, hard-hit rate, and barrel rates were all a continuation of the decline seen over the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

It remains to be seen if Arenado can carry forward the mechanics tweaks and continue to produce and bring his averages up over league average. He turned 35 on April 16, and as the saying goes: Father Time is undefeated.

But there is also no doubt about his work ethic and the fact that great players often will have one last bounce-back season in their mid-thirties, staving off decline. Time will tell if the last five games are the beginning of such a run.