Embracing their strength (or lack thereof)

When Mike Trout or Shohei Ohtani hit home runs, they get a samurai helmet on their head as they return to the Angels’ dugout. The San Diego Padres strike a cheesy pose with their victorious Homer heroes and create a dug-out Polaroid.

In Milwaukee, the festivities call for the slugger to run the length of the Brewers’ dugout wearing a cheesehead hat, while the Chicago White Sox commemorate the moment with a mobster jacket and hat.

But when the Cleveland Guardians let a player go deep, all that happens is an old-fashioned cheer from the bench.

“No, we’re not celebrating,” said designated hitter Josh Bell, referring to the elaborate and choreographed rituals practiced by more than a third of Major League Baseball teams. “Not yet. There is no coat. There is not some kind of crown.”

Of course, it takes a minute to notice the lack of props because there are so many minutes — or hours, sometimes days — between home runs. With just 48 this season, Cleveland has batted the fewest in MLB. Last year, during the Guardians’ improbable run to a division title and the postseason, they were ranked 29th out of 30 teams.

“If you don’t hit them, maybe you should celebrate more,” Guardians manager Terry Francona joked.

At the other extreme are the Tampa Bay Rays, who have broken out this season with an unexpected power surge. Tampa Bay, the first 50-win baseball team, has hit 120 home runs through Thursday, the second most in the majors after finishing 25th in 2022.

Cleveland and Tampa Bay are analytically minded teams that follow their own well-executed roster building formulas. Each has been highly successful: Cleveland has won four of the past seven American League Central titles and is one game short of first place this season (albeit in baseball’s weakest division and with a losing record); Tampa Bay is third in regular season wins in the majors since 2008.

Oddly enough, Tampa Bay’s 2023 power surge directly relates to Cleveland and last October’s AL wild card round between the teams. Losing both games of the best-of-three series to the Guardians, the Rays collected just one run in 24 innings. Most excruciating was the second game, when Tampa Bay was knocked out in a 1-0, 15-inning loss. The Rays went 6 for 49 in that game and struckout 20 batters.

“We sat there for four hours and really didn’t have any competitive at bats,” said Chad Mottola, Tampa Bay’s batting coach. “We weren’t even close. They became humble. I became humble.”

He added: “We had the same group returning so it was just one of those things, we have to adapt. We can’t just do the same thing.”

Out of that wreck came a unique exercise this spring in which Mottola asked his hitters to go through several sessions each in the batting cage, without swinging, in which they faced a pitching machine swinging several pitches. The idea was to simply focus on identifying pitches and locations.

As each pitch was thrown, the stationary Tampa Bay batter called out the field type and location. “Fastball, high.” “Curveball, outside.” “Slide, across the board.”

As everyone else did, digital tracking devices relayed field information to the stadium’s scoreboard. This allowed the batters to confirm whether they were right or not.

The Rays never talked about home runs. That wasn’t the point.

“We just wanted the quality of the batting to be better,” said Mottola. “We didn’t expect home runs to go up. We just wanted to make better decisions about pitches, go deeper into the count when the guy doesn’t give you rideable pitches. And yet we are not talking about home runs at all at the moment.”

The trickiest part, Mottola said, was when the batters went back into the cages after the pitch-watching sessions. Batters found their timing was off and their swings needed to be recalibrated, if only slightly. Six or seven Rays batters continued the schedule in the season.

Luke Raley, Tampa Bay’s 28-year-old designated hitter, is one of them. After entering 2023 with only three home runs in 144 at bats, Raley had 12 in 188 at bats through Wednesday, tied for third on the team with Yandy Díaz and Jose Siri. Isaac Paredes had 13. Randy Arozarena, who had a breakout postseason in 2020, led the team with 14.

“It definitely helps to recognize pitches when you get the swing out of it,” said the brawny Raley, whose family owns a Christmas tree farm in northeastern Ohio. He usually watches half a dozen pitches as part of his job before doing pregame batting practice on the field.

Overall, this year’s MLB home run rate of 1.15 per game through Wednesday tied for the seventh-highest ever. The Rays are slugging so heavily that at one point last month, the last three batters in their order had combined for more home runs than the entire Guardians team.

Neither the Rays nor the Guardians spend much on free agents let alone sluggers. Cleveland’s payroll (just under $91 million) ranks 26th in the majors this season, and Tampa Bay (just under $80 million) ranks 27th.

While Tampa Bay left Cleveland last October in search of a new approach, the Guardians, who had won 92 games in the regular season and eventually fell to the Yankees in a division series, continued on a steady path, with an emphasis on on-base percentage, youth and speed.

They are the youngest team in the Majors for the second consecutive season with an average age of 26.4 years. They are also one of the fastest teams in baseball, with three regulars (Amed Rosario, Andrés Gímenez, and Myles Straw) placing in the top 35 majors in Spring Speed.

“I think power has grown,” said Chris Valaika, Cleveland’s hitting coach. “And I think a lot of our guys have the touch and I would prefer that approach right now. Get in touch and we can grow further. And as these guys start their sophomore and third years in the major leagues, they may have some familiarity with the pitchers so they know when to grab those opportunities to watch slug.

He added: “Right now I feel like they’re getting their feet under them. They learn how to become seniors. Over time, I think we’ll see a lot of our guys’ strength numbers go up.

Cleveland’s regular starting outfield of Will Brennan (4), Steven Kwan (2) and Straw (0) is combined for just six dingers, with Straw being the only qualified MLB hitter not to go deep this season. When perennial All-Star third baseman José Ramírez shot three times in one game against Boston earlier this month, it was an eye-opener.

“It was sick,” Straw said. “You felt like he was going to get a fourth too.”

Once upon a time, Cleveland fans were accustomed to power. Albert Belle showed off his biceps in the dugout. Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, David Justice and Roberto Alomar all caused thunder in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But these days the Guardians understand who they are – and who they need to be.

“Kwan will hit home runs in batting practice, work on things we talk about, opportunities to hit the ball, and José will be behind the cage and chirp at him, ‘Hey, play your game. Stay in the middle,’ said Valaika, smiling.

“Of course we all want the snail. But our boys have also embraced our identity.”

However, without power, the margin of error is small.

“Not only did we not hit the ball out of the ballpark before, we didn’t hit for average,” Francona said of his team, which dropped below .500 on April 22 and has been backing down ever since. “That’s not a good combination. We have to get our hits because we take a lot of pride in running the bases and being aggressive.

He added: “I respect how our guys play. But three-run homers are welcome, believe me.”

Perhaps the Guardians, when they come, will see cause for more celebration. Still new to the home run game, the Rays aren’t particularly imaginative in that regard, forming a “Home Run Tunnel” in which they raise their hands above their heads as the bopper runs through.

“I think that’s what makes us different,” Díaz said in Spanish of the team’s low-key celebrations through his interpreter, Manny Navarro. “We don’t need it.”