SCOTTSDALE — Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Alek Thomas is healthy at spring training and looking to get back to where he started 2024 at the plate.
Four games into last season, coming off a postseason in which he clobbered four home runs, Thomas strained his hamstring.
This started an unfortunate chain of events for the 24-year-old, which pushed his return to July. Having never been injured before, suffering a setback, shutting down, receiving a PRP injection and slowly ramping back up were particularly frustrating.
When Thomas got back, he was out of rhythm offensively, more focused on not going through another setback.
“During the season, I felt like I was only worried about one thing, just being able to go out on the field. I felt like I didn’t really focus in on the hitting or even fielding,” Thomas said on Thursday. “My main focus was to be strong enough to go out there and play.
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“So just to have that mindset that now I can focus on what I need to focus on, try to be the best version of myself in all facets.”
Jake McCarthy significantly outplayed him during the summer and won the everyday center field job, pushing Thomas to Triple-A Reno. Back in the minors, Thomas suffered an oblique injury, quashing any chance to get back up quickly and meaningfully help the club fight for postseason positioning.
Thomas called the season more mentally challenging than physically.
He is back to 100% as camp gets going with full squad workouts on Monday, and with that weight off his shoulders he is looking to build back his confidence in the batter’s box.
“I would like for my confidence to be where it needs to be,” Thomas said. “I’ve been playing professionally for seven years now, something like that. And the difference between my mentality in Triple-A and the big leagues is different. So I think I just want to have the same mentality. … I think once I figure out how to have that confidence in myself, I think that’s when good things happen.”
Manager Torey Lovullo connected with Thomas midway through the offseason.
“Just about flushing the year and being himself and remembering when he’s healthy — that’s the most important thing — that he’s very dynamic and able to do things on the baseball field not a lot of people can do,” Lovullo explained.
What has Alek Thomas worked on this offseason
Diamondbacks hitting coach Joe Mather told Arizona Sports that Thomas has put in work this winter on controlling his movements toward the pitcher.
Those pre-swing adjustments include a slightly lower leg kick along with focusing on a consistent stride and direction with his body. Thomas said he came to the facility once every week to check in while going through his offseason program.
“His routine, his workouts, all of it was designed to help his move at the plate,” Mather said. “The season is what it is. … The work he put in looks great, and it feels like he should be able to roll right into the camp and get back to where he was.”
It can be hard to find that feel again after losing it, Mather explained, which wasn’t only a Thomas issue last year.
Tangibly at the plate, Thomas hit ground balls at a 60% rate, which is extremely high compared to the league average of 44%.
His adjustment isn’t to stress lifting the baseball, but clean his mechanics to hit hard line drives and find that gap-to-gap power. Thomas hit the ball pretty hard last year (91.2 mph exit velocity), but getting it up off the ground will open more holes.
“Trying to hit line drives and stay through the ball,” Thomas explained. “When you take good swings and you’re in a good position to hit, I don’t think ground balls will happen. … When I’m in the cage, I’m not worried about hitting ground balls. I’m worried about hitting the back of the net.”
What will the Diamondbacks do in center field?
The Diamondbacks have a deep outfield group with Thomas, McCarthy, Corbin Carroll, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Randal Grichuk.
There’s an alignment the Diamondbacks will have to figure out this spring, particularly in center field.
General manager Mike Hazen mentioned the vision is always to run out an elite defensive outfield, and Thomas was the best defender in center field for the club when healthy in 2022 and 2023. McCarthy and Carroll have also been plus outfielders, and Gurriel has held his own in left, as well.
Lovullo was not interested in trying to map out his outfield this early in camp. Similar to the rotation, having too much depth is a luxury that will draw tough decisions down the road, while for now getting going and staying healthy are priorities.
“We have a long way to go. We have long spring training to go,” Hazen said. “There’s guys we want to see, obviously, from Alek’s standpoint, come back healthy, be in a good spot, get back to where he was, especially defensively.”
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