Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News spoke with Amed Rosario this week about his offseason in which he revealed that he’s been working on improving his defense in Tampa.
Specifically, Rosario has been using a new fielding program with instructor Perry Hill, who has also been the Seattle Mariners’ first base coach since the start of last season.
According to Thosar, other infielders such as Luis Castillo and Orlando Cabrera credit their success on defense to Hill.
Rosario definitely could learn something from Hill, although he might’ve found out how to at least be league average at shortstop on his own last season.
“I have to prepare the same way that I was in the second half of the season,” Rosario said. “Just go out there, have fun, put in the work and really just put the numbers up and prove it.”
The new Statcast metric, infield outs above average, has Rosario listed as -5 OAA in 2019, but his trajectory went in the positive direction as the season wore on.
His worst month came in April as he had -6 OAA, but the 24-year-old had +1 and +2 OAA in the months of August and September.
“The first half of the season was really tough, but I never gave up. I never gave in,” Rosario added. “My mindset stayed put — I was positive the entire time and eventually when you do put in the work and trust the work, you’ll get the results.”
Well, it certainly sounds like he’s putting in the work this offseason that could help him be successful at the position in 2020 and beyond.
Offensively, he enjoyed the best season of his career in 2019 as he registered a .287/.323/.432 slash line, 15 home runs, and 72 RBI to give himself a 100 wRC+ and 2.7 fWAR.
