A month ago, the Red Sox changed their hitters meetings. Their offense has taken off (2024)

TORONTO — A month ago this week, the Red Sox arrived in Tampa for a three-game series having just hosted the Tampa Bay Rays the previous week at Fenway Park.

It was one of the weird quirks of the schedule where they played the same team in seven out of 10 games.

With only a trip to St. Louis sandwiched in between their two series against the Rays, the need for their typical hitters meeting — breaking down the starter and every reliever on the opposing staff in a group setting — didn’t feel necessary as they arrived in Tampa. Instead, they held a shorter group meeting followed by individual player meetings with their 13 hitters to review how the starter might attack each batter.

The Red Sox swept that Rays series and decided to keep the more individualized meeting format for the hitters for a while. Since that change, they’ve gone 16-11 while watching their offense take off in June.

Following a 4-3 comeback win over the Blue Jays on Tuesday night, the Red Sox were tied for the major-league lead in average (.296) in June while leading the majors in hits (164) and on-base percentage (.372). They lead the American League in stolen bases (24) and rank second in slugging percentage (.475) and runs scored (92) for June.

Ceddanne with the go-ahead knock! pic.twitter.com/sTYMmBBJEO

See Also

Baseball Batting Cages - Hochwertige Schlagkäfige für Baseballtraining online kaufenDeutschland's erste Batting Cage Halle für Baseball& Softball in Mühlheim/Main eröffnetBatting Cage Buyer's Guide | Honest BaseballBatting Cage Buyer's Guide - How to Pick the Right Batting Cage

— Red Sox (@RedSox) June 19, 2024

It’s possible their Jekyll-and-Hyde offense has finally found the right formula in the hitting lab and part of the solution has been switching up their meeting format.

“Personally, I like it,” said David Hamilton, who has hit .288 with a .796 OPS and 10 steals in June. “I’m kind of a simple guy, so I don’t really like too much information. It makes me overthink, I guess.”

Jarren Duran, who’s been among the majors’ best hitters this month with a .353 average and 1.005 OPS in 16 games, agreed it’s been helpful.

“When we used to do the team meetings, it was kind of like a generic approach,” Duran said. “I feel like some guys handle different locations better with different pitches so the individual plan has really helped guys be like, ‘Oh, I don’t have to look in this specific area like we talked about. I can look somewhere that works best for me.'”

Each day prior to the game as hitters filter through their batting cage sessions, they have informal check-ins with hitting coach Pete Fatse, assistant hitting coaches Luis Ortiz and Ben Rosenthal and coaching assistant for hitting strategy Joe Cronin. Some players gravitate more toward one coach or another, but everyone is generally involved. The individual sessions take the pressure off the less experienced hitters and allow them to get more detailed feedback.

“It’s more of a one-on-one basis. It’s more structured to the hitter,” manager Alex Cora said. “Sometimes we get caught up on this idea of what we’re going to do against this guy but (Ceddanne) Rafaela is different than Connor (Wong), and Connor is different than (Rob Refsnyder).”

The new format is less structured and shorter than the 30-minute sessions that reviewed every opposing pitcher.

“I think for the most part we’re trying to keep it as informal as possible,” Fatse said. “We have all the materials ready so we can use video or heat maps or whatever, it’s all there. You can go as fast or slow as you need. It’s like when you work with a tutor, you can go as fast as you want. If we need to review something or go over it again or double down, you can do that.”

In years past, the daily group meetings worked better because veteran hitters like Justin Turner or Xander Bogaerts or J.D. Martinez knew the league’s pitchers well and largely already had a game plan formulated. Minor tweaks and reminders were needed, but the collaborative group setting was helpful in that sense.

This year, for a lineup featuring two rookies in Rafaela and Hamilton (and three once Wilyer Abreu returns from the injured list), the traditional hitters meeting format was information overload and after the Tampa series reset, the coaching staff started to realize it needed to make an in-season change.

“I remember as a young guy in those big hitters meetings, I felt like I had to do what the group was talking about,” Duran said. “Because I’m like, ‘Oh, OK that must be the best area to look (for a pitch).’ It’s become more individualized and guys are learning what they can do really well.”

Since he was hired in 2020 as assistant hitting coach, Fatse had worked largely with veteran hitting groups that didn’t need as much instruction but more so tweaks to swings, hands or leg kicks. There were young players on the roster, of course, but not nearly as many as this season. In addition to the three rookies, Enmanuel Valdez, Triston Casas, Vaughn Grissom and even Masataka Yoshida have three years or fewer of MLB service time.

Fatse didn’t want to attribute all of the team’s recent offensive success just to the change in meeting structure, but admitted the format suits a younger team that has led to the coaching staff having a more hands-on approach than in previous years.

“It’s trying to figure out the best way to reach players,” Fatse said. “How do we blend keeping things simple and making things as specific to the player?”

Fatse pointed to the fact that Rafaela and Hamilton, in particular, are finding their rhythm and comfort in the field and feeling more confident in their approach, which leads to more focus at the plate.

“It’s not me telling them what to do, it’s them saying, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’ and when you have that level of empowerment, that’s when guys go out in the field and play and how results happen,” Fatse said. “Whether that’s all tied directly to the meeting structure, maybe. But I do feel like guys are coming with very clear ideas of what they want to do. And then our job is to help steer them, how do we pull that out of you?”

Even if it hasn’t been the sole reason for the team’s better offensive approach, the new meeting structure certainly helped in some regard and is likely to stick around for a while.

(Photo of Ceddanne Rafaela driving in a run Tuesday: Mark Blinch / Getty Images)

Jen McCaffrey is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Boston Red Sox. Prior to joining The Athletic, the Syracuse graduate spent four years as a Red Sox reporter for MassLive.com and three years as a sports reporter for the Cape Cod Times. Follow Jen on Twitter @jcmccaffrey