Red-Hot Jason Heyward Coming Alive at Just the Right Time

If the last time you gave Jason Heyward a good look was in April, you saw a player mired in a horrible slump and, as such, failing to justify a blockbuster offseason trade.

If so, you might want to look again.

Heyward went into the St. Louis Cardinals' Wednesday evening tilt at the Miami Marlins hot, having homered in two straight games and three of his last five. He then proceeded to stay hot, blasting a three-run homer to pace the Cardinals to a 6-1 win, their league-leading 47th on the season.

Heyward's blast came in the seventh inning off Marlins right-hander Mat Latos, on a high fastball that apparently wasn't fast enough. It can be seen here in GIF form:

Heyward's home run binge has pushed his season total to nine, putting him just two shy of the 11 homers he hit for the Atlanta Braves last season. He's also batting .278 with a .766 OPS and eight steals.

So pictured above is a guy who's come a loooooong way since April.

Heyward's April was indeed ugly, as the 25-year-old right fielder hit just .217 with a .611 OPS and two home runs. What made that look even worse was how Shelby Miller, the young right-hander the Cardinals traded to get Heyward, finished April with a 2.17 ERA.

Miller, of course, has only gotten better since then. But so has Heyward. He OPS'd .783 in May and entered Wednesday OPS'ing .903 in June. And as Cardinals communications coordinator Chris Tunno noted, he's been standing out in the lineup:

"

Jason Heyward leads the Cardinals in triple crown stats for the month of June (.348 BA, 4 HR, 13 RBI). HR are tied with Grichuk.

— Chris Tunno (@TunesSTL) June 25, 2015"

And for St. Louis, all this couldn't be coming at a better time.

The Cardinals didn't have much trouble with offense in April and May, but June has been a different story. They entered Wednesday scoring just 3.7 runs per game for the month.

It hasn't helped that steady-as-they-come and big-as-a-darn-house left fielder Matt Holliday has been out with a leg injury since early June. Matt Adams has also been out hurt for a while. And as FanGraphs can vouch, guys like Matt Carpenter and Kolten Wong have pulled anti-Heywards and slowed after strong starts.

Amid all this, Heyward's offensive production has been a lifeline. 

"He's been kind of our catalyst right now driving in runs and being that guy to kind of get going for us," Wong said after Wednesday's win, per Luke Thompson of Fox Sports Midwest.

That he has been, and at first it looks like a case of Heyward simply living up to his track record. He's never really been a great hitter, but he came to St. Louis as a good hitter with a career .262 average and .781 OPS.

However, it also appears there's more to Heyward's turnaround than him just remembering who he is.

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

Why was Heyward struggling early in the season? Go searching for answers, and a narrative will begin to emerge about how he was simply trying too hard.

Here's Bernie Miklasz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch with an insider perspective:

"After an uneasy transition to a new team, Heyward seems to be settling in. Perhaps he is more relaxed now, and not feeling as much pressure to make a positive impression on his team and fans. To be at your best, it's important to have comfort and confidence."

And via Rick Hummel of the Post-Dispatch, here's even more of an insider perspective from Cardinals skipper Mike Matheny: "He was trying to (1) make an impression on his new team and (2) still trying to figure out the kind of hitter he wants to be...There are a lot of things going on all at once, and it looks to me like he got rid of some of the clutter."

Now, this isn't the first time you've heard sentiments like these, nor will it be the last. Whenever a player awakens from a slumber, the "he was trying too much" card tends to get played.

But in Heyward's case, it actually looks like there's something to all this.

If we use FanGraphs to dig into Heyward's approach, we get a picture of a guy who's been working better at-bats as the season has moved along:

Month	Outside-Zone Swing%	In-Zone Swing%	Contact%	K%
April	31.2	59.6	82.7	19.3
May	29.3	63.9	83.6	18.6
June	26.1	62.8	83.2	15.9

At the beginning of the year, Heyward was wild at the plate. He was swinging at a high rate of pitches outside the zone and not making enough contact to justify that. But in May and June, you can see the improvement. Heyward has transferred his cuts from outside the zone to inside the zone and seen his contact and strikeout rates benefit.

So the notion that Heyward has calmed down and found himself at the plate is indeed reflected in the data. And in listening to the man himself, it doesn't sound like this is lost on him.

"Good timing right now and not missing so many pitches in the zone," Heyward said Wednesday, per Thompson. "You're not going to be perfect every time. You're not going to have a perfect swing, but (I'm) just trying to give myself a chance more times than not."

Heyward is indeed doing a better job of giving himself a chance to do damage, and the production he's racked up since April is a fine enough testament to the damage he's done. 

But because more testaments never hurt, we can see from Heyward's spray charts that said damage is no fluke. Courtesy of MLB Farm, this is what he was doing in April:

Image courtesy of MLBFarm.com.

There's just not a lot to see here. Heyward was having a hard enough time hitting the ball out of the infield, much less driving it on the occasions when he did.

Compare that to what he's done since April:

Image courtesy of MLBFarm.com.

That's more like it. Heyward has been driving the ball plenty, not to mention doing a better job of using the whole field.

Mind you, it's unlikely that Heyward will keep this up for the rest of the season.

He's been a great hitter over the last two months, and that means he's playing above his track record as a merely good hitter. Even if he doesn't lose the focus he's established over the last two months, he could be done in by the holes in his swing that ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick and others have noted have always been there.

But then, maybe Heyward will surprise us. He certainly has incentive.

Beyond needing to carry a Cardinals offense that's operating at less than full capacity, Heyward is a free-agent-to-be who also has his financial future to think about. If he carries on like this, that's going to be a very, very bright future. 

Last November, Dave Cameron of FanGraphs posited that the $200 million mark may be a starting point in Heyward's next round of negotiations. That comes off as ludicrous at first, but then you realize there aren't many right fielders who can play Heyward's level of defense—it's still really good, by the way—while also providing above-average hitting and baserunning. Then there's the fact Heyward is only 25, making him extremely young for a free-agent-to-be.

So odds are Heyward was already due a huge payday. Now he's looking at the possibility of heading into free agency off an especially strong offensive season, which would raise his stakes even higher.

All the more reason for him to keep it going. And if you tuned him out in April, all the more reason to tune back in.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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