Jo Adell’s Glove Is Headed For Cooperstown As He Evolves Into A Complete Player
· Yahoo Sports
If you’re a Los Angeles fan, you probably know the assessment that followed outfielder Jo Adell around during the offseason: Excellent power hitter, strikes out a lot, defensive liability in the outfield.
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Doesn’t sound quite right now, does it? The other part of that defensive assessment was that Adell could improve from his poor rating as a center fielder if he was moved permanently to a corner outfielder spot.
Talk about prescience. The next time you see Jo Adell wearing that big black glove, keep in mind that it’s now headed to the Hall of Fame after Adell’s historical defensive performance against the Seattle Mariners last Saturday night.
The glove is a black Wilson model, and Adell will use it for the rest of the season. After that he’s graciously agreed to donate it to the Hall of Fame, according to a piece written by Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com.
The glove has already been authenticated for its journey, and Adell said he’s done countless media interviews and appeared on MLB Network since he robbed Cal Raleigh, Josh Naylor and J.P. Crawford of home runs.
"Like some weird déjà vu, like I'm reliving the same play twice," Adell said this week when he described the experience on the latest edition of the 6-1-1 podcast, which is hosted by former Phillies greats Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard, in a piece written by Jason Foster of MLB.com. "So I'm like, 'What is going on?'"
Howard’s reaction in particular mirrored that of most of us.
"You did him the dirtiest of all three," Howard said about Crawford's reaction. "His face was priceless."
There’s more to Jo Adell than just a one-night defensive stand, though. Many fans know about his home runs, as Adell hit 37 last year, and for a while he was threatening to get to 40. But he’s cut his strikeout rate down from 28.7 percent to 20 percent in the early going, albeit with a small sample size of just 50 at bats so far.
On Wednesday against the Atlanta Braves, Adell also showed off some signs of his growing maturity as a hitter. He’s known for uncorking big swings that lead to strikeouts, but in that game he had three singles as he simply took the hits that were available.
His improvement as a corner outfielder is intriguing, too, and Adell revealed a preference that factors into it.
"I don't care how hard it's hit," he said of his ability to use the wall. "I gotta get back there because I just never know if I'm gonna have a chance."