A confident Lewis Brinson is seeing extended success with the Marlins. What changed?
Lewis Brinson identified the slider running toward the heart of the plate and took a hearty swing. The ball carried through the San Diego air until it landed about 433 feet from home plate and beyond the Petco Park wall in left-center field.
Brinson spent the next 23.3 seconds following that fifth-inning swing against the San Diego Padres rounding the bases, his second time that Wednesday afternoon in a Miami Marlins shutout win. He tapped his chest twice and pointed at the sky as he walked toward home plate.
The past three weeks have been filled with highlights like this for Brinson in what very likely could be his last chance to prove he can stick with his hometown team.
The Fort Lauderdale native’s tenure with the Marlins had been a disappointment to this point, underachieving with each big-league stint since being acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers before the 2018 season as part of the Christian Yelich trade. The Marlins also have a slew of outfielder prospects getting closer to being MLB ready with a chance to jump over Brinson on the depth chart in the not-so-distant future.
It took three-and-a-half years, but Brinson finally feels like he is putting everything together.
Brinson is hitting .348 (23 for 66) with eight doubles, five home runs, 20 RBI and 13 runs scored over a 21-game stretch since his most recent call up on July 19. He has recorded multiple hits in six of his last 11 starts and has reached base at least once in all but three of his 17 starts in that stretch.
It’s a small sample size, but it’s a start.
“I trust myself,” the outfielder said. “I’m confident now, more than I’ve ever been and it’s starting to show on the field.”
‘Go out there and play’
Brinson’s success comes with a change in mindset.
He’s not looking at his batting average anymore. Or his home run total. Or the number of RBI he has produced. Or... any personal stats really.
“If you look at your average and you start looking at your numbers,” Brinson said, “you’re playing for that instead of just playing the game, so I just tried to go out there and just play.”
What he is looking at: Video. Lots of video.
Brinson wants to know every minute detail about the pitcher he is facing every night, every inkling and every tell that might be able to give him an advantage when he steps into the batter’s box.
“A lot of studying,” Brinson said. “I hated studying when I was in school, but this is my job. This is what’s going to ultimately feed my family one day so I had to find different avenues to help my game improve.”
It’s paid off so far in this stretch.
Heading into Saturday, Brinson had the 12th-highest batting average in MLB among players with at least 60 plate appearances since Brinson’s latest callup on July 19. He was also ranks among the top 10 in batting average on balls in play (.439, sixth), slugging (.697, seventh) and weighted on-base average (.462, tied for eighth) in that span.
“Everything was all about getting hits and results and getting to the next level, especially in the minor leagues, but now it’s about going out there and enjoying myself,” Brinson said. “I know I’m ready. I know I’m prepared. I know I did all the work. Now let’s just go out there and play, have a good time with your teammates, try to win every ballgame you can. Whatever happens is supposed to happen.”
The Rockies ordeal
Brinson tries to stay out of the limelight when he can. He hasn’t used Twitter since 2019 and has made his mental health a priority since the offseason before the 2020 season.
But in the middle of this hot stretch, Brinson was making headlines for other reasons, reasons outside of his control and caused by a moment that took place behind him.
Brinson, who is Black, was at the plate in the ninth inning of the Marlins’ series finale against the Colorado Rockies on Sunday when the television broadcasts picked up the audio of a fan behind home plate at Coors Field shouting what sounded like a racial slur.
The Rockies on Monday said in a statement that an investigation concluded that the fan sitting behind home plate was shouting “Dinger,” which is the name of the Rockies’ mascot.
Brinson didn’t hear the fan at first, but was informed postgame what was believed to have been said. He was upset.
“Nobody wants to be called that,” Brinson said. “It’s a disrespectful, disgusting word that belittles my people, Black people, and it’s a disgusting word and nobody wants to hear it.”
Brinson said he watched the video at least 50 times and said he still hears the racial slur.
“It’s not that I want to hear it,” Brinson said. “I never want to hear that word. ... If he was yelling for the mascot, I am sorry for any backlash or any unnecessary attention that he’s getting right now. But that doesn’t [take away from the fact] that this does happen in our game. I don’t know if a lot of people know this, again, personally I’ve never been called that on the baseball field or off the baseball field, but I know a lot of Black players have, and it’s disgusting, and it needs to stop like right now. There’s no place for that in sports. There’s no place for that in life. I just don’t want to have that situation thrown under the rug. Like I said, it does happen.”
Bench coach James Rowson, who is Black, talked with Brinson multiple times during the 24 hours after the incident. CEO Derek Jeter also called to check in on the outfielder.
Rowson shared similar thoughts to Brinson and said he appreciates that a dialogue has been created as a result of the situation.
“In talking to Lew, and just in general to so many Black players and coaches throughout the league and throughout the years that have gone through this, I think you don’t want to lose sight that this is a real thing and it happens,” Rowson said. “I thought it was really good to get people talking about it and saying, ‘Hey, I don’t think that was right,’ because I think if we moved back many years ago, it would have just been kind of swept under the rug, but the fact that we’re talking about what we thought happened is important ... I think silence is the biggest enemy here.”
Brinson does his part in the community, regularly participating in outreach events both with the Marlins and The Players Alliance.
“We have a couple events this offseason planned,” Brinson said, “so just keeping in that direction and keep spreading the wrod in different communities that baseball is cool and baseball is fun.”
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‘You don’t know when it’s going to click’
And Brinson is having fun right now when he’s on the field. He’ll gladly tell you as much. The work is paying off. The results are coming.
And Brinson’s success is happening regardless of what opponents throw at him.
Up to this point in his career, most of Brinson’s damage on offense had come on fastballs (including 11 of his 18 home runs).
But in this hot streak, he is hitting everything.
Take a look at Brinson’s batting average broken down by pitch during this stretch.
▪ Four-seam fastballs: .357 average (5 for 14) with three home runs. His career average was previously .211.
▪ Sinker: .500 average (5 for 10) with a double. His career average was previously .256.
▪ Slider: .261 average (6 for 23) with three doubles and a home run. His career average was previously .142.
▪ Changeup: .600 average (3 for 5) with a double and home run. His career average was previously .207.
▪ Curveball: .200 average (2 for 10) with a double. His career average was previously .077.
▪ Cutter: .667 average (2 for 3) with two doubles. His career average was previously .357.
“You don’t know when it’s going to click,” Rowson said. “You look at the player. You look at their work ethic. You look how they get after it. There’s a lot of things you have to measure — how guys deal with failure, how they’re able to be persistent and come game. This game is a tough game and you’re judged very early for short sample sizes of work. It happens to a lot of players and obviously it happened to Lew, but it’s a credit to him that he has kind of battled through it all. He’s been resilient through it all. He’s never quit on himself. He’s never quit on his ability. He believes in himself. He keeps working. And then all of a sudden, you get success.”
This is a needed run for Brinson after so many other opportunities to this point fell flat.
He struggled out of the gate after being acquired from the Brewers, hitting .199 in 2018 and getting demoted to Triple A a month into the 2019 season. He made strides in 2020 when he platooned in right field, but had spent most of 2021 either in the minor leagues or as a bench player during sporadic stints with the big-league club.
But the hope that everything will come together never waned.
“I feel happy about him, and my team feels happy about Brinson because he has come a long way,” said starting pitcher Sandy Alcantara, who was acquired by the Marlins a couple months before Brinson as part of the Marcell Ozuna trade with the St. Louis Cardinals. “He’s working so hard. I hope he keeps doing what he’s doing right now and keeps fighting.”
This story was originally published August 13, 2021 at 12:03 PM.
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