Max Kepler is making a good impression with the Phillies: ‘It sure is fun to play here’
Healthy again, Kepler has carried his spring power stroke into the season and he “fits right in” to his new clubhouse.
Max Kepler jogged out for the top of the ninth inning on Monday to an ovation from the fans behind the left-field wall. He gave them a little wave.
They continued to cheer, showing appreciation for the home run Kepler hit the inning before — his first as a Phillie — so he acknowledged them again with a salute.
Standing in the Phillies clubhouse afterward, Kepler said it was one of the few moments he could recall clearly from the 6-1 home-opening win over the Rockies.
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“It’s all kind of a blur to me right now,” he said. “So I’m going to decompress, go home, check it out on the highlights. And I think then I’ll really appreciate what went down today, but it was an amazing day overall for the team. It sure is fun to play here.”
The home run capped a 3-for-4 day for Kepler, who signed a one-year deal with the Phillies this winter after spending the first decade of his major league career in Minnesota.
He introduced himself to the fans at Citizens Bank Park with a double in his first plate appearance. With an 109.3 mph exit velocity, it was the hardest-hit ball all day. Kepler then singled in the seventh inning and teed off in a back-to-back homer barrage with Nick Castellanos in the eighth.
“I wanted to make a good impression with my team, obviously with the fans, with the whole organization,” Kepler said. “So when I was in the game, sometimes you just kind of black out, and you just let your ability take over. And there’s also plenty of times where your mind is tinkering, and that speeds up the game and makes things harder. But [Monday], my mind was at peace for whatever reason, and I’m going to keep trying to [home] in on that focus.”
Even before his performance on Monday, though, Kepler already had made a good impression on his teammates.
“He fits right in,” said Kyle Schwarber. “He’s a guy that’s relaxed. He’s talking to everyone; he’s having a good time. And that’s what this is about here. We want to make it a welcoming clubhouse, welcoming group, and at the end of the day, we’re here to win baseball games. And he’s all about that.”
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When Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski signed Kepler to be the Phillies’ everyday left fielder, the move seemed a little puzzling. Kepler was coming off a down year offensively because of hip and knee injuries, he was another left-handed bat joining an already lefty-heavy lineup, and he had never played left field in the major leagues.
But the move is now starting to look prescient — and not just because one of the free-agent left fielders the Phillies did not sign, new Brave Jurickson Profar, was just suspended for 80 games for violating MLB’s performance-enhancing drug policy.
The power Kepler displayed on Monday wasn’t a fluke and had been on display all spring. Kepler hit .375 over 17 spring games, with a 61.3% hard-hit rate.
“You saw it in spring training, with him hitting rockets all over the place,” Schwarber said. “These last couple games where you feel like he swings, and that thing’s just going to come off hot. So he’s doing such a great job. He’s staying within the zone, staying within himself, and when he’s staying within himself right there, you see what he’s able to do.”
Kepler is healthy again, first of all. But he also attributes part of his hot streak to his relationship with Phillies hitting coach Kevin Long. They worked together over the winter and early in spring on a few small adjustments to Kepler’s batting stance, such as getting closer to the plate and a slight alteration to the angle of his bat.
But after those early mechanics discussions, Long has let Kepler loose to do his thing. Kepler describes himself as a “feel guy” at the plate, something Long understands, and so he doesn’t overwhelm Kepler with tweaks.
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“It’s just a feeling of him trusting what we’re doing and trusting what I’m doing in the cage,” Kepler said. “Which is really motivating to have someone behind you that has been in this game for what, 20, 25 years now, to believe in their players.
“For him to have that belief in me is, I think, the biggest part. The mechanics aside, it’s just nice to have someone that believes in you.”