LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- This was it for Jo Adell. No more trips to Salt Lake City to fix his swing or fluff his statistics against minor-league pitching.
As the start of the 2024 Major League Baseball season approached, this was the year Adell either made the Angels' roster and stayed in the big leagues all season or he would be on his way to another team determined to unlock the mammoth potential that made Adell the 10th overall pick in the 2017 draft.
Earn his spot next to Mike Trout in the Angels' outfield or depart for another franchise that remembered in 2020 Baseball Prospectus ranked Adell the second-best prospect in baseball.
Nearly one-third of the way through the big-league season, we have our answer:
Jo Adell, Ballard High, Class of 2017, is doing the things scouts projected him to do. He is a 6-foot-3-inch, 215-pound slugger who can hit, run, field and throw. And still barely 25 years old.
Monday night in Houston, Adell drilled his ninth home run of the season and fifth in the last 11 games. He also went to the right field wall and made a leaping catch to likely save a home run for the first out in the bottom of the ninth.
His batting average (.252), on-base percentage (.323) and slugging percentage (.529) are all career highs. Adell ranks 17th in the American League in home runs, 35th in RBIs and 10th in stolen bases.
He's earned his place in manager Ron Washington's lineup every day, on track to play more than 140 games, which would be another career high. On his current pace, Adell will finish with 30 home runs, 72 runs batted in and 27 stolen bases.
"He's growing in front of your face," Washington told MLB.com reporter Rhett Bollinger Monday night.
"That was a big-time play (in right field) and that play may have saved the game. He's working hard and it's nice to see the fruits falling off the tree."
Few have questioned the fruit. At Ballard, Adell was a four-year phenom, punishing home runs in every direction. By his junior season, Adell was already committed to the University of Louisville. The intelligent choice was to throw him four pitches outside the strike zone instead of risk watching Adell hit one more than 400 feet with his frisky aluminum bat.
Adell never got to U of L. In 2017, the Angels selected him 10th, signing Adell to a deal that included a $4.37 million bonus. He looked like the perfect fit for an outfield that would include most valuable players like Trout and Shohei Ohtani.
Adell made the necessary minor league stops in Orem (Utah), Mobile (Alabama), Burlington (Iowa), and Salt Lake City (Utah) before making his major league debut Aug. 4, 2020 (the COVID-19 season) in Seattle. He was 21.
Adell earned at least 124 big-league at bats in his first three seasons. But last season, his career with the Angels stalled.
He played 17 games with Los Angeles and 74 in Class AAA in Salt Lake City. Even with the Angels rebuilding, Adell no longer looked like a piece of the future.
In 2024 the Angels could not return Adell to the minor leagues without exposing him to a process called waivers. The other 29 big-league teams would have an opportunity to claim Adell or work out a trade.
When the Angels signed veteran Aaron Hicks to a free agent contract prior to spring training, Adell seemed like a prime candidate to become a Miami Marlin or a Pittsburgh Pirate.
Wrong.
Angels' management kept Adell on the team's 26-player roster and Washington, the team's first-year manager, trusted him to play right field, hitting sixth or seventh in the Angels lineup.
The key improvement Adell has made has not been his batting average or home run rate. It's been his strike out rate.
Prior to this season, Adell was striking out in more than 35% of his big-league plate appearances. This season he cut that number to 24.4%. His walk rate is also a career high 7.6%.
The guys at Fair Territory, a popular baseball podcast, noticed and featured Adell as a guest on Monday. Cameron Maybin asked Adell to explain his improved numbers.
"I think the biggest thing is that I've always been a pretty good opposite field hitter," Adell said. "I've always been able to hit the ball to right center with power. That's kind of been a strength of mine.
"But the issue that I ran in to, especially when I got to the big leagues, right away, my sights were too far out over (the plate).
"So when I started looking too far out over on the plate, I was susceptible to cutters away and sliders away. That's where most of my swing-and-miss came from, pitches that were just too far outside.
"When I went back and looked at the numbers, I was like, 'Wow, even those pitches that were like a ball or two out, I'm not handling them as well as well as (a pitch) that is maybe a ball or two inside.
"So going back and being able to see what you actually hit well versus what you think you do, it kind of helps you change your thought process at the plate.
"For me, that was the big deal."
A big deal that is making Adell look like a big deal as a major-league baseball player again.
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