Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s slump got a real answer this week, and Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins wasn't shy about it.
The numbers back up why the question needed asking. Guerrero is hitting .260 with just four home runs across 87 games this season.
Four homers. From a hitter who's built a career on doing exactly that kind of damage at the plate.
Popkins pointed to something mechanical, not mental, when he broke it down.
"He's gotten a little jumpy and he's a little more open than he typically has been," Popkins said.
That's a specific, fixable diagnosis. A hitter drifting open in his stance loses the extension that turns line drives into the kind of shots Guerrero used to hit routinely.
His recent stretch backs that up too. He's batting .182 over his last 10 games and .188 across his last five, both well below his season line.
Popkins praises how Guerrero has handled a brutal year
Popkins didn't just talk mechanics. He made a point of addressing how Guerrero has carried himself through a season that hasn't gone the way anyone expected.
"I have a profound respect for Vladdy, how he's handled this and how he's carried himself," Popkins said.
That's not a small thing to say about a player getting paid to be the middle of this lineup. A slump this deep tests plenty of hitters in ways that show up off the field, not just on it.
An open stance might sound minor, but for a hitter like Guerrero it's the difference between driving a ball into the gap and rolling over weakly to short.
Toronto sits at 42-49 and third in the American League East, and getting Guerrero locked back in matters more than almost anything else on this roster.
Does a mechanical tweak actually fix a slump like this, or is something deeper going on with a hitter who's fallen this far off his career norms?
The Blue Jays need an answer soon. They're in the finale of a series in San Francisco tonight, and a healthy version of Guerrero changes what this lineup can do the rest of the summer.
Do you believe Popkins' mechanical explanation fully accounts for Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s slump?
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