Prepared for anything, Todd Frazier has no reason to worry about league switch

Jesse Spector

Prepared for anything, Todd Frazier has no reason to worry about league switch image

Todd Frazier hit a career-high 35 home runs last year, and having turned 30 in February, he’s right in the prime of his career. With an offseason trade from the Reds to the White Sox, Frazier has a chance to be a transformative figure for a team whose biggest problem last year was a lack of power — Chicago’s 136 home runs as a team were the fewest in the American League.

There’s just one problem. Or is there?

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After playing his entire career for the team that drafted him with the No. 34 pick in 2007, Frazier is switching leagues. The last time the White Sox brought over a slugger from the Senior Circuit, Adam LaRoche dipped from 26 homers in 2014 to 12 in 2015 and retirement in 2016 after a spat with management over bringing his son to the ballpark.

That’s just anecdotal evidence, though, and there’s plenty of it going the other way, too. Switching leagues in the middle of last season didn’t seem to bother Yoenis Cespedes one bit. For every Pablo Sandoval, there’s an Alfonso Soriano, who had a 40-40 season in his first year after changing leagues.

“It’s still baseball,” Frazier says. “American League, National League, either way. Are they going to pitch you different? They might. But that’s what baseball is. You’ve got to make adjustments.”
 
The challenge of switching leagues is thought to be facing different pitchers than you are accustomed to seeing. To Frazier, there is an easy counterargument.

“Nobody has the upper hand,” Frazier says. “I’m a new guy coming in, and I’ve never seen them before, but they’ve never seen me. Who knows what our tendencies are gonna be?”

In addition to neither pitcher nor hitter gaining particular advantage from lack of familiarity, even the idea of a lack of familiarity is overblown because of interleague play and increased player movement in the game. Frazier has double-digit plate appearances in his career against four current American League Central pitchers: Ian Kennedy, Corey Kluber, Francisco Rodriguez and Edinson Volquez. If there’s unsettling news for Frazier, it’s that he is 8-for-53 (.151) with no homers and 13 strikeouts against that quartet, but that also shows that familiarity also isn’t always the most important thing in the world.

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“It’s all about preparation, and if you put in some time and get to know the players you’re playing against,” White Sox reliever Zach Duke said. “It’s just if you’re willing to go ahead and devote some time to educate yourself about who your opponents are.”

Players have video on all of their opponents, making that preparation easier. The idea of facing unfamiliar pitchers from the other league can be tested by looking at interleague numbers in general. Last year, major league hitters put up a .254/.317/.405 line for the season, with a home run every 33.7 at-bats. In interleague play, hitters put up a .255/.316/.408 line, with a home run every 33.1 at-bats. It’s not a new thing, and even in 1997, the first year of interleague, when lack of familiarity should have been at its peak, the lines were similar: .267/.337/.419 with a homer every 33.5 at-bats for the season, .266/.335/.423 with a homer every 32.4 at-bats in interleague.

“I think that nowadays, making the switch is not as big of a deal as it used to be, starting with the umpires, because we had American League umpires versus National League umpires,” says Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who jumped leagues three times in his 1999-2008 major league playing career. “Learning ballparks is something, and it’s a different style of game. I think for pitchers to know that they’re not going to go as deep in games because of the pinch-hitter, that component, there’s a different style. But there’s a lot of National League teams that play that quote-unquote American League style of baseball. That’s manager-driven. So, each player has his own adjustment.”

Frazier agrees that the ballparks might be the most challenging new factor, but that’s more about defensive work than what he does at the plate. It’s also something that can be handled with preparation.

“We open up in Oakland and there’s a lot of space there, so you’ve got to get on your horse to get those foul balls,” Frazier says. “There’s in-game adjustments, before-game adjustments — you get on the line and see how the ball rolls. It’s different everywhere. It’s little stuff you have to do, might take five minutes, might take 20. You’ve just got to tinker with everything.”

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There is one other piece of the puzzle defensively, but it’s something that could be a challenge for anyone switching teams regardless of what league they are in.

 “More of an adjustment is the alignment-type stuff,” says Chase Headley, who was traded from league to league during the 2014 season. “In San Diego, we were shifting a lot less. Here, we shift a lot more, and sometimes I’m playing shortstop, sometimes I’m playing second, sometimes I’m playing that short right field. So, there’s more of an adjustment learning that and different responsibilities.”

It’s nothing that should be too daunting for someone who puts an emphasis on preparation. That’s why Frazier should be just as successful in Chicago as he was in Cincinnati.

As he puts it, “If you can play, if you’ve been a professional and you understand the game, man, just do a little homework.”

Jesse Spector