Rays' Zobrist Puts the Power in Utility

NEW YORK – At 4:45 p.m. Monday, Ben Zobrist checked the lineup card in the Rays clubhouse at Yankee Stadium.

He found his name fifth in the order, playing shortstop.

Cool.

Then, about 45 minutes before game time, Tampa Bay had to scratch Willy Aybar from the lineup, because of a migraine, so Zobrist became the second baseman.

No matter. He didn't even have to change to one of the four other gloves he had in his locker.

"I don't even have a second thought," said Zobrist, who went 1-for-2 with two walks and played flawlessly in the field, even starting a double play.

While Zobrist is hardly the only utility player in the majors, he's the only one who provides serious thump in the lineup.

And the Rays might be buried if it weren't for Zobrist, a 28-year-old switch-hitter.

"He's just picked up the slack where we needed it," teammate Evan Longoria told FanHouse. "You can't put a price on a guy like that."

Tampa Bay has lost second baseman Akinori Iwamura (knee) for the season; shortstop Jason Bartlett (ankle) has been out since May 25 and won't be back for another two weeks; and Longoria, the third baseman, returned to the lineup Monday after missing six starts with a tight hamstring.

As a result, Zobrist has started 15 straight games – eight at second, three at short and three in right field. He has also played third base, center field and left.

"He's a great weapon to have on a team," manager Joe Maddon said. "Wherever we put his name in, and the number after it, position-wise, I am very comfortable."

He should be.

"I always looked at other guys my same size or smaller than me that were hitting bombs and [wondered] why can they do it and not me?"
-- Ben Zobrist Zobrist has a .660 slugging percentage, which would rank second in the AL if he had just a few more plate appearances.

What makes that number, and his 1.076 OPS, even more remarkable is that no one who had played the same six positions as Zobrist in one season has ever slugged better than .584. Or had an OPS above .997.

Tampa Bay got Zobrist from Houston in the July 2006 deal that sent Aubrey Huff to Houston. When Julio Lugo went to the Dodgers a couple of weeks later, Zobrist got a chance to be the regular shortstop. But he batted just .224.

The next year he hit .155 in 31 games over two call-ups, so over the winter the Rays decided to turn him into a utility player. They had traded for Bartlett, moved Iwamura from third to second and had plans for Longoria to take over at third.

Meanwhile, at home in Tennessee, Zobrist went about retooling his swing.

He consulted with Jaime Cevallos, a hitting coach in Nashville, and Daniel Heefner, his brother-in-law and a former teammate at Dallas Baptist University who is now the head coach there.

Zobrist, 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, knew he should be more than just a singles hitter. But in 340 career minor-league games, he had only 19 homers.

"I always felt like [the power] was there," he said. "But I always felt like I knew in the minor leagues I was not getting the most out of my body. I knew I could hit the ball harder than this. I always looked at other guys my same size or smaller than me that were hitting bombs and [wondered] why can they do it and not me?"

So instead of "feeling" for the ball, just trying to make contact, while slapping with a downward swing, Zobrist began using more arm than wrist and swinging at at upward angle.

"I just decided I was going to swing hard, swing for the fences," he said. "Because I had never done that in my career before. "

Sad Maddon: "He probably got a photograph of Stan Musial at some point and decided to set up like Stan the Man."

When Zobrist got to spring training last year, he noticed the difference. And he didn't fight the decision to make him a utility man.

"I was like, I'll do whatever I've got to do to be on the team," he said.

"I think if you pigeonhole yourself as a player and say, 'This is who I am. I am a shortstop,' you're just losing out on opportunities."

Zobrist opened last season on the DL with a broken thumb and then went down and up four times. By September, that power stroke started to show, and Maddon nicknamed him "Zo-rilla."

Since Sept. 25, Zobrist has hit .321 with 15 homers in 159 at-bats, for a .723 slugging percentage and .420 on-base percentage. Over that same span, only Albert Pujols has been more productive with at least as much playing time.

And since Aug. 29, about 3 1/2 months of games, Zobrist has hit four grand slams, most in the majors.

"I'm not taking any kind of credit for knowing he was going to hit like this," Maddon said. "But as he began to hit like this, then he became even more intriguing. Now you have this guy who plays all these positions and is an offensive force at the same time."

Zobrist is carrying five gloves with him: a first baseman's mitt, a middle-infield glove, a glove for third base, an outfield glove and another middle-infield glove he's breaking in.

Sometimes Maddon gives Zobrist a heads-up the day before where he will be playing, sometimes not.

It doesn't matter to Zobrist. If he's in the lineup, he'll work on his fielding at that position during batting practice. If not, he'll move around the diamond for his pregame work.

"I think it's fun," Zobrist said, "to see the game from all different perspectives."

No one sees it from more perspectives than he does.