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Kevin Newman Prioritizing Defensive Development As He Gets Closer to Pittsburgh

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BRADENTON, Fla. – Kevin Newman made the jump to Altoona in the second half of the 2016 season, which means he’s not exactly knocking at the door in the majors. But Newman has the chance to move quickly through the upper levels, making it possible to arrive by the middle of the 2017 season, at the earliest, or sometime during 2018 being most likely.

That’s not to say that Newman has nothing to work on, and is just biding his time in the minors until a certain date rolls around. While he is advanced in his development, which allowed him to make the jump to Double-A in his first full professional season, he does have a few things to iron out along the way, mostly with his defense at shortstop. A lot of that work began last year.

Newman didn’t have any issues hitting in Bradenton, but stayed at the level until June so that he could work on a few things defensively. He worked on getting down in a set position earlier, and worked on moving to his left and right quicker. When he got to Altoona, he continued his work with Joey Cora, who was the manager in Altoona last year, and will be the infield coach in Pittsburgh in 2017.

“We worked on really exploding on first step, and getting side to side to balls that I didn’t previously get to,” Newman said. “We made a lot of progress with that up there.”

Newman started taking grounders on January 1st this year, and will be continuing the work he started last year. The Pirates had him watching videos of Jordy Mercer during the 2016 season, using the current shortstop as a guide for the development of the future shortstop.

“Any Major League shortstop you can always learn from. They are there for a reason. They’re great at what they do,” Newman said. “So last year when I would look at some video on [Mercer], it kind of gave me a mental state that he’s a big league shortstop. What he does got him there. It’s nice to see something like that, and try to imitate it, and work on it.”

One of the biggest things that led to Mercer becoming an everyday shortstop was his improvement with routes. He worked with Clint Barmes on finding the best routes to each ball, making his fielding efficient, and making up for a lack of speed. Newman has a bit more speed than Mercer, but will still need similar work. That said, the route improvements will stem from the first step work that he focused on last year.

“I would say it stems more from the first step,” Newman said of the routes. “Really getting distance on that first step, not cutting myself off. I think the routes kind of come from that. That’s the biggest thing [I’m] working on right now and throughout the offseason. My routes aren’t perfect. Everyone can get better at everything. So I’ll always continue to work on it.”

Newman said that his defensive work is the bigger focus than his offensive work. But that doesn’t mean the offense hasn’t received work. When Newman entered Spring Training last year, he had a wide stance. This allowed him to hit for average, but didn’t produce a lot of power. He narrowed the stance at the start of the year, and continued adjusting throughout the season, eventually adding a step in his swing. You can see the difference when looking at his Baseball America draft video, and the video I took last week.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BPK504kAfPn/?taken-by=piratesprospects

Newman used to have his front foot at the front of the plate, or ahead of the plate. Now, he starts it toward the back of the plate, and steps up to the front of the plate during the process of his swing.

“I started last Spring Training, and I really liked it,” Newman said. “Kept working on it, and stuck with it. I got really comfortable with it. I just started hitting January 1st, so right now it’s not perfect. Still working on it, but I feel a lot more comfortable. It feels like the way I hit now, rather than something I have to try to do.”

Newman isn’t a guy who is going to hit for home runs one day, and he doesn’t try to do that. The new stance will give him some more power, but it’s still in line with his normal game.

“I wouldn’t say it would add home runs,” Newman said of the stance. “I would say it would add more gap shots. Balls in the gap, and doubles and triples. That doesn’t change my swing or my mentality at all. With a narrower stance, a little more of that might come.”

Newman’s offense is going to drive his value. He’s a guy who projects to get on base a lot due to a good approach, a quick and compact swing, and the ability to drive the ball up the middle and to the gaps. He also has the speed to turn some singles into doubles, and doubles into triples. His defense looks good enough that he could stick at the shortstop position and not be a liability. But if he continues improving that part of his game, he could end up providing some positive defensive value to go with his bat, which would make him a nice upgrade over Jordy Mercer when he eventually takes over the shortstop job in Pittsburgh.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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