In win over Dodgers, Longoria shows that he's more than a mentor
Early in spring training, Evan Longoria found himself surrounded by a hoard of media members. Outside, on the field at Scottsdale Stadium, the Diamondbacks were playing the Giants, his old team. Naturally, that meant reporters wanted to know how he ended up here and what he thought of each team. More than anything, they wanted to know what role his 15 years of experience could play for the Diamondbacks. One reporter mentioned that manager Torey Lovullo had discussed Longoria’s mentorship earlier that morning.
For a second, Longoria engaged. Talked about the Diamondbacks’ youth and the importance of experience. Then, he paused. Bothered, perhaps, that after four minutes, nobody had asked him about swinging a baseball bat or fielding third base.
“My goal, first and foremost, is to be the best player that I can be as a baseball player to try and help this team win,” Longoria said.
Eight games into the season, he’s done just that.
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In the Diamondbacks' first win, he sparked an anemic offense with an eighth-inning, pinch-hit double and later came around on Kyle Lewis’ game-winning home run. Against the Padres on Monday, he hit a go-ahead homer of his own in the ninth inning before the Diamondbacks blew the short-lived lead.
On Friday, he produced his best performance yet.
Thanks to another laboring start from Madison Bumgarner, the Diamondbacks fell behind early — not a comfortable predicament against Clayton Kershaw. Longoria, though, was an early bright spot, drawing a walk and singling in his first two plate appearances.
Then, leading off the sixth inning, he hit a Kershaw slider out to left field to tie the game at three. Two pitches later, Corbin Carroll followed with a homer of his own, setting the course for a 6-3 Diamondbacks win. The final two runs scored in part because Longoria instigated a late-inning rally with an opposite-field double.
In the past two seasons, the Diamondbacks have won their third game against the Dodgers on Sept. 25 and Sept. 14. On Friday, they did so on April 7, moving to 3-3 against Los Angeles and 4-4 overall.
“Today was the type of game that I've been waiting for,” Lovullo said.
Specifically, Lovullo had been looking for long, grinding at-bats that culminated in batters doing damage on hittable pitches. Nobody personified that better than Longoria.
Admittedly, he’s no longer the player who was once one of the best hitters in the American League. From 2017 to 2020, he struggled to a 97 OPS+ as the Rays and Giants trotted him out nearly every single day. But over his final two seasons in San Francisco, Longoria found a role as a starter against left-handed pitching and a reliable bench bat. He had under 300 plate appearances in each of those seasons, but posted a 119 OPS+, turning back the clock half a decade.
That is a valuable role for the Diamondbacks. Last year, their most used backup infielders were Sergio Alcántara, Emmanuel Rivera, Buddy Kennedy and Jake Hager. Combined, those players hit .232 with a .679 OPS in 435 at-bats.
None of which is to say Longoria’s leadership doesn’t carry value.
Earlier this spring, Giants manager Gabe Kapler called Longoria a critical liaison between the staff and players. “He cares a lot about making sure that staff know how the players are doing,” Kapler said. “And some of the areas where staff might be missing the mark and not communicating effectively.”
That has already manifested itself in Arizona. Two days before the start of the season, infield coach Tony Perezchica was working on defensive sets with runners on first and third. Beside the field, Longoria pulled Lovullo aside and gave him changes that could be implemented to make the plays easier for third basemen. With Longoria’s expertise, Lovullo was able to step in and share those insights with the team.
It’s not only those off the field situations in which experience matters. By the time he stepped into the batters’ box for his critical sixth-inning at-bat Friday, Longoria had already faced Kershaw 39 times. Those at-bats hadn’t gone particularly well, but Longoria knew how Kershaw liked to attack him.
“He usually pitches me hard to the corners with the four-seam and then the slider underneath, down and in,” Longoria said.
After struggling against Kershaw for the better part of a decade, Longoria has developed a new approach. “The last probably five times that I've faced him, I'm really just trying to pick a pitch and pick a spot to swing to and hopefully, it's there,” Longoria said.
On Friday, the pitch Longoria picked was a slider down. After a fastball away to start the at-bat, that’s what Kershaw gave him. Longoria, in turn, hit his first-ever home run against the future Hall of Famer.
That at-bat, like most of his appearances thus far, provided a small bit of vindication. Longoria has always believed in himself, even if “when I came here, there was a lot of talk about being that guy, that mentor” rather than his play on the field. But actually turning that confidence into production creates an “acceptance” in the clubhouse, as Longoria puts it, where teammates see him as more than a pseudo-coach.
“It kind of lets my shoulders drop a little bit and be able to relax a little bit more,” he said.
It also helps the Diamondbacks win baseball games.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: In win over Dodgers, Longoria shows that he's more than a mentor
