LOS ANGELES — Alek Thomas’ road back to the big leagues went from Arizona to Los Angeles with a side trip to Atlanta.
The Arizona Diamondbacks’ primary center fielder for four seasons, the 26-year-old Thomas lost his job early this season – “ultimately I got dumped from the team,” he summarized.
Prospect Ryan Waldschmidt was promoted in May and the Diamondbacks designated Thomas for assignment. The Dodgers acquired him in a trade for Jose Requena, a 17-year-old outfielder making his pro debut in the Dominican Summer League this year.
Thomas’ first stop in the Dodgers’ organization was the Camelback Ranch training complex, where he and the Dodgers’ player development staff “did a deep dive into everything about my game,” Thomas said. Valued for his defensive ability, Thomas had never unlocked much offensively in his time with the Diamondbacks, batting .230 with a .634 OPS in the majors.
Looking for more, the Dodgers asked Thomas if he was willing to travel to Atlanta, site of Maven Baseball Lab, for a biomechanical assessment and breakdown of his swing.
“I was there for a week. It was all good stuff,” Thomas said.
“There were some things they saw that needed to be changed and we fixed them. But there are some things that I needed to get better at that we couldn’t just fix overnight. It needs to be adjusted in the offseason. But it’s a good place to start.”
If Thomas emerges from this process as a better player, he would join the lineage of Dodgers’ reclamation successes highlighted by Max Muncy and Chris Taylor.
“Right when they got me, they asked me if I was comfortable going to Atlanta and working on my swing,” Thomas said. “I said, ‘Of course. I’ll do whatever.’”
After three games with the Dodgers’ team in the Arizona Complex League, Thomas joined Triple-A Oklahoma City. The results have been impressive. In 55 games with OKC, Thomas hit .296 with 27 extra-base hits (17 doubles, three triples and seven home runs) and an .855 OPS.
He calls that time in OKC the “marinating” process for the changes he made.
“The reset was getting back to standing a little more upright, lowering the hands a little bit, having a flow and trusting my ability. Not as high of a leg kick, but it’s still there. I went back to it a little bit,” Thomas said. “There’s some minor things, but overall it feels like a mixture of what I used to do in the past and what I did this offseason.”
Thomas’ time marinating ended Friday night when Dodgers center fielder Andy Pages took a 100-mph fastball from Pirates right-hander Bubba Chandler to the back of his left hand. Pages suffered a fracture and will miss four to five weeks.
The left-handed Thomas will start against right-handed pitching, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, with Tommy Edman or Kiké Hernandez likely to start against left-handers.
“Of course, I want to be here and be on the team and help the team win games. But for me, I looked at it as an opportunity to fix something that will help me in the future,” Thomas said of his time in Triple-A. “So I’m really glad that I had that time in Triple-A to get back to my normal self and get back to playing my game.”