LAKELAND, Fla. — At some point before the Braves signed Adam Duvall, president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos called Jarred Kelenic – the outfielder he acquired over the offseason – into a meeting with manager Brian Snitker. There, Anthopoulos and Snitker shared the news: The Braves were bringing in another outfielder, and Kelenic would platoon with him.
“The guy respected me enough to pull me in there and say, ‘Hey, here’s what we got,’” Kelenic said of Anthopoulos. “And I can only appreciate that. I can only appreciate honesty, and that’s all that they’ve been. I have no complaints whatsoever.”
This goes with something Kelenic has noticed about the Braves: Communication is paramount in this organization. Anthopoulos and Snitker, who prioritize transparency, wanted Kelenic to hear about Duvall from them first.
Originally, the Braves planned to play Kelenic in left field every day. They felt the 24-year-old, a former top prospect searching to live up to that potential, would benefit from the daily workload. Now, Duvall will start in left field against left-handed starters.
Kelenic has no problems with the Braves signing Duvall for his third stint with the club.
“At the end of the day, I think the message is crystal clear that we’re about hoisting the trophy up at the end of the year,” Kelenic said. “Adam is a guy that’s gonna make our team better. I don’t have an opinion or anything about it. I think it’s great. I want to win. I know everybody here wants to win, and he’s a guy that’s gonna help us win, so it makes total sense.”
‘Set the ego aside, and let’s win’
On Thursday, Anthopoulos said Kelenic’s rough spring – if you can read anything into spring statistics (he’s 3-for-37 through Thursday’s game in Lakeland) – had nothing to do with adding Duvall. The Braves saw an opportunity and jumped at it.
“The way, so far, that I’ve looked at my spring – you can’t read into the stats much,” Kelenic said. “I’ve had really, really good springs, and then I’ve had springs where I haven’t done well. My thing is: I’ve been hitting the ball well; I’m not really worried about my results. But the best thing that they could’ve ever done was just communicate with me before that even all came out, and I respect them for it. I don’t have too much thought about it. Adam’s gonna help us come in and win games, and at the end of the day, that’s what’s most important. It’s about the team. Set the ego aside, and let’s win.”
During Thursday’s meeting, Snitker told Kelenic this: “If Adam Duvall would’ve been on this team, we still would’ve traded for you and wanted you.” The Braves’ plans changed because they formulated them when Duvall wasn’t part of their club.
You cannot debate this: Duvall makes the Braves better. He can play all three outfield positions and, if necessary, first base. Snitker also can choose to make Duvall the designated hitter if needed. And the left-handed hitting Kelenic still will play a ton because there are more righties than lefties on the mound.
To be clear: Kelenic cares about winning.
“I think it’s just being aware to just set your ego aside,” he said. “What’s most important is winning. In a couple weeks, we’re gonna go to war, and we’re gonna lose some battles, but at the end of the day, we want to win the war. I’ve always felt that way. We’re so talented from top to bottom. Like I keep saying, Adam’s a guy that makes us better, him being here. I’ve heard nothing but good things about him in the clubhouse, and so I’m excited to meet him, I’m excited to learn from him – him being an older guy, he’s been around. I think it’s a good thing.”
‘The best thing that they’ve done for me is just keep being positive with me’
When Kelenic came to the Braves from Seattle, a part of him doubted whether he would ever be the player he always thought he could be.
“Oh yeah,” Kelenic said when asked about that. “Who wouldn’t?”
After all, Kelenic, a former top prospect, has struggled to gain his footing. He never envisioned struggling to begin his big-league career. In the minors, he seemed destined for stardom.
It hasn’t happened yet – though that doesn’t mean it never will.
“You go through all kinds of stuff,” Kelenic said. “And for me, when you struggle and you don’t see results, like anybody, it’s easy for people to doubt themselves. Or when you hear things or when you read things, it’s easy to doubt yourself. The best thing here is they have done everything they possibly could’ve to remove all of that doubt, and with the team that I have on my personal side to remove that doubt, and giving me confidence by putting me out here every single day. That manager over there has been crystal clear with what he thinks about me, and I couldn’t appreciate that more.”
As he said that, Kelenic gestured toward Snitker. The Braves clearly still believe in Kelenic. They have no choice. But they’ve already started to help him.
Since they met, Kelenic and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer have had, in Seitzer’s words, “a couple really good, long talks.” Before working on Kelenic’s swing, Seitzer wanted to know more about the outfielder.
“You have to get to know them and build a relationship, build some trust, see what they’re thinking, how they feel, what they’ve been through,” Seitzer said. “When you get guys who have gone through some hard times, you want to find out why and then you start addressing those things. He’s said many times that he loves how positive I am, and I’m always trying to build these guys up. And then as time goes, you start making adjustments to the swing. But you can’t do that until the relationship and the trust are established. This kid’s loaded with talent. If you watch his minor-league video of who he was, it looks more like what it does right now.”
Kelenic and the Braves already have started addressing the details of his swing, like his hand placement. But this, for Kelenic, might be more important: He’s beginning to regain his confidence.
“The best thing that they’ve done for me is just keep being positive with me and reminding me the player that I am, and reassuring me that who I am is enough and more than enough to play this game, and be really good,” he said. “And they’re putting me out there every day, and that’s all you can ask. I just want to play baseball and, in any way that I can, help this team win, and that’s what I’m gonna do.”
‘It’s truly started to feel like myself again’
Seitzer has learned Kelenic is a really hard worker. He cares immensely. For the first couple weeks of spring games, whenever Kelenic wasn’t in the lineup, he was on the back fields getting six or seven at-bats per day. He continued to look better.
Seitzer said Kelenic is “coming along real quick.” The hitting coach’s message to Kelenic: “You just need to go be who you were, and not who you expect to be right now. Just get back to having fun playing baseball, let the athleticism play out.”
And that’s what Kelenic is doing.
The Braves’ confidence in him has allowed him to be more relaxed and comfortable. It doesn’t mean that he’s complacent, but it could help him settle in as opening day approaches. Kelenic said the Braves have allowed him to be himself.
“The last week, week and a half, it’s truly started to feel like myself again on a baseball field, and it’s been honestly fun,” Kelenic said. “The games are going by a lot quicker when I’m feeling that way.”
The Braves, after all, have no doubts about Kelenic’s talent. They’re just hoping to let it shine.
“We looked at high school showcase video of his swing, and it was as fundamentally sound a major-league swing as I could ask for,” Seitzer said. “You don’t mess with that. You make adjustments when things are getting out of whack to where you help them get back to a place where they can be consistent.
“This kid, he was a big dude coming up through the minors and did some real special things. We’re just trying to get him back to that, and that’s who he wants to be, too.”
