Braves outfielder and third baseman Austin Riley spoke with the media at Chop Fest on Jan. 25 at Truist Park. In the interview, he discussed his offseason work on correcting his swing and the impending competition at third base with Johan Camargo. The interview was edited for brevity.
Q: What did you clean up and work on in the offseason?
A: My swing. I've been to Dallas (Texas) a few times with (Braves minor league hitting coordinator) Mike Brumley, working with him. I've been working on just kind of cleaning up the swing itself. Specifically, I've been working on my front elbow, really focusing on what it's doing at the start of my swing. I felt like last year, when I got in trouble, it was working down instead of clearing and letting my back side be able to work. I've been working with that and then some lower-half stuff. It's been really good, and I'm very pleased about where my swing is right now compared to what it was at the end of the season last year.
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Q: Did you dissect it and look at a lot of film and try to figure it out?
A: Along with me, and like I said Mike Brumley and some other guys, they really looked at it and could see what I was doing when I was having success and what I was doing when I was struggling. That elbow, along with my back leg and where my weight was, as far as evenly throughout my foot, those were the two big things. It felt like when things weren't going very well, my load on my back leg was more on my toe, so I was pushing forward. Now, we've got it evenly throughout my foot, so I think that's going to be a big difference in being able to recognize pitches late and still be able to put good swings on them.
Q: To have that success last year and go through that, even though you didn’t finish the season the way you wanted, to know what you can do … there’s plenty of people who go through something like that. Has anyone talked to you about that?
A: Not anybody specifically. I knew the failures were going to be there and, like you said, they were longer than I wanted. But I did have some success, and I know what I can do up here, so that's a big positive for me, mentally, because this game is so hard on you, mentally. Just knowing to trust myself and what I've done this offseason, I know it's going to carry over into spring and is going to bring some upside this year.
Q: Did they tell you at any point, as far as outfield and third base, when the (Josh) Donaldson situation was going on? Did it change after he signed, or has it always been to focus on both spots?
A: They haven't said anything. I've been doing outfield work, and I've been doing third-base work. I'm just kind of going into it, ready for anything really.
Q: How about the competition (at third base) with Camargo?
A: Me and Camargo have a great relationship. He's a great guy and a great player. It's going to be fun competing against him in the spring. There's no tension there, and I don't see there ever being any tension there. Like I said, he's a great guy, and we have a great relationship.
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