Introducing Chris Owings, Again

The first time we met Chris Owings, he was a top prospect. Going into the 2014 season, he had just been named the 66th-best prospect by Baseball America and the team’s third best. He was slated for the lion’s share of the playing time at shortstop. Through the beginning of June, he was above-average at the plate thanks to good power, and better than average in the field thanks to a good arm. Both of those things took a hit, literally, on June 20th.

In the first year of the new catcher rules designed to eliminate collisions at the plate, Owings found himself colliding with the knee of Giants catcher Hector Sanchez that day. Even in slow motion, the hit doesn’t look vicious. Some called it awkward.

It was enough to keep him out until September, diminish his performance upon his return, and require Owings to undergo labrum surgery in October. Manager Kirk Gibson kept him out for a while longer because he was afraid “Owings might change his swing as a result and hurt something else” as Zach Buchanan then characterized it. Despite those best efforts, Owings retooled his swing after surgery. When I talked to him that summer of 2015, he agreed: “I had to change my swing, couldn’t quite let it eat with the one-handed follow through.”

That’s a shame, because it meant that, the second time we met Chris Owings, he was faltering. His power had disappeared, he wasn’t making contact like he had in his debut, and pitchers had begun challenging him more often in the zone. His defense had faltered, too. He lost the shortstop job to Nick Ahmed in the meantime, and ended up playing more second base to compensate for his weaker arm and worsening production against right-handers.

Last year, we met a Chris Owings who was somewhere in between. His work against right-handers had improved, he’d improved his power and contact rates, and he’d settled in as an injury replacement… in center field.

This spring, we may meet an Owings that is the culmination of most of these different versions. Ketel Marte has been sent down, and it looks like Owings will play almost every day. We just don’t know exactly where.

That sounds like a utility option that will play all over. His experience in center makes him the teams’s best option as a backup center fielder. As a righty, he’s a perfect platoon mate for right fielder David Peralta, who has struggled against lefties. Brandon Drury will play second most days, and is a righty, but he can also play third if the team wants to sit lefty Jake Lamb against southpaws. No matter what, the D-backs will enjoy having a player who can play second, short, and center with some upside with the bat.

Is there a chance we meet that first version of Owings again? Now that the 25-year-old has put some space between him and that surgery, he’s performing well with the bat this spring. Among D-backs with at least 40 at-bats, Owings’ .931 OPS is third. OPS in spring is a tricky thing, but Dan Rosenheck has shown that it adds value to projections.

And, yes, there are a few adjustments that pair with the new numbers. First, Owings switched to a new Axe bat handle in the second half last year, and cut 10 percentage points off his ground-ball rate. That helped him to a modest improvement in slugging numbers (.143 in the second half, up from .134) but also gives him hope for more power as he approaches his power peak in the next year or two.

And that swing. Remember that two-handed follow through that Owings used in 2015? Let’s see it again:

And now a spring swing from this year:

He’s following through with one arm again at the end, and he’s replaced a tentative toe tap with more of a leg kick. That kick allows him to plan the front leg and use it to get the most of his torque, the follow through shows he can hit with intent and isn’t pulling his punches.

We’ve met Chris Owings plenty of times. We may yet meet the best version this year, thanks to good health and a regular place… in the lineup at least.