I had a chance to sit down with Knights’ hitting coach Chris Johnson toward the end of the 2022 campaign to review the seasons of key prospects. Oscar Colas had not yet been promoted to triple-A at the time of this interview.
Has it been a fun year? A good year? A disappointing one?
We always have fun. That’s our first goal — it’s a game. We come out here, we enjoy the game and we play hard.
Did you learn anything new this year as a hitting coach?
Every year I learn something new. I love my job and these guys teach me stuff every day and I’ve got a lot to learn. This is only my second year. So I have a lot of stuff to figure out.
Can you give me an example?
I’m always looking at the body, the movements, how the body works, how different guys are, tall guys, short guys, you know, seeing what they need to do differently. I’m always looking to learn.
Okay, let’s talk about a couple of individual players and what they need to do to go to the big leagues. Let’s start with Micker Adolfo.
Micker just needs to solidify his approach. We made a big change with him, I would say about a month or so ago, and we really opened him up. He had a little hitch with his hips that was getting him into a tough spot, which was causing the bat to have to go a long way to get to balls out front. Now we’ve opened him up. He’s starting to realize where his contact point needs to be. He just needs to work on his approach with that.
Is there a confidence issue with him?
I think a lot of guys at this level have a confidence issue. But success starts to breed confidence. The reason why guys in the big leagues are so confident is because they’ve had this constant success. Especially in Micker’s situation, whenever you try something new, having some success is going to start to build that confidence. And I think it’s actually starting to show.
How about Blake Rutherford?
Blake’s done a great job this year. Blake’s been really consistent this year. He is only 25 years old, so if he continues what he is doing, I think he’s got a good shot.
It looks like he’s gotten to a lot more power this year.
Yeah. I think he worked on his path a lot this offseason, and he’s really taken an approach of trying to swing for damage. He’s getting in good counts and when he gets in a good count, or even an 0-0 count, he’s taking a shot. We talk with him about getting your “A swing” off. That’s what we want to do when we get in the box. We want to take our “A swings.” We want to take damage swings. We’ll worry about our two-strike approach when we get to two strikes. But when we are in hitters’ counts, we are looking to hit the ball hard in gaps out of the ballpark.
It seemed like last year Blake was hitting a lot of line drives into the left-center gap. It looks like he’s just turning on a lot more balls this year.
Yeah, that’s what we preach. You want to play in the big leagues, especially as a left-handed hitting outfielder, you have to pull ball out of the yard. So, that’s what we’re working on. Last night was the perfect example. He takes his shot, he misses, he goes to two strikes and hits a line-drive to left-center field. They guy caught it but we always have that two-strike approach to fall back on.
Let’s talk about a couple of infielders beginning with Lenyn Sosa.
Sosa’s been great since he’s been here. We’re working on a couple of path issues right now, making sure that he doesn’t get too loopy and underneath the ball. They’ve been trying to go in on him a little bit with the fastball, so we we’re working on that, but he’s been extremely consistent. I think he’s right around the .300 mark (.296). The kid can hit. He understands the swing and right now we are just working on approach.
Does he have a lot of power?
He does have a lot of power. I think his power shows. He’s got true power where he can go to all fields. He can go right-center field, left-center field, and if you hang something, he’ll hit it to left field. He’s got a lot of juice in that bat.
Yolbert Sanchez?
Yolbert’s been great. He’s been steady. I think the biggest thing for him is to try to stay away from power. He tries to force it sometimes and he can get underneath the ball and get long and the swing can get slow. When he stays down through the ball and tries to think gap-to-gap, then his power starts to show up. So, I think for him it is a matter of just staying consistent with that approach.
And Zach Remillard, he’s hitting almost a hundred points higher than last year.
Yeah, he’s been great. I think he’s realized this year what kind of player he needs to be. He’s not a guy that’s going to hit 25 or 30 homers. But he’s going to run into 15, maybe 20, as he figures out his swing. And I think he’s done that this year. He has really done a good job of, when things aren’t going well with his swing, he’s resorted to his approach, which is, how am I going to beat this guy with my approach tonight? And just whatever swing I have tonight is what I’m going to go with.
Remillard came to bat in last night’s game with two on and two outs and the team trailing 5-0. He hit a three-run homer to get the team back into the game. Was he trying to hit it out?
The previous at bat, he came back into the dugout saying “I got my whip tonight,” which means that his body’s in a good spot and he’s able to really whip the bat through. And so I don’t think he’s ever really trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark, but when he feels that, he’s really getting his “A swing” off.
And what can you say about Mark Payton?
Mark is a pro. He just needs a shot. A lot of these guys on this team, they’ve kind of followed him. He plays with his hair on fire every single night. He never takes a pitch off, never gives an bat away. Never wants to lose a game, and wants to play every single night, even when he is hurt. He’s had games where he is hobbling out there and he still wants to play. He is just a professional. He can really hit. I know he can help the big league club. He got up there this year, got on the 40-man, so I think he’s going to be able to show the white Sox team what he can do.
How about Carlos Perez?
Carlos has done a great job. Carlos has shown this year that he has really tapped into his power. It is kind of the same thing with him, just get that “A swing” off. We’re trying to do damage. We’re trying to hit the ball out of the ballpark. The biggest thing for him is to not force it. He’s got a really good path and he’s got a really good ability to hit the ball out front. But when he starts to spin a little bit and force pull-side home runs is when he gets in trouble. But if he stays left center, the sky’s the limit for him.
He’s done a great job keep keeping the strikeout numbers low.
I think it’s because of his bat-to-ball skills. I think he’s shown that all the way up through the minor leagues. And so when he gets a pitch to hit, he puts it in play. So I think that’s probably why he’s had so much success.
I haven’t checked the numbers since we talked last, but a month ago he was leading the international league in toughest to strike out.
Yeah, which is nice for us to preach to him to get his “A swing” off because his two-strike approach is great because he’s able to put the ball in play.
Switching gears, you’ve had two different strike zones this season in Charlotte — the beginning of the year when it was automated and now with the challenge system. Do you have a preference?
I like the challenge system. I do. I like them both. When we had the automated system, I was preaching that I loved it because our guys know the strike zone is more consistent. And they start to learn the strike zone as hitters. When you get the human element into it, any human being is going to get calls wrong. Or any two human beings are going to have different strike zones. I’m going like the ball up. You’re going like the ball in. You’re going like the ball away. You’re going like to ball down. So, it takes that away when you have an automated strike zone, but I like the human element of it too, where we can have challenges. The challenge system is kind of fun.
Full article can be found at: https://soxmachine.com/2022/10/cohen-knights-hitting-coach-chris-johnson-talks-charlotte-bats/