Becoming Nolan Arenado was difficult. Remaining Nolan Arenado is more so.
The only player to win five Gold Gloves in his first five major league seasons spends most offseason days at UC Irvine, telling Anteaters coaches Ben Orloff and Daniel Bibona to challenge him with hard grounders.
The 11th player to drive in 130 runs in three consecutive seasons is working with Mitch Holland and Brian Strelitz to keep his swing on a straighter plane, to combine balance with loft to find a way to slug forever.
“You gotta take grounders every day,” Arenado said recently as Colorado visited Dodger Stadium. “It can be tiring, and some guys just want to hit all day. I can’t take it for granted. I wanted to improve my range this year if I could, so I did some different things physically. Mainly I want to be the guy who’s getting the ball. We play a lot of shifts. I don’t want to get into the pattern of letting somebody else do it.
“When I’m at UCI I tell those guys to hit me some tough ones. Let me figure out how to get there.”
Even on the off days Arenado seeks out a batting cage or a fungo partner. He deprived himself of an opportunity this week. For the fifth consecutive year, the kid from El Toro will play in the All-Star Game.
“You can’t pitch to him,” said Dave Roberts, the Dodgers’ manager. “People don’t appreciate his bat-to-ball skills, but what’s most impressive to me is the way he posts all those games. Playing in Denver, in that altitude, can be tough on your body. That’s a lot of 3 1/2-hour, 4-hour games. Doing it every day is remarkable.”
Arenado is hitting .309, matching last year’s career high, and his OPS of .977 is his best and ranks second in the NL. He has driven 130, 133 and 130 runs his past three years and hit 42, 41 and 37 home runs. He has two RBI titles, two homer titles, and has led the league in doubles, total bases and games played, which, he says, is the stat that makes the others possible. He missed 10 games in those three years.
“When I got to this team, Tulo and Cargo were the dudes,” Arenado said recently at Dodger Stadium, referring to Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. “They were producing in the middle of the lineup every day and I was hitting sixth. I looked at them and said I wanted to do that someday, but I wasn’t good enough yet.”
Arenado is the best two-way player in the league, maybe in both. Official confirmation will come when the bidders gather after the 2019 season. He can become a free agent and trigger a Keeneland-style auction.
Perversely, Arenado might get more universal respect if he replicates his numbers somewhere else.
Colorado is a friendly place to hit, no question, but not for postseason awards or Hall of Fame votes. The assumption is that Denver adds too many yards to your driver.
Last year Arenado had an .886 OPS on the road, 1.036 at home, and 18 of his 37 home runs came outside Coors. Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt, a first baseman, had an .852 on the road, 1.082 at home. Goldschmidt was third in MVP voting, Arenado fourth.
But the altitude question will haunt Todd Helton when he comes up for the Hall of Fame (1.048 at home, .855 on the road) and has already damaged Larry Walker, who was 11th in the voting last year with 34.1 percent.
Walker spent 10 years in Denver and had an overall OPS of 1.044. But in 1997, when he led the league, his road OPS was higher.
Nobody points out that Walker was a superb right fielder in Coors’ wide-open spaces. Nobody says the altitude somehow helps Arenado dive on his face quicker, so he can stab a aspiring extra-base hit.
And Denver isn’t the exclusive home of homefield advantage. When Don Drysdale won the 1962 Cy Young, his Dodger Stadium ERA was 2.16. Everywhere else, it was 3.68.
“It’s part of the territory,” Arenado said. “I honestly try to keep the same approach. I haven’t messed around with the launch angle because I think it can get you in trouble.I think it gets young players in trouble who should be hitting line drives.
“I try to stay balanced and put backspin on the baseball, without dipping. But you have to stay on it.”
In one way the altitude factor is real. Any team with Arenado is likely to finish higher.
