TUCSON, Ariz.—Chris Iannetta reached the point last season where he almost dreaded swinging the bat.
Whenever he took a cut, the Colorado Rockies backup catcher felt a searing pain in his right wrist.
Turns out, Iannetta had bone chips imbedded in tendons. But after offseason surgery, the wrist feels better than ever.
Now, he’s hoping the wrist was the culprit behind his .218 average last season.
“I don’t feel anything when I swing now,” Iannetta said Wednesday as the Rockies and White Sox finished tied at 10. “It hasn’t been that way for a while. It’s a good feeling. I hope it stays that way.”
The wrist got so bad last season that if he took a practice swing, it would flare up.
But he couldn’t afford to rest it, not with the slump he was in. So he tried to ignore the pain in his wrist.
“I swung more and aggravated it more,” said Iannetta, who had surgery four days after the World Series and sports a fading red scar on top of his hand. “It was like a knifing pain when I made contact. It hurt on dry swings, when I hit off the tee, in batting practice and in games. There was nothing that could be done. I just tried to deal with it and keep playing.”
The Rockies have made a request of Iannetta this spring—be more aggressive at the plate. He’s getting the message, picking out his pitch earlier in the count. Iannetta is hitting .261 with one homer and three RBIs so far in Arizona.
Meanwhile, Yorvit Torrealba is tearing up Cactus League pitching, raising his average to .462 after three singles on Wednesday.
“He’s come out of the blocks real clean offensively,” manager Clint Hurdle said of Torrealba. “He’s in a good place right now from an offensive standpoint.”
The starting job behind the plate looked as if it belonged to Iannetta in November when Torrealba appeared ready to become the New York Mets’ catcher.
But the potential deal collapsed and Torrealba re-signed with Colorado for $7.25 million over two years, leaving Iannetta to once again to serve as Torrealba’s understudy.
Not that he’s bitter about it. Another chance to learn is how he looks at the situation.
“I just have to play to my capability and play hard,” said Iannetta, who was the opening day catcher in 2007. “Production is going to keep me up here. I have to swing at more pitches and don’t take so many.”
And remember to go the opposite way from time to time, an approach he got away from last season. Iannetta visited hitting guru Wade Boggs two years ago in Florida, and he drilled into Iannetta the importance of hitting the ball to right field.
“Pitches down and away, I was trying to drive,” said Iannetta, who spent the offseason working out in Providence, R.I. “In actuality, it’s a pitch you’re either going to fight off or get a base hit (to right). He (Boggs) told me you can only do so much with certain pitches.
“It’s a matter of just learning a little bit more each time and putting that to good use,” Iannetta continued. “I just want to go out there and play. Everything else will take care of itself.”
Notes:@ 2B Jayson Nix was a late scratch from the game Wednesday thanks to a stiff back. Nix is in the mix for the starting spot, and is hitting .273 with three homers this spring. He’s listed as day to day. … Starter Ubaldo Jimenez gave up four runs in the first two innings and then settled down, giving up none in the next two frames. “You’re always encouraged when they scuffle a little bit and find their way home,” Hurdle said of Jimenez’s outing. “It was encouraging from that standpoint.” … Jimenez gave up two first-inning homers, troubling him after the game. “You never want to give up home runs, it doesn’t matter who’s hitting it—if it’s your dad or whatever,” he said. Has his father ever hit one off him? “Probably in dreams,” Jimenez said with a grin.
