DUNEDIN, Fla. — The full-arm sleeve tattoo on the right arm of David Popkins is more than just remarkable body art. Stretching from wrist to shoulder is a scene weaving together martial arts master Bruce Lee, boxing great Mohammad Ali, fictional character Maximus Decimus Meridius from the movie Gladiator, baseball trailblazer and icon Jackie Robinson, Theory of Relativity creator Albert Einstein and basketball legend Kobe Bryant, each selected with intent.
Every figure represents a trait the new Toronto Blue Jays hitting coach admires — Lee’s discipline; Ali’s mastery; Maximus’ loyalty; Robinson’s bravery; Einstein’s creativity and relentless effort to solve problems; and Bryant’s mamba mentality — there for all, himself included, to see.
“Just reminding yourself what you value as a person,” he explained of the work completed over three days in New York two Decembers ago. “Each time you see each guy, you remind yourself, are you doing those things?”
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The Blue Jays hired Popkins in October to be all of those things in a refresh of their hitting department after four straight years of decline in their slugging percentage, from a best-in-the-majors .466 in 2021 to .431 in 2022, .417 in 2023 and .389 in 2024, which ranked 20th.
A drop-off as steep as that one is primarily a personnel matter and the free-agent signing of Anthony Santander is one direct attempt to address the deficiency. But in hiring Popkins, the Blue Jays are also aiming to draw more from the talent already in place, by using his strengths in swing bio-mechanics — with the Minnesota Twins he developed a motion-capture process and reporting tool — game-planning and approach-building.
The 35-year-old from San Diego describes his hitting philosophy as being “built off creativity,” seeking to find as many ways to score “by practising all the different situations and clubs that we’re going to need in the game.”
“Sometimes that’s grinding an at-bat for a walk, sometimes that’s shooting the ball the other way, sometimes that’s hitting the ball out of the yard,” he added Monday, after relentless rain cancelled the Blue Jays’ game at the Detroit Tigers. “There are a lot of different ways to get that job done and great offences don’t have one way, they have every way. That’s our plan.”
Easier said than done, of course, as the Blue Jays have been down this road before.
Last year they ran through a different offensive shakeup, installing Don Mattingly as an offensive co-ordinator with the goal of personalizing game plans, among other approaches. By the end of May, they were experimenting with a daily scoring system aimed at rewarding the processes they wanted to see at the plate.
The emergence of league-wide public bat-speed data for the first time later revealed that at an average of 70.6 m.p.h., they were tied for second last in the majors, a sliver above Washington’s 70.5. Swing speed alone isn’t the be-all, end-all, but when combined with a fast-swing rate of 18.6 per cent, which ranked 26th, it demonstrated that not only were their best swings not especially powerful, but they also rarely got off their best swings.
Popkins is determined to help the Blue Jays get better in both those regards, but not in a reckless, swing-out-of-your-shoes fashion. He points out that “in certain situations, getting the job done is going to trump speed,” but with “certain situations in damage counts, I’m looking for speed.”
“Our goal is to slug in slugging counts and be a little more on-base/execution in counts that don’t yield slug,” he explained. “It doesn’t make sense for us to try to get the best swing off on a pitcher that’s not giving us, really, a pitch to do that. A pitcher that’s going to be a little bit more nibbling and executing, you’ve got to take your knocks, take your jabs, take your toss to the running back. Break them down and then get them to overcommit and then we can go back over the top. That’s how I think of it.
“Are we always going to continue to work on our damage swings? One hundred per cent,” he added. “I love damage. That’s where I’ve been with the Dodgers and Minnesota. We did a really good job of hitting balls out of the yard. But our goal is to be complete and that’s always the standard.”
And so Popkins, along with new assistant Lou Iannotti, with whom he worked in the Dodgers system, and returning assistant Hunter Mense, will work to build up the physical side — whether it be through weight training, mechanics or sequencing — while also addressing the mental/approach side.
Manager John Schneider, who only knew Popkins in passing before the interview process and came to admire his skill set, already sees the trust building between coach and players and praised the way he’s simplified the advanced reports for hitters by “diving into more things that are going to be actionable in games.”
“Not just here’s the guy’s stuff, here’s what it does, here’s the movement on it, but more so here are tendencies in certain counts to certain-handed hitters. Here’s where to take a shot. Here’s where to throttle back,” Schneider added. “You’re always tweaking it. I don’t want to give away too much, but there are some things that he brought from Minnesota, things that Lou has brought from L.A. that guys have been really receptive to.”
The goal for Popkins, who counts hitting instructor Craig Wallenbrock, Dodgers executive Josh Byrnes, Dodgers player development vice-president Will Rhymes and Iannotti among his coaching influences, is “to limit that noise as best you can.”
“It’s very hard to think about eight different things when you’re facing a top-end starter or a closer, so you want to make sure all that stuff is condensed,” he added. “They can pull one thing out of it like a menu, and whatever they want, they can get.”
Put all together, Popkins is seeking to ensure the Blue Jays are the aggressors in the batter’s box, believing that once “you get afraid to make a mistake, you lose that attack and if you’re not attacking, you’re getting attacked in this game. So it’s just reminding guys that they’re dangerous.”
With the traits inked into his right arm always in mind, he’ll try to keep the Blue Jays that way, too.
