The Diamondbacks prospect talked about navigating struggles at the plate and a new feature in the Arizona Fall League.
Tommy Troy’s bat got off to a slow start in the Arizona Fall League. He 1-for-25 at the plate with 11 strikeouts in his first six games. Since then, he’s recorded a hit in four straight games. Over that stretch, he’s totaled 10 hits, six for extra bases, and has lifted his fall league slash line to .256/.313/.488.
It’s an experience that Troy already went through in the regular season. Entering play on August 13, Troy was slashing .190/.268/.276 in his first 39 games of the year with High-A Hillsboro. He finished the season on a strong note, hitting .296 with five home runs and a .887 OPS over his final 24 games. Having already gone through the experience of a deep slump, he already has the confidence that he can trust the process, stick with his approach, and good results will follow.
“I feel like it’s one of the most important tools in baseball, baseball is mainly mental,” said Troy. “Being able to handle failure, especially for a long period of time, how do you get yourself out of that? Every time you do struggle, finding a quicker way to bounce back just so the valleys aren’t as low, that’s how I like to interpret it. Just keep working and know you’ll always come out the other side.”
Part of his recent resurgence with the bat over the past four games has been using the entire diamond and trying to do damage the other way. For the right-handed hitting Troy, most of his last 10 hits have gone to center and right field.
“I feel like when I came back in the middle of the season, I was trying to hit the ball too hard to the pull-side. That’s being a little bit jumpy. Trusting my hands, they’re quick, I can wait a little bit longer for the ball to get there. I can start to see the results now.”
In the Arizona Fall League, Troy has been splitting time between shortstop and second base. He spent the overwhelming majority of his games in Hillsboro at short, then finished the season playing second.
“I’m pretty comfortable at second base, I barely played any shortstop in college, so I’m comfortable to go back there whenever need be. The end goal is when you get to the big leagues is to be in the lineup. I want to be versatile and be able to play anywhere they need me to.”
Troy also has experience playing third base during his junior year at Stanford, so that gives him three different positions on the infield that he’s gotten significant reps at over the past two years.
Another interesting note from this fall league game was it was the first time that hitters could not only challenge balls and strikes but also check swing calls. There were two such challenges, both calls being overturned.
“I think it’s pretty forgiving for the hitters. We got a challenge today and I was like wow. It’s part of the game, I love how we’re trying it out in this setting, we can make adjustments from there.”
Aaaaand we have our second checked swing challenge. It was also successful: pic.twitter.com/dwiuB4OuOZ
— Jesse Friedman (@JesseNFriedman) October 23, 2024
What makes those specific challenges interesting is the lack of a clear definition of what a swing is from the MLB rule book. It’s one of those things where everyone has a good idea of what a swing is.
“The definition has been pretty ambiguous, ever since I started playing. They’re saying it’s 45 degrees, I don’t really know. Before that, I thought that if you’re crossing the plate at all it’s a swing but I guess it’s changing now.”
Troy notes that the 45-degree line is very generous for hitters.