Retooled swing leading to results for Paris

This story was excerpted from Rhett Bollinger’s Angels Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Kyren Paris entered Spring Training as a long shot to make the roster, after he was mostly an afterthought after an injury-plagued and inconsistent season in ’24.

The Angels added veterans such as Kevin Newman, Yoán Moncada, Tim Anderson and Scott Kingery to the infield during the offseason, while the outfield seemed set with Jo Adell and Mickey Moniak in center, with Mike Trout and Taylor Ward in the corners. But Paris put himself on the radar with a huge spring, aided by a revamped swing, hitting .400 with two homers and four stolen bases in 24 games.

It led to the Angels surprisingly releasing Moniak to open the door for Paris to make the club as a backup center fielder. But Paris kept hitting and coming through in clutch moments, and he’s now played his way into a starting role at second base, especially with Moncada landing on the 10-day injured list on Thursday with a right thumb sprain.

Paris capped it with the first multihomer game of his career on Wednesday, and he is batting .393/.485/1.000 with five homers, a triple, four stolen bases and eight RBIs through his first 11 games. He made history, becoming the first American League player with five homers and four stolen bases in his first 10 games played of a season.

“After working throughout the offseason, I kind of just had that feeling,” Paris said. “And just learning from my failures in the past, it's leading to success.”

Paris, 23, is coming off a tough season, as he hit just .167 in 60 games between Double-A Rocket City and Triple-A Salt Lake and batted .118 (6-for-51) with one homer in 21 games in the Majors. He came into the year just a career .110 hitter with one homer in 36 games with the Angels over the past two seasons, but he made it his mission to retool his swing during the offseason.

Paris, a second-round pick in 2019, studied various swings and found that he liked Yankees superstar Aaron Judge’s swing and reached out to Judge’s personal hitting coach Richard Schenck. The two worked together for three days near Schenck’s home outside of St. Louis and it totally changed Paris’ mechanics.

“I worked with Aaron Judge’s hitting coach and there are a lot of similarities in my swing now, but it's helped me a lot,” Paris said. “It’s more like a hover [with my foot] and the finish is similar as well.”

Paris has allowed the ball to travel deeper because of the changes in his swing and the way he shifts his weight, which gives him more time to react to pitches. He’s displayed power to all fields despite his 5-foot-11, 180-pound frame (Judge is 6-foot-7 and 282 pounds) and he’s just happy it’s clicked so quickly. Both of his homers on Wednesday went to the opposite field, which were the first two of his career to go out to right.

“I wouldn't say it was surprising, because as soon as I felt it, it was something that I hadn't felt before, and I knew that I would have success with it,” Paris said. “But it's definitely nice to see it happen on the field.”

Angels manager Ron Washington has liked what he’s seen from Paris, but cautioned on Tuesday not to get too carried away because it’s so early in the year. Paris had trouble finding consistent playing time in the early part of the year, especially when he was just the backup to Adell in center, but now he’s played himself into a regular role.

“If it took nine games to be a Hall of Famer, there'd be quite a few of them,” Washington cautioned Tuesday. “You see a lot of guys flying high in April, but you can't find them later on. He's showing you what he can do. He's showing the talent that he has. He's working at it, and it's our job to try to help him keep it. And that's all we're trying to do -- help him keep it. So stay tuned.”

It’s a reason why Paris still hit seventh in the order on Thursday, as Washington doesn’t want to put too much pressure on Paris in the early going.

“He’s swinging the bat very, very well because of where he is," Washington said. "We get two months into the season, three months into the season and he’s still pounding the ball like that, maybe we might think about moving him up a little bit. We just want Kyren to keep growing.”