As the ball left Miguel Amaya‘s bat, there was no doubt where it was headed.
He only needed to see one pitch in the bottom of the second — a 91-mph, up-and-in fastball — to play the hero for the Chicago Cubs on Thursday against the Detroit Tigers. With the bases juiced and two outs in the frame, the Cubs’ young catcher and No. 9 hitter launched the four-seamer from Detroit’s Kenta Maeda deep into the left-field bleachers.
Amaya’s grand slam, the first of his career, gave the Cubs an early four-run lead, and they never really let their foot off the gas. The end result was a 10-2 victory, giving them the series win and moving them back to two games under .500 (63-65) with 34 games left in the regular season.
“It feels amazing,” Amaya said of hitting his first grand slam. “Something that I dreamed [of] as a kid. To make it happen now feels really good, and especially for the team. We’ve been having some up and downs, but we won the series.”
By the end of the game, Amaya had recorded another two base hits, earning himself his second three-hit game in the major leagues. It was arguably the best he’s looked at the plate since making his MLB debut last summer, and it’s a continuation of the strong offensive stretch Amaya’s been on since early July.
The 25-year-old struggled offensively to begin the year. From Opening Day through July 3, he was hitting just .186 with a .504 OPS. The Cubs gave him a three-day break right after that to work on an adjustment in his swing mechanics, which involved eliminating his leg kick and working with a wider stance while lifting just his front heel off the ground. The hope was this would improve his timing at the plate.
Of course, making in-season adjustments, especially as a catcher who’s also focused daily on working with the pitching staff, isn’t easy.
“We recognized that there was a mechanical thing that we wanted to kind of attack,” Cubs hitting coach Dustin Kelly said. “Anytime you’re trying to do that in-season, there’s always a risk.”
The work has paid off.
Though Amaya’s overall numbers still don’t look great (.221 average, .610 OPS), the improved results since he returned from his brief break are clear. Over his last 27 games, Amaya has hit .299 with an .848 OPS, four doubles, four home runs and 14 RBIs. He was striking out 22.1 percent of the time prior to making the adjustment, but since, his strikeout rate is at 12.9 percent.
“In-season adjustments are hard,” Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “They’re really hard for hitters to make. Miggy made a significant one. I think you all can see it. It was significant. The results beforehand necessitated it, but it’s tough to do, and he’s done a really good job with it.”
Justin Steele, who picked up the win Thursday with seven innings of two-run ball (including 10 strikeouts and no walks), has always been a supporter of Amaya’s offensive game.
Amaya was known as a solid hitter coming up through the system. When the minor league season was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he and Steele faced off a number of times at the Cubs’ alternate site in South Bend. There, Steele saw a then-21-year-old Amaya’s offensive potential.
“I always speak back to that alt site in 2020, when he was still so young at the time,” Steele said. “He was, to me, one of the scariest at-bats at that alt site in 2020. That was obviously four years ago now, but for me, it’s no surprise, honestly, watching him have this level of success at the big league level. I’ve kind of always known that it was in there.”
Injuries took away time for minor league development from Amaya, who was called up straight from Double-A last May and has had to do a lot of his developing in the majors instead. His confidence never wavered, but learning to hit in the big leagues was going to take some time.
Now, the confidence and results are on display at the same time.
“What comes first, the confidence or the adjustment? Counsell said. “I think he’s got both going right now. He’s swinging at good pitches. When he gets a pitch to hit, he’s doing some damage with it. And he has the power to do this. This is not fluke stuff. He hits the ball hard, and he’s getting some results from it and some good feedback from it.”
The key now for Amaya is working to continue on this path. This sample of 85 plate appearances is still much smaller than the 190 that came before it this season. He’s still got to prove this is sustainable over the long haul.
On top of that is continuing to develop behind the plate. As a catcher, he’s tasked with a lot on a day-to-day basis.
It’s never easy to do either job, let alone developing in both areas at the same time, but the Cubs believe Amaya is up to the task.
“That’s the life of a catcher,” Counsell said, “and the catcher knows what primary job No. 1 is. There’s no question they get less thoughts dedicated to their offense, but that’s not going to change, and Miggy is going to continue to put his thoughts in the right place.”
