A couple of hours before an early September game, George Springer took the field for Blue Jays batting practice and awaited his turn to hit in the cage.
Holding a bat, he sat down on a tall bag being used for some equipment. Springer started singing the lyrics to the hip-hop song blaring through the stadium speakers while nodding his head to the beat.
Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins walked around from the other side of the cage and stood next to Springer. He looked down at the outfielder and mimicked his movements, nodding their heads and enjoying the music together.
“You have to feel that vibe,” Popkins told me about living in the moment with Springer. “You gotta dance with him, sing with him. He loves all that stuff. If you keep things light, he feeds off of it.”
George Springer bounced back this season after a subpar 2024. (Photo by Kevin Sousa/Getty Images)
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Popkins has prioritized learning what makes Springer tick since last October, when the Blue Jays hired him to be their new hitting coach. He spent the past three seasons as the Twins hitting coach after working in the Dodgers’ system. Springer was one of the first players Popkins called last offseason, eager to begin the conversations that would help the veteran outfielder rediscover his success at the plate.
“I think I got away from understanding who I was as a player,” Springer said when I spoke to him recently at Yankee Stadium.
Not only did Springer bounce back, but he produced a legitimate MVP-caliber season. The 36-year-old posted elite numbers, including career highs in batting average (.309) and on-base percentage (.399). His .560 slugging percentage, .959 OPS, 32 home runs and 84 RBI were the highest in his career since 2019, when he won the Silver Slugger award and finished seventh in MVP balloting.
As encouraging as Springer’s regular season was, it’s important now more than ever for the veteran to lock in and stick with the approach that makes him elite. After clinching the AL East, the Blue Jays have the chance to knock Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees out of the postseason and advance to the ALCS for the first time since 2016. This is their best shot at winning a championship for the first time since 1993.
Springer is the favorite to win the American League Comeback Player of the Year award, and now he’s the Blue Jays’ biggest weapon for what they hope will be a deep playoff run. He credits this year’s success to Popkins and Toronto’s assistant hitting coaches, Lou Iannotti and Hunter Mense.
“He was like a Ferrari that had a speed limit of 30 miles per hour,” Popkins said of Springer. “He kind of forgot that, like, you’re a Ferrari, you can actually go faster. Almost like he had a governor on. So that’s what we talked about. Take the governor off your swing. Don’t try to feel stuff. He’s not a feel guy. It’s like, get a little more of your legs to spread out and just give some intent.”
The four-time All-Star recorded the poorest offensive season of his career in 2024. He posted career lows in batting average (.220), on-base percentage (.303) and slugging percentage (.371) last year. With an OPS+ of 91 in 145 games, Springer performed below league average for the first time in his career. After an underwhelming 2023 season for the Blue Jays, Springer taking yet another step back last year was a concern for Toronto.
Could they really count on him to be a top-of-the-lineup bat, in his age-35 season? Or was it time to move on, and focus their energy on someone more impactful?
Popkins was convinced that he could help him. It wasn’t fair to Springer to give up on him just yet.
“You have a down year and people like to write articles and tell you who you are,” Popkins said. “But when we look underneath the hood, we still see talented things. There’s still speed capabilities there. There’s still intent. And he’s one of the best outfielders to ever play the game. He’s such a superman with his physical abilities.”
George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are primed for deep playoff run for Toronto. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images)
After being tuned into Springer’s at-bats throughout his career — even watching from afar, when the outfielder spent seven years playing for the Houston Astros — Popkins pointed out that a lot of things were mechanically different from when Springer had success in his career. But the potential was still there, and rather than trying to unlock a new level in the veteran hitter, Popkins emphasized to Springer that he just wanted him to go back to being himself.
“When things don’t go right, the human instinct is to try to change things and to make things into something they’re not,” Springer said. “I think I got away from the competing aspect of the game.”
Rather than just making weak contact or avoiding a swing and miss, Popkins wanted to see Springer going back to being an aggressive hitter. He wanted to see the former World Series MVP inflict damage by making hard contact.
“George, you see, he’s like a lion that’s playing with cats,” Popkins said. “It’s like, dude. You’re a lion. What are you doing? So it was about little minor tweaks on the mechanical stuff, but mainly just cleaning up his mind to be him.”
Toronto is counting on Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the rest of the offense to offset its pitching concerns. Springer’s postseason experience (.875 OPS and 19 home runs in 67 career postseason games) will help. But so will staying grounded and moving to music during batting practice, because it puts things in perspective for Springer. He can stay loose hours before a game. But he needs all his energy to generate power when the pressure is at a boiling point.
“He has that special gene where, you can see a look in his eyes when things are important and he dials in,” Popkins said. “He’s our best at that. It’s not always a home run or anything that helps. Sometimes it’s a walk. It’ll be a 12-pitch at-bat. Sometimes he gets out. But that at-bat kind of motivates everyone. He’s the heartbeat, honestly.”
Deesha Thosar covers Major League Baseball as a reporter and columnist for FOX Sports. She previously covered the Mets as a beat reporter for the New York Daily News. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Deesha grew up on Long Island and now lives in Queens. Follow her on Twitter at @DeeshaThosar.
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