Springer’s A-swing driving offensive bounce back for Blue Jays

TORONTO – Watching George Springer from across the field last year, David Popkins saw a player who’d drifted away from some of the things that made him a four-time all-star. 

Though he was known as a legitimate power threat for years, Springer slugged just .371 in 2024 on his way to 19 home runs, his lowest ever full-season total. From his vantage point as hitting coach of the Minnesota Twins, Popkins saw more tentative swings from Springer, who seemed to be searching for the baseball instead of trying to attack it.

“It just seemed like he kind of lost that aggression that he’s had his whole career, that I’ve always admired from him,” Popkins recalled. “You’d see him kind of sacrifice bat speed just to put balls in play and really reaching for balls and weak contact early. Almost like he’s scared to get to two strikes. Versus the best version of him I feel like is not afraid to take a couple borderline pitches and then if you make one mistake he’s going to hit it really hard.”

So far this season, Springer’s been doing a lot of that. Through 20 games, he’s hitting .385/.441/.615 with two home runs to help sustain a Blue Jays offence that’s enduring slow starts from the likes of Anthony Santander and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 

“When he’s swinging the bat with authority, it’s such a boost for us,” manager John Schneider said after a 3-1 Blue Jays win in which Springer collected two more hits Friday. “I think it’s a pretty simple game plan that he has gone into every night and he’s executing it.” 

Behind those results, there’s been a change in approach thanks to Springer’s conversations with Schneider and Popkins, now the Blue Jays’ hitting coach. As soon as spring training began, Popkins and Schneider pulled Springer aside and suggested he become more aggressive at the plate by taking his so-called A-swing as often as possible. It’s early, with plenty of work ahead, but the results have been encouraging so far.

“They want an A-swing, and I understand that wholeheartedly,” Springer said. “The last couple of years there may have not been some A-swings in a lot of at-bats. (Now), I understand what they need from me, and I need to be in a position to get my A-swing off in an at-bat and that’s kind of all that matters.”

An A-swing, for those not intimately familiar with baseball hitting jargon, is a swing designed to do damage – the one hitters use when they’re ahead in the count 3-1. When the count’s 0-2 and there’s a chance to score a run with a productive out, hitters will break out their B-swings to make contact at all costs. But Springer has been trying to access his A-swing since he was a young player coming up through a progressive Astros organization so he’s been familiar with the concept for most of his 12-year career.

“An A-swing means your best possible swing,” Springer said. “That doesn’t mean a giant swing where I’m falling all over the place and spinning around. No, it means an aggressive, controlled swing.”

The way Popkins puts it, if Springer were cruising on a highway going to the A-swing would be akin to pressing gently on the accelerator.

“It’s not reckless,” he said. “It’s not like you’re putting your foot on the gas and the car’s shaking and you’re almost about to fall. But you’re putting enough on the gas where you’re going to win a race, you’re going to pass somebody. You find the balance of controlled violence.”

Remarkably, that change in approach has helped Springer find some of the power that’s allowed him to reach the 30-homer plateau twice. No one’s counting on him to lead the team in homers in his age-35 season, but if there’s more offence to be found in Springer’s bat, the Blue Jays want to access it.

Mechanically speaking, his swing’s essentially the same as ever – “there’s been no dramatic overhaul,” he said – but he does point to “a kind of mental clarity approach of what I want to do” at the plate.

At the same time, there are game situations where barrelling the baseball isn’t the most important thing, and Springer’s ready to adjust under those circumstances and ease up just a little. 

“I don’t even want to call it the B-swing, let’s say A-2,” he said. “If I know I’m facing somebody tough, and I’ve got to get a guy to third base, I’m okay hitting a ground ball to second. Obviously if something (better) happens out of it, great. Sometimes you actually do more than you think you’re going to and you hit a ball in the gap. But it’s not trying to do too much in the moment. It’s more throttle down and do what the game says.”

As Springer has gotten older, he’s embraced chances to help the team with his A-2 swing – but team decision makers wondered if he’d over-corrected in that direction in 2024. Throughout spring training 2025, he worked with Popkins to get his body in position to unleash his best swing as often as possible.

“And now here we are,” he said. “Now I understand what that swing feels like, what the body position feels like. You’re not always going to hit it or be successful. But as long as I get the swing off, that’s all that matters.”

Early in 2025, he’s finding a balance most hitters would envy. Not only is Springer finding the barrel at an elite clip (his 17.1 per cent barrel rate ranks in the 88th percentile), he’s not chasing pitches outside of the zone (98th percentile chase rate). To be clear, though, he has the freedom to expand if there’s a pitch he feels he can crush.

“There may be times where you just say, (screw) it, I’m going to take my A-swing this whole at-bat,” Springer said. “There’s certain situations to let it fly.”

For Popkins, that freedom is essential to what’s happening here. He doesn’t want Springer passing up opportunities to do damage, even if there will be times he swings and misses or makes poor contact. When he sees the two-time Silver Slugger winner trying to put the ball in the seats with a controlled but aggressive swing, he believes more good things will follow. 

“That freedom just allows him to play like he’s a little kid,” Popkins said. “And when he’s playing like a kid he’s pretty damn good.”