Jo Adell scores hat trick of home run robberies in win over Mariners
· Yahoo Sports
ANAHEIM, Calif. — For the better part of his first four seasons in the big leagues, defense was a massive struggle for Jo Adell.
He graded out poorly in just about every defensive metric there was, not to mention the occasional blunders worthy of an appearance on SportsCenter's Not Top 10 plays. But in 2024, he started to turn a corner.
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And on Saturday night in front of a sold-out crowd at Angel Stadium, Adell put his past demons to bed.
Adell robbed not one, not two, but three home runs from the Seattle Mariners to keep them off the board in a 1-0 win for the Angels.
“It was probably the greatest defensive game I've ever seen,” nine-time Gold Glove Award-winning outfielder Torii Hunter said.
Merely 24 hours after missing a fly ball at the wall that resulted in a pivotal leadoff triple in extra innings that led to a loss, Adell more than made up for not coming up with the catch.
In the first inning, Cal Raleigh, who socked 60 home runs as a switch-hitting catcher last season, launched a ball to right field. Adell made his way to the warning track and timed his jump perfectly to make the grab before the ball bounced off the video board over the yellow line to keep it scoreless.
Fast forward to the eighth inning, the Angels were trying to hold onto a 1-0 lead, when Josh Naylor connected with a deep drive into right field of his own. Identical to the Raleigh robbery, Adell once again got to the wall in time to jump up and rob Naylor of a game-tying home run.
But the best was yet to come.
Still clinging to that 1-0 lead, the Angels looked to close the door in the ninth inning. J.P. Crawford got a slider low and inside, but over the plate, and he sent a high drive down the rightfield line.
Adell raced towards the foul pole, eerily similar to the ball he had missed the night before.
Approaching the short wall, Adell leaped and made the catch, but then flipped over the wall and into the stands. After a moment, Adell stood there in the stands, holding his glove over his head to show he still had the ball. It sent Angels Stadium into a frenzy, with chants of "Jo" raining down.
“I think step one is just getting to the spot and the ball was hit high enough where I could get there and kind of look similar a little bit to the ball yesterday, that bounce,” Adell said. “But my positioning was a little bit better and just got there and was able to watch it fall over and ended up in somebody's lap. I don't know who, but it's a softer landing than I thought it would be.”
One is cool. Two is impressive. But three? Three is ridiculous.
“This guy works as hard as anybody I've ever been around,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “His work ethic, attention to detail, his desire to improve every single day. To see him do like that, I don't believe you'll see that again.”
The defensive turnaround for Adell in 2024 was the first season he graded as above average in Outs Above Average, and part of the credit can be put on Hunter, who has been around the team in spring training over the last few seasons as an advisor.
“One thing about Jo, this guy listens,” Hunter said. “For the last three years, he wanted to be better defensively. He actually called it out three years ago, and he’s just been working. And the work ethic that he's put in, it shows on the field.”
For the last three years, Adell has spent his springs absorbing as much information as he can from one of the greatest defensive outfielders of the 2000s.
“It's been huge,” Adell said of Hunter’s impact on his defensive growth. “I think it's mental when you're out there. It's a mindset of going to get the baseball, being aggressive. I think defense early on for me, I felt like I was kind of caught in between on a lot of plays and sometimes that happens and that's part of the game, but just erring on the side of being aggressive and trying to make the plays, you'd be surprised how many you make and that's kind of our mindset.
“That's the mindset that he had for all those years where he played in all those Gold Gloves, so having somebody walk around like that and kind of give you some insight and some of his knowledge is special.”
Adell has seemed to make a home in right field, something that wasn’t always believed that could happen, given the start to his career.
Suzuki was teammates with Adell on the Angels in 2021 and 2022, and got a close-up view of the former top prospect in baseball.
“It wasn't easy, I'll tell you that,” Suzuki said. “It wasn't easy for him. He went through a lot of failure, a lot of things like that, but he kept working. And that’s a credit to his makeup.”
Adell still has a way to go to earn his first Gold Glove. But he’s shown flashes of potential.
He was a finalist for the award in 2024, and three home run robberies in one night definitely won’t hurt his pursuit in 2026.
“I'm proud of him,” Hunter said. “I've seen the work he's put in to be one of the best right fielders in the game. And today, I'm telling you, he proved it.”