What your favorite MLB player can learn from TikToks of his favorite player
Washington Nationals outfielder Daylen Lile rolled out of bed, grabbed his phone and typed out what any baseball-obsessed Gen Zer might: “Shohei Ohtani highlights.”
He searched, however, with more intention than most. Lile was at Class AA Harrisburg at the time and knew Ohtani gets his front foot down quicker than most other hitters. So did Lile. Their swings were not exactly the same, but Lile figured there might be something he could borrow. After some scrolling and some help from the algorithm, Lile found exactly what he was looking for.
“There were some crazy drills — like Japanese-type drills,” Lile said. “I mean, I saw Shohei hitting with a cricket bat.”
Lile never even had to purchase one: When he got to the field that day, a teammate had a cricket bat in his bag. Lile never asked why, and he doesn’t remember whose bag it was. Maybe he saw the Ohtani video, too. Regardless, Lile figured he might as well swipe it for the afternoon and try it out during warm-ups. The piece of equipment, in theory, is supposed to help a hitter understand how to flatten his bat path and barrel the baseball.
“Kind of funny — I ended up hitting a home run that day,” Lile said. “So I was like, ‘Well, I guess I’m going to keep this going.’”
Lile is far from the only young ballplayer who turns to Instagram, YouTube or TikTok in times of need or curiosity. The 22-year-old exists on one end of the spectrum, with baseball videos populating about 50% of his algorithm and much of his search history. On the other end is pitcher Jackson Rutledge, who figured food content far outnumbered baseball clips. Most Nationals players agreed that what they have found online hasn’t had a huge impact on their makeup as players; maybe a grip here or a drill there. But many could also point to at least one helpful thing they learned from watching a big leaguer’s interview, routine or highlight online.
Right-hander Brad Lord, for instance, was very deliberate with the search process. This offseason, between shifts at Home Depot, he tried to figure out why his slider refused to leave his hand with any sort of consistency. When he used traditional slider grips, the ball came out of his hand moving like a cutter, or the horizontal break on the pitch would vary widely from one pitch to the next.
And so, every few days before he played catch, Lord’s trainer would approach him with an interview that explained a new slider grip. Then, during the workout, Lord would throw the pitch with the grip. Eventually, he learned it was best to find a “spike” grip and let his middle finger command the pitch, as he would with a curveball. Finally, after a lot of trial and error, they found their way to Texas Rangers righty Kumar Rocker and his “Death Ball.”
Yeah, Lord decided.
That was it.
“I don’t really watch baseball a whole bunch outside of playing it and looking for tips and stuff,” Lord said. “But, yeah, I think … it was helpful, and we’d just try to replicate (what we saw).”
The next — and most important — step is working with the Nationals’ coaches. Pitching coaches Jim Hickey and Sean Doolittle help Lord keep his grip consistent, checking to see whether it slips or alters throughout the season.
“These guys are a tremendous tool — and lots of knowledge between them, too,” Lord said. “It’s fun to pick their brains, go to them and say, ‘Hey, I want to look at this today.’”
For pitchers, it’s a lot of work on tinkering with grips and cues. Most of what they try out will never see the light of an MLB game. But every now and then, there’s an idea that works. Before Zach Brzykcy was demoted, he said the rise on his changeup, for instance, came from watching an interview in which Max Scherzer talked about throwing off his ring finger.
Cole Henry hasn’t implemented any in a game yet, but he thinks injured Arizona Diamondbacks starter Corbin Burnes’s cutter could fit in his repertoire, and he messed around with some grips he saw online. Rutledge’s splitter grip — and the blood blister that sometimes follows it — came from watching Toronto Blue Jays righty Kevin Gausman on “Pitching Ninja,” a popular channel that was the most frequently cited source for helpful interviews.
“That’s the nice thing about social media being in baseball now,” Rutledge said. “We get to share ideas a little bit easier.”
A few holdouts remain. Konnor Pilkington said coaches have taught and introduced everything he has ever needed to know. But every once in a while, there would be a player like Lile who finds a diamond in the algorithm — maybe Freddie Freeman’s batting practice, he said, or Bryan Reynolds’s drills. Or, of course, Ohtani.