Hunter Renfroe’s first hit of the spring shot 410 feet into a breeze and was just descending when it bounced off the batter’s eye beyond the center field wall.

The feeling is Renfroe will need more of that kind of hitting to retain his spot in the Padres’ lineup.

Believe it or not, the former first-rounder draft pick’s status is one of the biggest “ifs” hanging over spring training.

Renfroe has flashed the talent — certainly the power and arm — to suggest he will be a solid big-leaguer. What the Padres are looking for is championship-caliber players, and Renfroe has some work to do to be more complete.


The 26-year-old set a Padres rookie record with 26 home runs in 2017, but he swatted at far too many bad pitches. His strikeout rate of nearly 30 percent was higher than his on-base percentage.

And his inability to hit right-handed pitchers made him almost a liability on many nights, an unfortunate circumstance he was placed in due to injuries elsewhere in the outfield not allowing him to platoon.

“There wasn’t much of a time last year where we soft-served him,” manager Andy Green said. “He went up there against everybody. We didn’t take him out of the lineup, we didn’t platoon. We didn’t try to make it easier on him.”

It is possible, if not probable, that this season Renfroe would be part of a platoon in one of the corner outfield positions (whichever one Wil Myers isn’t playing). Franchy Cordero, Alex Dickerson and Travis Jankowski all bat left-handed, and Jose Pirela does well enough from the right side. Pirela is a virtual lock to be on the team as both an outfielder and infielder, and one of the three left-handed bats figures to as well.


In the meantime, Renfroe works to improve. It’s a little early to say where he is in that progress.

Renfroe’s mammoth homer Monday was off Angels left-hander Tyler Skaggs. On Tuesday against Seattle, he grounded into a double-play against lefty James Paxton and hit into a fielder’s choice against right-hander Christian Bergman. He is 0-for-8 against righties this spring, though he has hit a couple sharp outs.

“I’ve had good at-bats against righties,” Renfroe said. “I think it’s going good.”

Against right-handed pitching in 2017, his batting average was 114 points lower, his on-base percentage was nearly 150 points lower, and his slugging percentage was hardly more than half what it was against left-handers. He hit a home run every 22 at-bats against righties versus every 10.4 at-bats against lefties.


Unfortunately, right-handed pitching is far more prevalent. Renfroe’s .202/.244/.393 line against righties came in 349 plate appearances. In 130 appearances against lefties, he went .316/.392/.684.

Hitters aren’t wired to concede. Renfroe doesn’t see the adjustment he has to make — a relatively subtle shift in his stance so he sees the ball differently coming from the right side — as prohibitive.

More than anything, he acknowledges the grind of his first big-league season was overwhelming.

“It was tough,” he said. “I was ready to go. But about the middle of the year it started draining on me. I was tired. My body started wearing down.”


The Padres noticed as Renfroe came up through the minors and even all the way back to college, he was a far better player in his second go-round at each level. He didn’t play much as a freshman and wasn’t on anyone’s radar until just before his junior season at Mississippi State and was the 13th overall pick 12 months later.

He also hit right-handers pretty well in the minors, including a .306/.336/.557 line in 2016 at Triple-A El Paso.

Major league fastballs move and generally don’t cross squarely over the plate. Big-league breaking pitches veer more sharply. Pitchers and coaches are smarter. The positioning of fielders is based on computers full of data.

“You get used to everything going on,” Renfroe said. “It’s a big learning experience. … You’re trying to figure out what you need to work on. I’ve tried to do that, and it has worked so far.”


kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com