KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The reinvention of Mike Moustakas started over the winter, when he sidled up to a tee or stood in for a soft-toss session. Every ball he hit went to the left side. Moustakas always relied on his hands, quick as a mousetrap, to help him punish baseballs, and in this case they were of particular importance, because without their cooperation he was bound to be the same ineffective hitter of a year earlier.

What drove the Kansas City Royals' third baseman to this place was an abdication of pride, a grand survival instinct and a realization that he loves playing baseball enough to change. Forever a pull-happy left-handed power hitter, Moustakas no longer could be that if he wanted to be an effective major leaguer, because the widespread defensive shifting he saw last season defeated him, and doubling down wasn't the answer.

"Last year, I was really stubborn," Moustakas said. "I didn't think I could get beat by the shift. I felt like I could hit through it. I realized I can't."

View photos Mike Moustakas is making contact on more than 94 percent of pitches in the strike zone. (AP) More

No other major leaguer has copped to this reality, though Moustakas' transformation early this season could well offer a template for learning how to defeat the shift. In 27 games, Moustakas has as many hits to left field this season as he did all of last year. His 18 opposite-field hits lead baseball. Less than a year after a demotion to Triple-A, Moustakas is hitting above .300, making contact on more than 94 percent of pitches in the strike zone and not just batting second but making Ned Yost look brilliant for putting him there.

"He's probably the best hitter on our team all-around," Royals outfielder Alex Gordon said. "Going the other way, working counts – that's why he's in the two-hole for us."

Should Moustakas' production hold, certainly those upon whom shifts have wreaked havoc as they further proliferate will reach out to him seeking counsel. Already this year, according to Baseball Info Solutions, shifting is up 34 percent across the game, putting teams on pace for nearly 18,000 shifts – or one in every 10 or so plate appearances. The novelty of five years ago, when a handful of teams combined for 2,464 shifts, is now an ingrained part of the game. And in baseball, doing the same illogical thing again and again – like, say, pulling the ball into a shift that stacks five of the seven available defensive players on the same side of the field – is a time-honored tradition.

Moustakas, 26, considered such rationale and found it as stupid as it sounds. He was not David Ortiz, the king of the shift who has managed to hit through it. Nor was he Robinson Cano, a left-handed hitter so pure teams rarely, if ever, realigned their fielders. Moustakas was vulnerable, something he learned on opening day 2014, when Detroit wheeled around its defense. He panicked, hit a pair of groundballs into the shift and spent the next seven weeks flailing similarly before the Royals shipped him to Triple-A.

"I was still a good hitter," Moustakas said. "That shift really hurt me a lot. I remember 10 or 15 balls where I'd hit line drives past the second baseman, and there'd be a guy just camped out there in short right field ready to catch it. After doing that for a full season, I told myself I can't do this anymore. I can't continue to bury myself into this shift. I know that I'm a good hitter. I know I have the ability to go the other way."

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