Back at third, Hunter Dozier wants to be ‘even better’ for Royals than he was in 2019
The undeniable truth to Hunter Dozier’s career is this: His best season with the Royals by far occurred when he played a majority of the season at third base.
In 2019, Dozier played 100 games at third. He hit .279 with 26 home runs, 84 RBIs and posted an .870 OPS. His 2.8 wins above replacement (WAR) was third on the team behind Jorge Solar, who led the American League in home runs, and Whit Merrifield, who topped the league in several offensive categories.
Since then, Dozier has pinballed around the diamond, to first base, to right field, to left field. But as spring training officially opened on Wednesday, Dozier was back at third base — and this is where he wants to be.
“It feels good to be back over there, and I have a chance to stay there all year,” Dozier said. “I’m happy about it.”
This doesn’t mean Dozier won’t pull an occasional shift at another position. Even in the year he played the majority of games at third base, Dozer also played 20 games in right field and 15 as a designated hitter.
New Royals manager Matt Quatraro said Dozier won’t be “entrenched” at third and wants to mix and match lineups to maximize matchups. But...
“Hunter is going to predominantly play third,” Quatraro said. “Like most guys, when they know what’s expected of them, it takes a little of the mental burden off.”
With his productive 2019, Dozier appeared to be the successor to Mike Moustakas, who had been traded the previous season. But the pandemic-shortened 2020 season was even shorter for Dozier, who missed the first part of it with COVID-19.
In each of the last two seasons, nobody has played more than 57 games at third base for the Royals. Last year, Bobby Witt Jr. opened his rookie season at there with Adalberto Mondesi at shortstop. When Witt moved to short after Mondesi’s early injury, Emmanuel Rivera led a group that played third base. Dozier got 25 starts there.
Dozier, who signed a four-year extension before the 2021 season and will make $7.5 million this year, hasn’t come close to matching his 2019 season. He hit 16 home runs with a .680 OPS in 2021 and 12 homers with a .679 OPS last year while being moved around both seasons.
He said most of his pre-spring training glove work was done at third base.
“I wanted to get focused and comfortable again,” Dozier said. “Third base is a position where I have to work hard, and I have to play to get used to all the reads. I feel like the past three years, when I got over there I wasn’t as good as as I was in ‘18 and ‘19 because I wasn’t over there every day.
“Hopefully I’ll get back to where I was — and even better.”
This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 3:22 PM.