Brewers first baseman Jesus Aguilar was one of the best sluggers in baseball in 2018 and a pretty fun breakout player at that. Heading into Monday, however, his 2019 season had been a disaster: He was hitting .123/.217/.151 with zero home runs in 85 plate appearances.
He appears ready to put his power struggles behind him. Here is the big man with a three-run shot in the first:
And then he hit another one in his next at-bat:
Aguilar actually didn't homer for the first time last season until April 21, but he wasn't a starter early in the year. His first homer -- which was a pinch-hit, walk-off job, by the way -- came on his 31st at-bat and 35th plate appearance. His biggest drought after that was from Aug. 14-28, when he had 53 plate appearances and 47 at-bats without a home run. He ended the season with 35 homers in 492 at-bats, so he hit one every 14.1 at-bats.
Even without regular playing time in 2017, Aguilar homered once every 17.4 at-bats (16 HR in 279 AB).
Especially in light of the 2018 breakout, the miserable start to Aguilar's season in 2019 was pretty shocking. He probably was starting to press, too. Seeing the huge smiles there while celebrating with teammates was watching a guy feeling the weight of the world coming off his chest. Don't be surprised to see a hot streak now. Baseball has a way of evening things out.
