With Revere and Murphy, Nats emphasizing contact at the plate

LAKELAND, Fla. - Dusty Baker, as a ballplayer, was considered something of a slugger for his time. He hit at least 20 home runs six times in his career.

He also felt like he struck out too often. Hank Aaron, his Hall of Fame teammate in Atlanta at the start of his career, urged young hitters to shoot for striking out only once every 10 times up. Baker couldn't quite pull that off, ending his career with a strikeout rate of 11.5 percent.

Three decades later, Baker will fill out a lineup card as Nationals manager that includes leadoff man Ben Revere, one of the best contact hitters in the sport right now. Revere's strikeout rate last season? 10.1 percent.

The times, suffice it to say, have changed. Strikeouts occur at an all-time high these days, a byproduct certainly of better and deeper pitching staffs and a wider and lower strike zone. But it's also a byproduct of a philosophy among big league hitters that striking out isn't nearly as bad a thing as it was back when Baker played.

"It's a hard sell, because they can still get paid striking out," the 66-year-old manager said. "It wouldn't be so hard to sell if they were convinced that they were not helping the team by striking out."

Baker pointed out the two exhibition games the Nationals tied last week.

"In those games, there was a runner on third base, less than two outs," he said. "And all of those games, multiple times if we just put the ball in play, we had a chance to win those games."

The Nationals collectively struck out 22 percent of the time last season, the fifth-highest rate in the majors. (The lowest rate: 15.9 percent, by the World Series champion Royals.) Among all qualified big league hitters, Michael A. Taylor's 30.9 percent strikeout rate ranked second, with Ian Desmond's 29.2 percent rate ranking fourth.

So when general manager Mike Rizzo went out seeking additions to his lineup over the winter, he wound up bringing in two guys known for (among other things) making contact as well as just about anyone in the sport: Revere (whose 10.1 percent rate last season was seventh-lowest in baseball) and Daniel Murphy (who led the majors at 7.1 percent).

Revere has always taken pride in his ability to put the bat on the ball. It's something of a necessity for a guy whose game is built around speed, not power.

"That's how you get most hits, especially a speed guy like myself," he said. "I try to hit the ball, put it in play. You do that, anything can happen. It's tough to hit in this game. You're facing the best pitchers in the world. But if you get a chance to put the ball in play, and you have great speed, I think a majority of the time you can get lucky."

Murphy is a rare contact specialist who also hits for some power, most notably during his late-season and October home run binge last year with the Mets.

Together, the two of them bring a different look to the Nationals' 2016 lineup, potentially right at the top. Baker has hit Revere and Murphy in 1-2 several times this spring, including today's game against the Tigers. Even though they're both left-handed, with lefty Bryce Harper a fixture in the No. 3 slot, Baker likes the idea of having two good contact hitters in front of his biggest bopper, potentially creating more RBI opportunities for Harper (who despite his MVP performance last season only drove in a relatively modest 99 runs).

"A strikeout, nothing can happen," Baker said. "You better be hitting a whole bunch of home runs. And then you can take strikeouts. But a strikeout means nothing can happen. I don't understand how you could see it any other way. Because you've got to catch it, then you've got to throw it, then there's a guy that's got to catch it on the other end. There's three things that can happen in your favor. Walking back and sitting down, ain't nothing that can happen. Unless you're going to use the bathroom or something."

That's a philosophy Revere has always abided by, going back to his childhood days learning the art of hitting by watching videos of Ted Williams, who famously struck out only 27 times while hitting .406 in 1941.

"I used to watch videos," Revere said. "It was just a nice, level swing. It wasn't straight down. It wasn't straight up. It was just nice and level through the whole zone. That way, even if it's an offspeed pitch or a changeup, you can have your bat in the zone long enough to put the ball in play."

Revere admits that philosophy works for him but doesn't necessarily work for every hitter, most who are built differently than him and certainly have the ability to drive the ball a lot farther than he does.

But there does seem to be a slowly building consensus around baseball. Strikeouts have been tolerated for much of the last decade. Perhaps recent events, though, are changing opinions and confirming what Baker has believed all along.

"Look at them Kansas City Royals," he said. "It pays to put the ball in play. I don't know how much more I can say it, or how much simpler I can say it."