How the Covid-19 pandemic changed Addison Barger's baseball trajectory forever

Barger became the first Blue Jays hitter to homer in four straight games since Teoscar Hernández achieved the feat in August 2021.

It was Barger's second hit of the game and sixth long ball of the season. The utility man is now slashing .274/.338/.508 over 39 games for Toronto this season.

A sixth-round pick of the Blue Jays in 2018, Barger began his homer heater in Game 2 of Toronto's series against the Athletics before leaving the yard in the next two contests, as well.

While Tuesday's homer wasn't nearly as exciting as Sunday's go-ahead blast, it did put Barger onto an exclusive list of Blue Jays hitters.

There had previously only been 26 four-game homer streaks in franchise history, with 20 different hitters accomplishing the feat, Edwin Encarnacion did it on four separate occasions.

Barger has punched his way into the starting lineup, with hard-swinging power and a versatility that takes him from third base to the outfield with the hardest thing of all for any big leaguer on the rise: An inner confidence that belies his accomplishments to date.

COVID-19 changed a lot of our lives in a lot of different ways and the pandemic changed Barger's baseball path. He lost a minor-league season in 2020, as did so many of his cohorts. That was supposed to hurt budding prospects, not help.

Most of us spent our COVID time binging the latest that Netflix had to offer. Not Barger. He decided to put the time to work, to invest in whatever he thought was going to be his career. Three things became part of his professional day.

One, he started lifting more weights than ever before, lifting obsessively and, over time, became exponentially stronger. Barger did not inherit the kind of body he current owns. He was a tiny guy growing up. He was all of 160 pounds when the Blue Jays drafted him.

He wanted more weight and more strength, so weightlifting became his daily mantra. That, and eating more and eating right and gaining muscle.

The third thing, changing his swing. He could hit the ball before, but his swing was not memorable or violent. He wanted to swing harder than he had ever swung before.

He did that after batting practice pitch during COVID, developing the swing he now shows on a nightly basis with the Jays.

Now he weighs more than 220 and he swings harder than just about anyone in baseball, and that combination of new size, new strength, new body, new approach, turned him from marginal prospect to every-day big leaguer.

Addison Barger. The latest Blue Jays hope. Legitimate hope.

It's early June and he's only 25 and, who knows, this self-made kid from COVID may well be the real deal.

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Source: Toronto Sun
Credit Steve Simmons
SIMMONS: Bam Bam Barger may be the real deal for Blue Jays