Nick Ahmed Showing Drastic Improvement During May
Over the course of a long and grueling 162-game season, every player across the major leagues is prone to times of both highs and lows.
The month of April for Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed was about low as you can get with the bat. In 57 at-bats during April, the 25-year-old had only eight hits and 19 strikeouts, a high amount for any hitter, but especially for a player with little pop in their bat.
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What a difference a month can make. May has been much kinder to the former second round pick out of Connecticut.
In 47 May at-bats, Ahmed has a .298 average while cutting down his strikeout totals significantly and offering more production at the bottom of the D’Backs lineup. Seven of Ahmed’s eight RBI’s and six of his total eight runs on the season have come in this month alone.
The highlight of Ahmed’s season so far came in last night’s come from victory over the Chicago Cubs from Chase Field. He hit a home run early on in the ball game and then hit a walk-off double down the line in the 13th inning to give his team their fifth straight win.
Just a few short weeks ago, the organization was facing a tough decision on what to do with Ahmed. Sure, he was providing Gold Glove caliber defense at shortstop, but he was hitting well below the Mendoza line and was essentially an automatic out at the back-end of the Diamondbacks lineup.
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With the way he has hit the ball the past couple of weeks, you can no longer say that about Ahmed. He’ll still provide you with that great glove and he’s no longer pushover when he steps into the box.
It will be interesting to see what the organization does with this infield once Jake Lamb returns from injury. Yasmany Tomas has hit the cover off the ball ever since Lamb was placed on the disabled list and Chris Owings and Ahmed have held their over the last couple of weeks.
You would have to figure that Aaron Hill is the odd man out. However, with his contract, he’s going to be tough to move and there’s very little chance that the club releases him outright having already ate Cody Ross‘ deal.
Too much depth on the infield is always nice to have. I just wouldn’t want to be Chip Hale or a member of the front office trying to make these decisions.
Thank Ahmed’s improved offense over the past month for that.