DENVER – No, David Hamilton says as his manager lurks with a smirk a few feet behind his interview in the visiting clubhouse at Coors Field, he is still not a home run hitter. Don’t let the recent barrage of big swings fool you.
His mindset, though, is in a place that might allow him to be somewhat of a slugger, at least.
“I’d say it’s shifted,” Hamilton said.
That’s evident in the swings he’s put on balls at the plate of late. Major League Baseball’s leading bunter, Hamilton has only put one down since May 23.
Meanwhile, he’s homered three times in that span after going his first 43 games of the year without going deep once.
It’s enticing, especially when you consider manager Pat Murphy picked Hamilton as his quantum leap candidate for 2026.
It’s also been a while in the making.
“There’s been more work put into this guy than any other guy on the team because you can see it,” Murphy said on a slow morning from his office at Coors Field. “There’s something in these hands. It’s electric. But he’s never been able to have it come out, even in the minor leagues.”
Red Sox wanted Hamilton to pull the ball in the air
To call what the Brewers have done with Hamilton a total swing overhaul may be a bit overstated, but the work, as Murphy alluded to, has been immense. Hamilton, effectively, has been trying to entirely retain the muscle memory associated with his swing since coming over to the Brewers from Boston in February.
“It’s a shellshock to him, but now it’s making sense to him,” Murphy said. “He’s starting to enjoy it. He’s starting to believe it. And that’s where the game starts, when they start believing.”
It’s no coincidence that 15 of Hamilton’s 16 career big-league homers have come on fastballs. His natural inclination when he swings is to pull off with his front side, and so the Red Sox saw this and leaned into it, believing it could allow him to tap into his unassuming raw power by turning on fastballs and pulling them in the air.
The problem is that the league league adjusts quickly – and harshly. As expected, opponents began peppering Hamilton with soft stuff or fastballs away.
“You know why he hammers the ball in here? Because he’s bailing out,” Murphy said. “When somebody knows you’re doing that, they just throw the ball away or they throw you a breaking pitch because you can’t stay on it. Or they just throw it down the middle because you can’t stay on it.
“That’s why he stayed at Triple-A, because they didn’t fix the problem. The muscle memory and all that it takes to fix the problem, it’s really difficult.”
The video below shows just this. Watch Hamilton’s front hip and shoulder, paying attention to how quickly they bail out of the picture, making it impossible for someone with even as good of hands as he has to put a competitive swing on the ball.
Hamilton says the Red Sox pushed him to seek out damage and to be more of a power hitter. While the end goal of that mission isn’t entirely separate from what he’s aiming for now – hitting a line drive somewhere – the mindset is just different enough that it’s made all the difference.
“They wanted more damage, especially early in counts,” Hamilton said. “Early counts and try to damage the ball.
“I guess I’m in a way trying to do that now still, but it’s not thinking about doing damage. It’s thinking about trying to just put a good swing on it. If it goes somewhere hard, it does.
“It’s really about pitch location and what you’re swinging at and trying to get it on the barrel.”
Hamilton has gotten to a point where he isn’t thinking about mechanics anymore, a far cry from where he was early in the year when he was tinkering with his swing.
The Brewers closed on his stance as part of the changes meant to hopefully drill into his muscle memory to not bail out with his front shoulder and hip. It hasn’t been an easy process by any means for both player and team, which knew there was more damage within Hamilton’s profile when they acquired him but had myriad theories for how to access it.
“He’s really put in the work,” Murphy said. “We’ve closed his stance off. His first move is naturally off the ball.
“There’s been even some in-fighting here about how to do it, but the big thing is the player has to accept. For players that got to the big leagues, it can be, ‘What the [heck], I’m in the big leagues, don’t [mess] with me.’”
Hamilton still working through challenges with off-speed but could become a ‘weapon’
Hamilton hasn’t completely eradicated that tendency; watch the embedded video above and you’ll see a pitch from the Rockies series over the weekend where his whole front side was wide open and it led to him waving at air.
Even during his nine-game stretch with three homers and a 1.045 OPS, Hamilton has still been exploited by anything soft, whiffing at a 40.9% clip and batting just .091.
But he has been better.
A 100 mph single through the right side for his third of four hits May 6 in Denver was only his seventh base hit against a non-fastball all year. The swing showed what the Brewers want to see: He remained closed off with his front side, triggered with power on the back side and let his hands do the work to turn on a changeup down and in.
Hamilton feels he’s in a better spot with his mechanics, but isn’t in a place to even tell you why. That’s on purpose.
“It started in spring and then got to where you see something on film and it’s like, ‘Alright, let me try and fix that,’” he said. “You start thinking about that in the box and that’s not a good way to go about it.”
With that approach, Hamilton is beginning to make good on Murphy’s 2026 quantum leap prediction. His season wRC+ is 94, ahead of shortstop names you know like Bo Bichette, Corey Seager, Geraldo Perdomo, Xander Bogaerts, Masyn Winn, Dansby Swanson, Trea Turner and Mookie Betts.
“This kid, the fact he can play short, third, second, center field, anywhere, David Hamilton’s a weapon,” Murphy said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Is David Hamilton making the quantum leap that the Brewers predicted?
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
