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Kelenic is 6-for-11 (.545) with a double, two RBI, two runs scored and a 2:2 BB:K to begin the season.
The 24-year-old has yet to get a plate appearance against a left-handed pitcher while platooning with Adam Duvall in left field for Atlanta, but Kelenic has been ripping the cover off the ball against righties. Hitting coach Kevin Seitzer credited the hot start to mechanical adjustments Kelenic made with his swing in training camp, David O'Brien of The Athletic reports. "We quieted down all the hand movement," Seitzer said this week. "Then the last adjustment was him saying, 'I just want to bang the leg kick.' He goes, 'I'm trying to do too much, swinging too hard, my timing is not good.' He goes, 'I've done this before where I've just kind of spread out and gone just a little no-stride.' Well, his spread-out, no-stride has equated into a real small leg kick, and it's helped his position on his takes." Kelenic's simpler swing has allowed him to see the ball better as well as get to it quicker when he pulls the trigger -- while the sample size is tiny, his 21.2 percent whiff rate so far in 2024 would be a career low, even though his 52.4 percent swing rate would be a career high. While his fantasy ceiling is limited by his platoon role and the fact that he's batting ninth in a stacked Atlanta lineup, the sixth overall pick in the 2018 Draft could still be headed for a long-awaited breakout.
