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So he measured Rodríguez’s bat speed again. And again. And again. It kept coming back absurdly high: 80 mph. There was nothing wrong with the sensor. “As a 17-year-old he was posting bat speeds that were well above major league average,” DeHart says. “We realized we were dealing with someone very special.”

Bat speed alone did not satisfy Rodríguez. In 2020 he began talking to his personal hitting coach, Osvaldo Diaz, about a major swing change. Diaz, 40, a former minor leaguer from Cuba who has tutored three of the past four AL Rookies of the Year (Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena and Yordan Alvarez), did not want to incorporate the changes during a season in which Rodríguez starred for the Dominican Olympic team. They dived into the changes that offseason.

In days gone by, hitters such as Ted Williams talked about pulling the bottom hand through a pitch to generate power. “Because there was a lot of whip action to the bat,” Diaz says, “but people also rolled over a lot. And guys didn’t throw 102 with sinking action then. So today we have to adjust.”

Diaz emphasizes the top hand to control the barrel. He doesn’t believe in getting the barrel on the plane of the pitch early. Instead, he prefers a short, quick downward path driven by the top hand. From the point of contact, the top hand extends toward the center field wall and then upward with the palm remaining up. The top wrist never rolls over the way it did in the classic Williams swing. “That’s where you get the backspin and carry,” Diaz says.

Rodríguez hits with Diaz in the offseason twice a day, five or six times per week after his morning training sessions in the gym. (He employs a strength trainer, speed trainer, hitting coach and chef.) Every session begins with a top-hand drill. Rodríguez holds his bat close to his right chest with his right hand about 15 inches from the knob. Before the changes Rodríguez hit with his hands high over his right shoulder. Diaz places a ball on a tee close to Rodríguez’s body. It looks like someone about to hit inside a phone booth. Diaz prefers another analogy.

“The first move is like hitting with a straitjacket,” he says. “Your hands are close to your body. You’re really connected. The first thing is to feel tight. Then we turn. Top hand down. And after we feel connection we lift it with the head of the bat.

“You have to be tight to be loose. Easy to remember. Not easy to do.”

Watching Rodríguez take batting practice at Tampa Catholic High School in February was stunning. Almost without exception, the balls he hit traced a beautiful parabola across the blue sky, never too high and never, ever on the ground. Rodríguez finished each swing with the barrel of the bat extended over his head and his palm up. It was the same swing he used to loft 81 home runs in last summer’s All-Star Home Run Derby. Only Vladimir Guerrero Jr., in 2019, has ever hit more.

A month after the Derby, Seattle signed Rodríguez to a contract that guarantees him $209.3 million over 12 years and, including options and incentives, could be worth $469.3 million over 17 years.

“We haven’t seen nothin’ yet,” Diaz says. “I see MVP. I see him winning a World Series and I see him being a player for at least seven to 10 years at the highest level because of his work ethic. Even with the contract and all the attention that he gets, this kid’s not going to change.”