Alek Boychuk may have seen his senior season end early because of Coronavirus, but that hasn’t stopped his offseason training.
The Gamecock baseball signee is spending the wealth of free time he has now training at a few different places in Georgia, and at one of those he’s getting some advice from a former big league catcher in Brian McCann.
“Brian knows everything,” Boychuk said. “He’s been catching in the big leagues for a while and he’s been helping me out tremendously.”
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Boychuk is training with Brad McCann, who spent six years in the minor leagues and now spends his time training baseball players in the offseason.
Brian McCann, who just retired last year after 15 seasons in the major leagues, is spending more time now with his brother and it’s allowed Boychuk, who’s also a catcher, to get some advice before coming to South Carolina.
“It’s not even all physical with him,” Boychuk said. “Half the time when I’m talking to him it’s more mental. He wants me to get in my head and understand what’s going on and what I need to be doing, where I’m setting up.”
McCann had a phenomenal career in the majors, breaking into the league with Atlanta and spending 10 years there before moving to the Yankees for three seasons, Houston for two and back to Atlanta for his final season in 2019.
Over the course of that time he was a seven-time all star, six-time Silver Slugger with a career .262/.337/.452 slash line and 282 career home runs.
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Over the course of his career he had 18 defensive runs saved at catcher and threw out 297 runners.
It’s that talent Boychuk—who PerfectGame considers the No. 90 player in the 2020 class—is trying to learn as much as he can from to try and earn innings as quickly as possible once he arrives on campus.
“He made adjustments with my pop times. A couple years ago I’d get jabby sometimes. I really worked on this offseason letting the ball come to me and don’t meet the ball there and let it come to me. That saves a lot of time,” Boychuk said.
“That’s something he said he picked up when he went to the Yankees. He worked on that all that season and said that’s the best he ever felt and eh threw out more guys that season and felt amazing. It’s good to get with a guy like that who knows what he’s doing and pick his brain.”
During quarantine Boychuk has been able to work out some, getting a little leaner and putting on some good weight as he prepares to jump to the next level.
He’s working on simplifying his swing—cutting down on bat movement, adjusting how he’s standing pre-pitch and loading with his back hip a little more—to try and get to the ball and through the zone quicker.
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“I’ve been working on getting a little higher in my hips so I get more leverage. When I’m loading in my back hip, that’s where I sink more in my legs and I get more leverage,” he said. “I’ve always been a guy with a wiggle bat but lately I’ve been putting my bat on my shoulder and it’s more rested and a more simple swing. All I have to do is sit up right and when the ball’s coming in I’ll sink to my back hip and push my hands so I don’t have to move my barrel on anything.”
It’s something he’s also picked up from a current big leaguer: World Series champion and two-time all star Alex Bregman.
“I took his approach where he almost has this thing where he has stiffer hands and it looks so simple. He doesn’t move his hands at all and right where his hands are at he goes straight to the ball,” he said. “He’s just like pushing it but he’s staying through the ball. That’s been my entire approach this offseason just being as calm as possible and don’t have a lot of moving parts and be as simple as possible and stay through the baseball.”
