The burden will fall upon Mets hitting coach Dave Hudgens to rebuild Chris Young, to turn this risky acquisition back into a value stock. Before the new Mets outfielder turns himself over to Hudgens, however, he received a tune-up from a valued set of eyes.
“He did great,” Rod Carew told The Post, in a telephone interview Tuesday night, of his work with Young. “We took out a lot of thinking. I want him seeing the ball and reacting to the ball. … He was concentrating on what we were doing.”
Working with Carew was “a nice treat,” Young said, also in a telephone interview with The Post: “It definitely can’t hurt.”
As Mets general manager Sandy Alderson actually wielded a checkbook and competed for high-shelf free agents this winter, his first such opportunity in his fourth year as the team’s general manager, Young — at one year and $7.25 million — represented a considerably lower financial risk than Curtis Granderson (four years, $60 million) and Young’s 2013 A’s teammate Bartolo Colon (two years, $20 million).
Yet, let’s face it: Many fans and media types professed the most confusion over Alderson’s commitment to Young, who put up an underwhelming .200/.280/.379 slash line with Oakland last year. In all, Young’s OPS has decreased each of the last three seasons.
His downward trend prompted Young, who turned 30 in September, to change up his offseason routine. He started working a month earlier than normal, in late October as opposed to Thanksgiving — this even though his A’s played in the American League Championship Series — and he reestablished a relationship with an old friend while introducing himself to a new acquaintance.
The old friend is James Cooper, a Houston-based trainer with a primary background in football and mixed martial arts who helped rebuild Vikings running back Adrian Peterson after Peterson tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee.
Young, who lives in Houston, reunited with Cooper after about 10 years apart. They worked together five days a week, focusing on Young’s core strength.
“I want to feel more athletic on the field,” Young said.
He cited the football-ish physique of Angels stud outfielder Mike Trout and added, with a laugh, “Being as strong as possible is an OK advantage.”
Listed at 192 pounds in the 2013 A’s media guide, Young said he is up to between 200 and 205 pounds.
The new acquaintance is Carew, whom Young met through his agent Larry Reynolds. While Young spent most of his offseason working with Houston hitting guru Sid Holland, he twice traveled to the Anaheim area — for four or five days per visit — to meet with Carew, who worked as a big-league hitting coach for the Angels and Brewers.
Carew hit lefty, while Young is a right-hander. And Carew, as we geezers recall, was more of a patient slap hitter, with a marvelous career line of .328/.393/.429, while Young has four seasons with 20-plus homers on his résumé. So Young didn’t strive to emulate Carew. It was more a matter of having a fresh, respected set of eyes on Young.
“Chris is the kind if hitter that wants to pull everything,” Carew said. “We worked on using his hands more instead of trying to muscle the ball. On tracking the ball.”
Young backed up Carew’s version of events, saying he worked on hitting the ball to all fields.
“If you focus more on your average, the power will always be there,” he said. “If you’re squaring the ball up more consistently, the power will come.”
Consistency at the plate represents Young’s goal in 2014.
“ ‘Consistent’ in my eyes is .280 and up. It’s what pops in my head,” he said. “It means you don’t have long slumps, you beat out some grounders and you hit all types of balls to all fields to keep yourself out of trouble.”
The Mets probably would settle for, let’s say, a .250 average with a .450 slugging percentage and solid defense in the outfield. Young reiterated he is most comfortable in center field.
Carew urged his pupil to keep in touch during the year, although he made sure to defer to Hudgens. If Young can get his offense back to mere adequacy, though, the Mets won’t care who gets the credit.