PHILADELPHIA -- Caleb Bonemer has always been a good interview, but especially for this site, as he's always willing to dive into the weeds discussing his swing.
But that might be the wrong way to describe it. It's more like we're diving into the weeds of his swing. Bonemer simply lives there, even as he's standing at his locker before the MLB Futures Game, donning an All-Star jersey and surrounded by the most media members he's ever seen in his life.
"It's a problem that I probably have to get a little bit better at, not always over-analyzing it," said Bonemer
At several points in this conversation, Bonemer naturally begins to drift toward miming out his setup with his hands. If you want to feel old, the 20-year-old Michigan name only had a flicker of recognition at the mention of the name Carlos Quentin, but nevertheless described an inclination to ruminate on his swing mechanics reminiscent of a great old White Sox commercial about the similarly perfectionist right-hander slugger.
"A lot of guys give me crap a lot of the time for always doing feels and stuff in the mirror, but it's the way it is and the way I am, because I think mechanics are very important," Bonemer said. "Guys are telling me, 'Get out of the mirror!' But I don't know. If it works, it works."
All told, Bonemer has hit .246/.381/.528 with 22 home runs in 82 games across both High-A and Double-A and won't turn 21 until October. Even in a White Sox farm system with more ascendent hitters than past years, it's not surprising no teammate has successfully argued him out of his process.
For Bonemer, everything originates from his swing. Not just in the sense that he's a bat-first prospect who has moved to mostly playing third base this season, and started at the hot corner on Sunday in Philadelphia. But for any element of his approach, for any struggle, for any needed adjustment, he will first probe for a mechanical inefficiency that could be exacerbating the issue.
"I feel if my swing is locked in, that takes care of a lot of things," Bonemer said. "It just gives me a lot more room for error with timing and things like that. So sometimes I do think it can get to me a little bit mentally, too much. Like, I'm always focused on little things in my swing. But yeah, I'm a big mechanics guy. That's why I try to be simple, just so I can compete with it."
By the end of May, Bonemer's relentlessness on turning his swing loose on fastballs was running into a very specific kind of wall. He had clocked 15 home runs in his first 49 games, but also seen his strikeout rate tilt over 30 percent for the year. As Randal Grichuk said when explaining the plight of White Sox hitters against Red Sox lefties earlier this week, once opposing pitchers notice them gear up for their fastballs, it triggers an obvious countermove, and Bonemer was starting to see nothing but the countermove.
"There were a few games there where I wasn't getting any fastballs," Bonemer said "My whole life I've looked fastball, like, be committed to the heater. But it got to the point where it's like, 'If I'm not going to get one, why would I look for it?'"
To that point, Bonemer would concur that his most recent home run, shown above where he stays back on a changeup and drives it out to the opposite field, is a sign of progress. Pulling balls out to left field will always be the bedrock of his offensive game, but while his teammates might not be able to convince him to stop miming out his swing, hitting director Ryan Fuller has found a way to show him when he's leaning too far into his bread and butter, and maybe when he can approach his game a different way than is typical to him.
"We had a great conversation," Bonemer said. "He was showing me some data and stuff. Pretty much he was telling me that my contact point was the farthest out in front out of anybody in all of baseball. Like, major leagues and minor leagues. When he told me that it was like, 'Oh wow, that's kind of crazy.' After we talked, I made a few adjustments. I was getting a lot of spin and it was hard for me to keep the breaking balls fair. Not really mechanical adjustments, more mental adjustments, which kind of changed me mechanically. Even at Double-A, guys have a lot of good spin, you've got to be able to handle it."
Farm director Paul Janish explained that while Bonemer's promotion to Birmingham last month seemed to come when he wasn't piling up his biggest results of the year, the Sox felt his underlying indicators showed that the infielder was making progress. Sure enough, Bonemer's strikeout rate has stayed under 24 percent in the Southern League.
That probably won't stop him from miming his swing, though, since Bonemer's other constant little habit is downplaying any accomplishment that isn't the success he envisions for himself in the major leagues. Bonemer smiled when reminded of an old anecdote that when his friend Colson Montgomery texted him congratulations for his initial addition to MLB Pipeline's top-100 prospect list, he grumbled that he was literally only the 100th-ranked prospect, and that when he won Carolina League MVP last season, he noted that it was only A-ball.
"I don't really like talking about myself and my accomplishments a lot," Bonemer said. "It feels good to be able to have success. It feels good, but I try to keep it in perspective. At the end of the day, it is just the minor leagues. The goal is to get to The Show and help out the big league club."
To his credit, it looked like Bonemer allowed himself to enjoy the Futures Game honor, even while going 0-for-2 with a popout and groundout. It helps that all the high-end pitching talent and big crowd present allowed him to see it as preparation for the highest level.
"I felt like I was playing a video game almost," Bonemer said afterward. "Great environment. It's a dream to play in front of a bunch of people like that."
It'll only change his demeanor but so much. At the end of Bonemer's last round of pre-game batting practice, he was approached by Kenny Lofton. He didn't immediately recognize the 59-year-old former star, but is well aware of his brilliance, to the point that his feedback resonated...and reaffirmed.
"He said he liked my swing, so keep doing what I'm doing. So, that was pretty cool."
