“Toro, Toro, Toro… Toro!” “. The Astros’ house commentator described Abraham Toro’s fourth hit on Sunday night against the Chicago White Sox.
The third baseman, born in Longueuil and drafted by the Astros in 2016, has had a great time in Houston since his recall from the AAA on June 16.
An injury to all-star Alex Bregman has once again opened the door to the majors. And he doesn’t want it to close.
“I’m doing everything I can to help the team and show that I’m here to stay,” said the 24-year-old Quebecer, joined in Baltimore, where the Astros were playing a three-game series this week.
“When you get shot down, it’s a bit of a pocket feeling,” he concedes, smiling. I don’t want that to happen, I want to stay here. ”
Toro had a first chance at the start of the 2021 season with the big club, then was demoted to Sugar Land Skeeters at the end of April. He had only hit one hit in 12 batting appearances.
For a week in Houston, it’s abundance. Ten hits, including two home runs, nine RBIs and an average of .417 in 24 appearances. His team are on a ten-game winning streak, and he’s been involved in the last six.
What changed between April and June?
Just playing AAA every day gave me the timing. Everything clicked.
Abraham Toro
“It was a bit disappointing [d’être rétrogradé], but I understood the decision. They didn’t want me to be on the team just to be on the bench. I’m still young, they wanted to take me down so I could be consistent and have my turns at bat. “
It must be said that Toro had also tasted the MLB in 2019 and 2020. We will remember among other things his circuit of two points in 9e round against the Toronto Blue Jays in 2019, which had allowed Justin Verlander to complete a game without a point or a hit.
PHOTO DAVID J. PHILLIP, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Since returning to Houston, Abraham Toro has hit ten hits, including two home runs, produced nine runs and averaged .417 in 24 at-bat.
He’s also been in the team’s entourage for the Astros’ long playoff runs the past two years, including the failed World Series conquest in 2019.
“When you go back to the minors, in your head, there is a process that takes place,” explains Marc Griffin, analyst at RDS.
Griffin knows what he’s talking about, having knocked on the door of the majors himself when he was a prospect for the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Montreal Expos in the early 1990s.
You have two options. You guys get discouraged, who say to themselves “well come on, it seems to me that I have done everything”. And you’ve got guys wondering what it takes to get back up and stay there. Obviously, [Toro] opted for option B.
Marc Griffin, former majors and RDS analyst
And Toro agrees with him.
“I’m trying to get to know the pitcher better,” he admits when asked if he had worked on any aspect of his game in AAA. Before, when I was younger, it was “I see the ball, I hit the ball”. Now it’s about what the pitcher has. I’m not necessarily going to change my plan because of the pitcher, just to get an idea of what he’s going to be able to throw at me, to study it. ”
The “Bull”, his nickname since American college, is also proud of the improvement of his defensive game, the result of a slight loss of weight, according to him. He even shared on Instagram the highlight of a quick 5-3 stint last Monday in Baltimore.
“Everything goes” through the work ethic
There was one who noticed early on what made Toro stand out.
“I’ve always seen something special in him,” explains Stéphane Lepage, baseball manager at the sports-studies program at Édouard-Montpetit high school in Montreal. He coached Toro when he was in secondary 4.
“In the year he was with me [en 2012-2013], I saw him play games that I haven’t seen other students play in 31 years. These are games that you can’t really learn. It comes by instinct.
“What I remember the most about him was his good humor in training. At all practices, it was always smiling, we give 100%. Never half measures. The pedal to the bottom all the time. ”
PHOTO NICK WASS, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Abraham Toro says he has worked on perfecting his defensive game recently.
According to Marc Griffin, the work ethic you earn when you are young, “you carry that into your everyday life”.
“Abraham is a reserved, very calm guy,” lists the analyst, who says he knows his personality well. He’s got his business. What I find fun in this whole adventure is that he remains himself. It doesn’t change. He speaks through the muzzle of his cannons, through his performance, through what he does on the ground. ”
Either way, Abraham Toro feels like he has his place in MLB now.
I feel that I am there. Everything is in consistency. You’re going to have ups and downs, but you usually need to show your manager that you can play every day.
Abraham Toro
Here, speaking of the manager. Toro was “adored” by AJ Hinch, according to Marc Griffin. What is his relationship now with his successor Dusty Baker, in office since 2020, and how did the transition go?
“It was easy,” Toro says. Dusty is someone who talks a lot to his players. He told me about his time when he played against the Expos. He is very close to his players. ”
But for Griffin, a change of scenery could do Abraham Toro good.
“Since the arrival of Dusty Baker, it’s been a little more difficult. I’m not saying he doesn’t have a good relationship, I’m just saying the relationship has to be started over. Abraham is never going to say it. He’s never going to ask that and he never asked for it either. But for me, he’s too talented for him to get stuck either in AAA or as a reservist in the big leagues. ”
For now, Toro is happy to be able to play “pretty much every day”.
“I don’t know the team’s plans yet, but if I continue to perform well, that’s pretty much what will happen. ”
