The offseason that ‘completely transformed’ Andy Pages, and launched his Dodgers rise

Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates still has the video of the first day he watched Andy Pages in person.

The clip is from May 2018, when Bates was the Dodgers’ minor-league hitting coordinator and Pages was a freshly signed 18-year-old prospect out of Cuba.

The film is of a batting practice session Pages was taking at the club’s Dominican Republic training facility, during one of Bates’ visits to work with the organization’s youngest new hitters.

As Bates played the video this week, pulling it up on his phone while reminiscing about Pages’ rise to sudden big-league stardom with the Dodgers this year, he remarked on all the slugger’s similarities from way back then to now.

Dodgers hitting coach Aaron Bates still has the video of the first day he watched Andy Pages in person. Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The clip is from May 2018, when Bates was the Dodgers’ minor-league hitting coordinator and Pages was a freshly signed 18-year-old prospect out of Cuba. The CA Post

The natural fluidity in Pages’ mechanics. His ability to cover pitches at both the top and bottom of the strike zone. The inherent confidence he exuded with every stroke.

“He had a pretty good swing as an 18-year-old kid,” Bates said.

The one thing he needed to change, however, was also evident on the screen.

Watch Pages now, and you’ll see not only one of the hottest early-season hitters in Major League Baseball –– entering Tuesday with an MLB-best .370 batting average and 21 RBIs –– but also one of the sport’s better all-around athletes. He’s fast and flexible. Lean and Limber. Equipped with explosive physical strength and a cannon for a right arm.

Watch Pages from much of his minor-league career, and the aesthetic is completely different. From his arrival as a teenager, all the way through his double-A season as a 21-year-old in 2022, he was out of shape and (for an aspiring center fielder, at least) far from his ideal weight, repeatedly docked in old scouting reports for his stocky frame and defensive limitations.

“There had been countless conversations with Andy,” Dodgers general manager, and former farm director, Brandon Gomes said. “Like, ‘Hey, it’d probably be beneficial if you change your body composition.’ That was three years in the making.”

Watch Pages from much of his minor-league career, and the aesthetic is completely different. Getty Images

It wasn’t that Pages was unmotivated at that stage, as manager Dave Roberts recalled. He was always known as a hard worker in the batting cage. The care he put into his defensive craft was evident.

Behind the scenes, however, “he didn’t like the weight room,” Roberts said. “Didn’t see the value in it.”

Not until the one winter, that is, that altered the trajectory of his career.

“One offseason, he just did it,” Gomes remarked, still amazed at the stunning transformation Pages made three years ago that has launched his rise with the Dodgers ever since. 

“He just came back in, and he was in incredible shape.”

“His body,” Roberts added, “was completely transformed.”

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An EoS Fitness offseason

In 2022, Pages had the worst season of his minor-league career. As the youngest player with the club’s double-A Tulsa affiliate, he hit 26 home runs but had only a .236 batting average. 

Such struggles weren’t glaring, but did force a self-evaluation. 

“I think going into that (following) offseason,” he told The California Post through an interpreter recently, “I realized if I was going to be the player that I wanted to be, I had to make those adjustments and changes in my body.”

So, over the subsequent winter, he altered his all-around, off-the-field routine.

So, over the subsequent winter, he altered his all-around, off-the-field routine. Getty Images

It started with his diet, making simple but profound sacrifices like not eating out and sticking to a prescribed daily meal plan.

“That wasn’t any big change or anything,” he said. “It was more like, I know what I need to eat to be healthy. And I know what I need to eat to get through my day.”

Then came his weight training, which transformed so drastically that he needed a main gym –– and a backup option.

Most days, Pages would travel from his offseason home in Arizona to the Dodgers’ nearby Camelback Ranch facility, learning to embrace the weight room in a way he never had before.

“I think that’s when I realized, like, how much I hadn’t spent any time in gym (previously),” he recalled.

So, in an effort to stay committed, he wouldn’t skip days when CBR was closed, or when club staff were out of town for the holidays.

Instead, he and his wife went to their local EoS Fitness location to maintain his progress; the professional ball player blending in among the weekend warrior crowd.

“I think it speaks to (what happens) when you get true buy-in,” Gomes said. “There’s a decision from the player that, ‘OK, this is important.’” 

Pages said his drive primarily came from his defensive aspirations, aiming to prove himself in center field after getting just eight starts at the position during the 2022 season.

“I knew if I was gonna be able to do it, I had to change physically,” he said. “That was something that kept motivating me to stay on that.”

What he didn’t expect, though, was how much it would unlock in the overall consistency of his game. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post

What he didn’t expect, though, was how much it would unlock in the overall consistency of his game.

From the start of that offseason to the end of it, Pages said he went from the 240-250 pound range all the way down to 205-210.

And in the years since, it has helped not only his defense, but also his swing, his baserunning, and his ability to impact games on a dynamic daily basis.

“My body started feeling better, feeling more like itself,” Pages said while reflecting back on all his progress this week.

“Or,” he clarified, “what I feel like now.”

The rise to stardom

Gomes still remembers his reaction to seeing Pages at start of spring training in 2023.

Immediately impressed by the young player’s commitment –– and instantly intrigued by what it could mean for his future.

“At center field, it’s just so hard to find good defenders, nevermind good defenders that can hit,” he said.

Suddenly, they had one in Pages. And in the three years since, he has kept raising expectations, even amid some unexpected setbacks.

In that 2023 campaign, Pages reached triple-A, then suffered a torn labrum in his first game. For much of the next year, he had to rehab. The habits he built the previous winter helped him come back even stronger.

“The body, the strength,” Roberts said, “it allowed him to kind of let his swing really work.”

Indeed, in 2024, Pages spent just 24 games with the club’s Oklahoma City affiliate before getting called up to the majors. And despite some ups (like the 27 homers he hit in the regular season last year) and downs (like his horrendous 4-for-51 slump last postseason), he has stayed there ever since.

“When you take a step back, I’m always gonna be proud of some of those things,” Pages said. “But I like to focus on the present, focus on where I’m at, as opposed to looking back at the past. Because if you get caught up in what you did, you can get lost in where you’re at. I don’t really want to think that way. I just want to focus on what I’m doing.”

That’s why, this past winter, Pages underwent another offseason overhaul. This time, it was focused on improving his plate discipline, with the 25-year-old developing a routine with the club’s Trajekt Arc pitching machine to train himself how to better differentiate between balls and strikes.

“He kinda came up with that,” the Dodgers’ other hitting coach, Robert Van Scoyoc said. “It was a clear need for Andy, and something that he really owned, something that he was driving.”

And now, when combined with his high-level defense, long-impressive power, and remade physical skillset, it is turning him into a complete big-league player –– and, just maybe, the Dodgers’ latest budding star.

“That’s to his credit,” Bates said, smiling as he thought about the path Pages took from their first encounter to now. “If you give Andy some instructions of what he needs to do, he’ll figure out a way to do it … And he’s in a really good place now.”