Mariners Have Clear Vision Of Jackson’s Future

ADELANTO, Calif.—Drew Jackson’s turnaround began not with a swing adjustment or a mechanical fix, but a drive down a dark road in northern California late one night.

It was June 2014, and Jackson had just wrapped up his sophomore year as Stanford’s starting shortstop. He had a .184 career batting average, and he struck out in 37 percent of his plate appearances those first two years with the Cardinal.

He was a lost player searching for answers, when one came to him unexpectedly.

“One night I was driving with my buddy and I asked him what a street sign said, and he’s like, ‘Dude, you can’t read that?’ “Jackson said. “I told him no. We got closer and I still couldn’t read it and he goes, ‘Man, you got bad eyes.’ So I got tested.”

Jackson’s eye exam showed he was nearsighted, with 20/25 vision in both eyes. While not a severe vision problem, it was enough to cost him the clarity needed to accurately judge incoming pitches.

He began wearing contact lenses after that exam, and within months, his problems at the plate were solved.

Jackson hit .320 his junior year at Stanford and earned honorable mention honors in the Pacific-12 Conference in his first season wearing contacts. The Mariners drafted him in the fifth round, and he immediately went out and hit .358 with 47 stolen bases at short-season Everett to earn Northwest League MVP honors.

Now, in his first full pro season and second year playing with contacts, the 22-year-old Jackson is hitting .283 with a .361 on-base percentage at high Class A Bakersfield.

Most tellingly, he has struck out just 13 percent of the time as a professional.

“I went up there and everything looked HD compared to what it was like before,” Jackson said. “It definitely makes a big difference. I think the majority of hitting is just seeing the ball.”

That ability to make consistent contact was the last thing Jackson needed to show scouts before he became draft-eligible. He has athletic bloodlines—his older brother is Cubs 2009 first-round pick Brett Jackson—and had shown plus speed, a natural feel for shortstop and excellent makeup since his high school days in Orinda, Calif.

Once Jackson’s bat came around with his vision cleared up, it was enough to make him a top-five-rounds selection just a year after hitting .167.

“Looking back at his junior year, especially the last month and a half, it was almost like a window opened and he just turned up everything,” Mariners scouting director Tom McNamara said. “Our area scout in northern California, Stacey Pettis, liked him in high school and kept pushing him.

“With a month left in the season we were like, ‘Hey, he can run, he can throw, we loved his makeup—and he started to hit.’ His game just kind of came together at the right time.

“With everything he did in the Northwest League and now in Bakersfield, we couldn’t be happier with him.”

Like so many other “what-if” scenarios in life, it very well might not have all come to pass without that late night drive that revealed to Jackson his vision wasn’t quite right.

“I think in terms of the contacts, that was just a big thing with confidence,” Jackson said. “It allowed me to go up there and be like, ‘OK, I can see,’ and not have to think about it. I kind of have this edge where I’m just like, ‘I can see a lot better, which means I’m going to hit the ball better.’ ”

As Pac-12, Northwest League and now California League pitchers can attest, that is exactly what has happened.