Brenton Doyle searching for offense to pair with Gold Glove defense

Brenton Doyle already has a Gold Glove in his trophy cabinet. A shiny bat sure would make for a nice, complementary addition.

Indeed, winning a Silver Slugger award would make the Rockies’ young center fielder a bonafide All-Star. At the very least, marked improvement at the plate by Doyle would add punch to the club’s heretofore punchless lineup.

But hold on. Pump the brakes. There’s much work to be done — as Doyle’s .203/.250/.343 slash line as a rookie last season illustrates.

“I think his potential is a lot higher than what we saw last year,” hitting coach Hensley Meulens said as the team opened spring training. “His last month of the season gives us a lot of hope that there’s a lot more in there. I’m not sure where he’s going to end up, but hopefully, with the adjustments he’s making, he’ll show us more of what he could be.”

Doyle hit .186 (57 for 307) through his first 100 career games through August. It wasn’t pretty. But from Sept. 1 through the end of the season, he hit .261 (24 for 92), ending his rookie campaign with a five-game hitting streak in which he went 7 for 20 with seven RBIs.

“My offseason was about my offense,” Doyle said. “I’ve been working to make my swing as efficient as possible and increase my contact rate.”

The statistics spell out his inefficiency as a rookie: a 34.9% strikeout rate that was the highest in the majors (minimum 400 plate appearances), and it was a jarring 40.9% through Sept. 4 before he appeared to start figuring things out. He whiffed just 25% of the time over his last 22 games.

“For a guy like me who prides himself on defense, winning a Gold Glove is the biggest award you can achieve,” Doyle said. “Offensively, it was a big game of adjustments for me throughout the year. I had some lows but I feel like I kind of finished on a high note.”

The 25-year-old was a marvel in center field last season, becoming the first National League rookie outfielder in history to win a Gold Glove. He became just the second Colorado rookie to win a Gold Glove, joining third baseman Nolan Arenado, who snagged the first of his 10 Gold Gloves in 2013.

Doyle is also a speed burner and excellent baserunner. His 29.9 mph average sprint speed was the seventh-fastest in the majors, according to Baseball Savant, and his 22 stolen bases were the second-most by a rookie in Rockies history, trailing only Dexter Fowler, who swiped 27 in 2009.

What’s more, Doyle, who stands 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, hit 10 home runs from the bottom of the order, showing that he has some pop in his bat.

“The one thing you can’t teach is power,” Meulens said. “He’s got raw power and he’s a big kid. He’s strong and he’s fast and hopefully, you will see more power if he makes more contact.”

To increase his contract rate and reduce his high chase rate, Doyle worked this offseason with Kevin Lachance, a hitting instructor with Complete Game, a baseball academy in northern Virginia. Lachance recently joined the Dodgers organization as a hitting coach.

“This offseason was big on working on my early barrel connection, which is part of the swing right before the barrel (of the bat) gets into the zone,” Doyle explained. “I was working to keep it tight and efficient. And I’ve been training my eyes on a bunch of different pitch variances off of the machine. Now I’m getting some live at-bats at spring training.”