MINNEAPOLIS — Can one swing change a player’s season?
Red Sox manager Alex Cora believes it can, and in the case of Jackie Bradley Jr., the numbers back him up.
Bradley was hitting .144 with a .421 OPS through May 19. He had struck out 43 times in 125 at-bats and had four extra-base hits.
He was atrocious at the plate; there’s no other way to put it.
But Cora stayed with Bradley, and the next day he hit a changeup off the plate from Toronto’s Elvis Luciano to left field for his first home run.
Over the next 25 games Bradley played, he hit .313 with a 1.057 OPS with 16 extra-base hits, 15 RBIs and 15 runs scored.
“Something clicked,” Cora said. “He’s staying on pitches. He has confidence now. You can see it. At one point there he was very quiet.”
Bradley arrived at Target Field on Monday for what should be a telling three-game series against the Minnesota Twins hitting .211 with a .683 OPS. If his history holds true, Bradley will build that up to something in the neighborhood of .250 with a .740 OPS.
If that’s not good enough for you, nothing I write will likely dissuade you from that belief. Bradley’s early season slumps are frustrating, and fans always believe their team can do better.
But context matters. As of Sunday, the league average OPS for American League center fielders was .740. It was .720 last season.
Outside of Trout and a few others, it’s not an offensive position. As a group, center fielders have the lowest OPS in the American League.
Yankees center fielders are hitting .226 with a .736 OPS.
Defense and base running matter, too. Bradley has 10.9 WAR since the start of the 2016 season. That’s fifth in the major leagues among players with at least 85 percent of their innings in center field.
Mike Trout, as you surely guessed, is first. He has an outlandish 31.8 WAR over the time.
But Bradley is in the same neighborhood as Lorenzo Cain (16.4), Kevin Kiermaier (15.3), and Charlie Blackmon (12.9).
When you look at Bradley as a whole — and include durability in that mix — he’s one of the best players at the position.
He’s also one of the most hard to figure out, given the long stretches of helplessness at the plate when strikeouts pile up.
“I’m a work in progress,” Bradley said. “Continue to come in here every single day and work to get better and help the team. Some days are better than others, so you just have to continually work at it to try and make sure you’re forming habits instead of reverting back to the old ways.”
It was about a year ago when a slumping Bradley revamped his swing to incorporate many of the launch angle principles used by teammate J.D. Martinez.
He hit .269 with an .827 OPS after the All-Star break was named Most Valuable Player of the ALCS after driving in nine runs over five games. He had an .835 OPS over the entire postseason.
Once the season ended, Bradley made two trips to Los Angeles to work with Craig Wallenbrock, the private instructor who helped Martinez transform his career.
The second-half success of 2018 did not carry over, as Bradley slumped badly once the new season started.
“It was frustrating,” Bradley said. “There was nothing wrong with my confidence or attitude. But I felt like I was better than how I was playing. I was disappointed I wasn’t helping the team win.”
Bradley’s swing sometimes looks tentative, particularly against off-speed pitches. He also had had trouble clearing his hands within his swing.
“It has nothing to do exclusively with pitch selection,” Bradley said. “It’s a combination of things. There’s a lot of things you have to do right to hit a baseball.”
That he turned it around last season didn’t make this season’s slump any less painful.
“No. Frustration is frustration,” Bradley said. “It doesn’t make it easier. Nobody wants to suck.”
Cora stuck with Bradley, sitting him occasionally against lefthanders. He was patient and saw that Bradley was diligent in how he prepared before games.
“I’ve got a job to do,” Bradley said. “That’s what it all boils down to. I’ve got to help the team win, whatever it takes, day in and day out. Knowing that it’s not just me out there, I have to get the job done for them as well.”
Bradley’s smile is back now.
“Right now, you can see there’s a lot of confidence walking to the plate,” Cora said. “He’s in a great spot. It’s fun to watch.”
Peter Abraham can be reached at pabraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteAbe.