HOUSTON — Baseball’s best pimp job isn’t intended to be one at all. Bat flips are part of Jon Singleton’s subconscious, spontaneous ends to some of his most prolific swings. Singleton doesn’t stage theatrics or toss his bat after taking a bead. He flings it in one fluid motion, savoring the swing he just unleashed and the scoreboard he just changed.
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“I’m calling it a dismount,” hitting coach Troy Snitker said. “He doesn’t try to do it. It’s just a reaction to him flushing a ball — reaction to an A-swing that caught the right spot, all barrel.”
Showing pitchers up is never the purpose. Singleton is the farthest thing from a showboat — a soft-spoken slugger who sports a wide smile. He first noticed in high school that his follow-through lent itself to a natural bat flip.Singleton hasn’t stopped since.
“If you can, pimp the finish,” Singleton said. “Like a pitcher, if you throw a ball there’s a finish. It’s kind of the same thing if you can get to a certain point, you can do it after a really good swing.”
Whether it’s a dismount or something more dramatic is irrelevant to the team these bat flips help to ignite. Thrust into everyday duty during the most dire time of Houston’s disastrous start, Singleton’s power surge has supplied energy absent across the Astros’ first 29 games.
“I feel like as soon as he makes contact, he knows that he hit it. He’s so strong, such a good hitter that, when he hits it, it’s gone. He just hits it and drops the bat,” shortstop Jeremy Peña said.
Off the third deck! 😱 (plus a priceless reaction from Yordan) pic.twitter.com/iTDIU99CdB
— MLB (@MLB) May 9, 2024
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“Homers are cool from anybody, but when you see it go 400-something feet, and you see the pimp job, it gets the guys going.”
Singleton saves the bat flips for his best swings, a reward of sorts for syncing everything up. His home run against Cleveland Guardians starter Logan Allen on May 2 didn’t have a bat flip because Singleton didn’t believe he struck it well enough. Most others have nowhere near as much doubt.
“It’s literally what you think about every time he steps up to the plate. The way he does it, it’s so natural. He just does it the best, in my opinion,” said reliever Shawn Dubin, a frequent witness to Singleton’s prowess at Triple-A Sugar Land.
“The way he releases it, he’s got everything synced up to the point where it just looks like butter every time.”
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Bat flips bookend this circuitous decade of Singleton’s baseball career. Ten years ago, Singleton’s first major-league hit landed in the home bullpen at Minute Maid Park. Before it did, the ballyhooed prospect flung his bat toward the first-base line during his follow-through.
“Most of the time when it happens, it’s probably a very, very good swing,” Singleton said amid an interruption from locker mate Mauricio Dubón.
“Best pimp job in the league,” Dubón shouted.
Jon Singleton puts the @Astros on top with a big swing! 💪 pic.twitter.com/1SccJA4Xck
— MLB (@MLB) May 5, 2024
Houston handed Singleton a $10 million contract before he ever took a big-league at-bat, inviting enormous expectations Singleton could not meet. He hit .171 and struck out 151 times across his first 114 major-league games. Singleton lacked any perspective and could not process failure.
“I didn’t handle it very well,” Singleton said. “Gave me a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression as well. So much in my life depended on my success in baseball.”
Struggles with a marijuana addiction compounded Singleton’s predicament. Houston released Singleton in 2018 after Major League Baseball gave him a 100-game drug suspension. He did not play baseball in 2019 or 2020. He stopped watching the sport altogether.
To this day, Singleton says he is unaware who won the World Series in either season. Twice a week, Singleton saw a therapist to address his mental health issues. Games of catch with friends or an occasional trip to the batting cage reignited a desire to play again, but he did not return to affiliated ball until 2022.
That year, Singleton married his wife, Linzy. The couple has two children, meaning baseball no longer defines him — family does. A hitless game or prolonged funk no longer lingers in his mind.
Arriving home to a family offers the perspective he never had as a prospect. His 7-year-old daughter, Maisyn, will sometimes ask “Did you hit a home run today?”
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“Sometimes she’s happy. Sometimes she’s like, ‘Ah, OK, whatever,’” Singleton said with a smile. “You wake up and you realize what’s important.”
Singleton is Houston’s current solution to its season-long dilemma at first base, but it’s premature to proclaim him a savior. He typifies a three-true-outcome player and brought an adjusted OPS two points below league average into Thursday’s game against the Oakland A’s. Sound swing decisions and elite plate discipline still make him ideal for a Houston lineup that prides itself on both traits.
Singleton’s mere presence in the batter’s box provides something Houston had not had all season. The threat of his power — and potential pimping — must cross a pitcher’s mind, problems José Abreu never presented during his pitiful start to the season.
Abreu is still not participating in instructional league games at the team’s spring training facility in West Palm Beach. Manager Joe Espada and everyone else in the organization have declined to offer a timetable for his return, lengthening Singleton’s runway as an everyday player.
On the day Abreu agreed to be optioned, Singleton smacked a three-run home run into the second deck at Minute Maid Park. The three home runs he’s hit since all arrived at pivotal moments. Two of them tied the score late in games.
The third reached Yankee Stadium’s third deck. Yordan Alvarez stood agape inside Houston’s dugout, in awe of the only teammate able to upstage his unnatural power.
With Houston in danger of being swept, Singleton sent Marcus Stroman’s sinker 442 feet into the right field seats. He acknowledged afterward, “That’s about as well as I can hit a ball,” a statement the bat flip backed up.
(Photo: John Jones / USA Today)
Chandler Rome is a Staff Writer for The Athletic covering the Houston Astros. Before joining The Athletic, he covered the Astros for five years at the Houston Chronicle. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University. Follow Chandler on Twitter @Chandler_Rome
