The Nationals’ Jesse Winker reshaped his body and revived his career
The Nationals’ Jesse Winker reshaped his body and revived his career
The former all-star outfielder needed to change his body and his mind-set. Washington is reaping the benefits.Midway through the 2023 season, with his career sputtering, Jesse Winker called Chris May, a personal trainer he
had worked with years earlier.
The then-Milwaukee Brewer knew he needed help. He was in bad shape; May said the outfielder was about 25
pounds over what he considered his ideal playing weight of 215. He also recalled Winker saying he still had a passion
for baseball and knew he could play but needed “a dramatic 180.”
“He’d hit his low,” said May, the director of sports performance at Saddlebrook International Sports.
“I was very heavy,” said Winker, who declined to say what his weight was at the time. “I was just sick of looking at
what I was looking at in the mirror. … I just had a feeling he’d be the right guy. He’s had a lot of success at getting
guys in better shape and getting them ready for the fight of 162 games.”
Winker’s intuition proved correct. After a transformative offseason working with May, he signed a $1.5 million
minor league deal with the Washington Nationals in February and has since become one of the best bargains in
baseball.
The left fielder’s .794 OPS is second among qualified Nationals hitters and his highest since his 2021 all-star
campaign with the Cincinnati Reds. His .875 OPS over the past month ranks 13th among qualified major league
outfielders, and his .447 on-base percentage ranks third. He has hit eight home runs this year, two coming in
Washington’s series this week against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the same squad that ended Winker’s
disappointing tenure in Milwaukee with a sweep in the first round of last year’s playoffs.
Coming off his all-star year with the Reds, Winker was traded to the Seattle Mariners ahead of a trying 2022 season
in which his numbers cratered. He didn’t play during the Mariners’ playoff appearance and had knee and neck
surgeries after the season. The Mariners shipped him to Milwaukee, where more injuries limited him to just 61
games. He struggled when he did play for the Brewers, posting a .199 batting average and a .567 OPS.
Winker bypassed any time to recharge after the Brewers’ playoff loss and began working with May just days later,
striving to reshape his body and his career arc.
As part of a comprehensive program that also included physical therapy and a meal prep service, Winker worked out
with May four to five times a week, three hours at a time. He started those days early, driving nearly 90 minutes
from his home to May’s North Tampa facility for 7 a.m. workouts.
Winker had already lost weight when he started working with May, the trainer said. But their first month together
was still spent on high tempo conditioning to “get in shape to train.”
The duo soon began more focused strength and speed training. The amount Winker lifted went up while his weight
and sprint times came down. Then, their last six weeks together were focused on converting added strength into
better mobility.
“How fast can we run? How well can we move? Can we change direction? Can we put force into the ground?” May
asked. “ … Let’s be the best athlete we can be heading into spring training.”
May estimated that when Winker left in February, he was around 205 pounds. “You could see abs.”
Baseball Savant rates Winker’s sprint speed, described as “a measurement of a player’s top running speed, expressed
in ‘feet per second in a player’s fastest one-second window,’” in the 17th percentile, far better than the 1st percentile
he posted a year ago. He had three stolen bases across his first seven major league seasons. He already has 11 this
year.
Winker can feel the impact of the improved physical state halfway through a season in which he has played in 72 of
the Nationals’ 75 games.
“I’ve just seen it with how I felt on the bases, with how I feel running, how I wake up in the morning, how I’ve
recovered. Everything,” he said.
He brought the physical improvements into spring training and paired them with his batting skills, then made
Washington’s Opening Day roster after posting a .942 OPS in 17 spring games.
Winker’s success and low salary could make him an attractive option for contenders. The Nationals, vying for a wild-
card berth, may still trade the outfielder by the July 30 deadline — especially with top prospect James Wood healthy
and close to a call up from Class AAA Rochester.
No matter where Winker winds up this season and beyond, his future almost certainly holds a sizable raise and a
major league job — tangible representations of a stabilized career trajectory.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/06/22/jesse-winker-nationals-revived-career/
