After physical reinvention, Matt Adams off to fast start with Braves

ATLANTA -- After reinventing himself physically, Matt Adams had been waiting to show how it would translate to consistent playing time. It didn't come in St Louis, where he'd lost the starting first base job and a move to left field proved a futile experiment.

But last Saturday's trade to the Braves in the wake of Freddie Freeman fracturing his wrist provided the platform, and Big City is delivering.

Big.

"He's been phenomenal," said Braves manager Brian Snitker. "He's been exactly what we needed out of Matt Adams. ... The biggest thing I told him is 'I don't want you to be Freddie Freeman. I want you to be Matt Adams' and he's done a great job."

During Wednesday's 12-5, extra-inning loss to the Pirates, Adams hit a fourth-inning triple, his first since 2014, and he doubled in Thursday's 9-4 loss. In five games in Atlanta is 7 for 22 with two homer runs, two double and a triple. That's five extra-base hits in less than half of his at-bats with the Cardinals, where he'd homered once and had two doubles. He's also had an extra-base hit in four straight games, tying a career high.

"I know what he's capable of doing," said Braves reliever Jason Motte, Adams' former teammate in St. Louis. "... I think that's why we traded for him."

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Adams, who had 135 wRC+ in 2013, his first full season in the majors in hitting .284/.335/.503 with 17 homers. He hadn't been able to fully recapture that season with the Cardinals with 116 wRC+ in '14, 78 in '15 and 106 last season, and set about a physical transformation this past winter.

"The main goal was just to get my body in better shape. Never thought I would get traded," Adams said. "Was doing it to just have a better life, basically. Now it's able to see how it's going to work playing every day and when Freddie comes back, I'll go back to the bench role. ... Right now my body feels great."

Working with a Pilates trainer, Adams shed some 30 pounds -- leaving him down to 240 -- and put a bigger focus on his nutrition. He's both utilizing a portion-controlled approach where he focuses on hitting his needs in the three main macronutrients -- carbs, fats and proteins -- and is also basing his eating around his levels of activities. It's a practice knowns as periodization that allows the body to fully utilize those portioned macronutrients.

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"It's all timing," Adams said. "It's all wake up, whenever you have breakfast, 2-2 1/2 hours after that, based on what the schedule is day to to day with the games and what not, you'll have a snack or eat lunch and you'll follow that with a snack a couple hours later. It's the periodization that's worked for me."

He is given a daily plan by his trainer, which includes what to eat, how much to eat it and when.

"I knew from the get-go that I would have to focus on the numbers it would freak me out," Adams said. ''It would stress me out too much. ... All I do is prepare it, basically."

Adams says he sleeps better and wakes up with more energy, but the situation he'd found himself in with the Cardinals didn't allow him to show much of that newfound stamina.

The 28-year-old has a defensive WAR that hit a low of minus-7.5 in '14 and has sat at minus-4.4 and minus-1.7 the past two seasons, respectively. Those figures, plus the rise of Matt Carpenter, who was shifting from third base, left Adams without consistent playing time.

Manager Mike Matheny sought to test Adams' positional versatility, using him in left field, but that experiment didn't go well. In 34 1/3 innings he had minus-2 DRS and minus-36 UZR/150.

Freeman's injury left Atlanta needing a viable replacement over the next 10 weeks, with the Braves landing Adams for infield prospect Juan Yepez and cash considerations.

In a small sample size he's proven a considerable upgrade from the platoon situation of Johan Camargo, Jace Peterson and Rio Ruiz that president of baseball operations John Hart mentioned in the immediate aftermath of losing Freeman, as well as veteran James Loney (who was signed and later granted his release). He's also proven adept at hitting at new SunTrust Park, the site of all three of Adams' home runs this season, with his first coming off Julio Teheran before the trade.

And as he's found something, physically, that's working for him. That, he showed, in that rare triple, his first since Aug. 14. Adams isn't changing anything. He's already flown his Pilates/nutrition trainer down to Atlanta to help him get situated.

"I'm planning on hopefully getting a piece of equipment for my apartment and maybe FaceTime do some workouts. I don't plan on trying to find another trainer, because what she's done for me seems to be working, so I want to stick with that for sure," Adams said.

Follow Cory McCartney on Twitter @coryjmccartney and Facebook. His books, 'Tales from the Atlanta Braves Dugout: A Collection of the Greatest Braves Stories Ever Told,' and 'The Heisman Trophy: The Story of an American Icon and Its Winners.' are now available.