Minor league cities across America are littered with ballplayers like Pedro Álvarez was last year, seeking a way back to a big league job that for so long was taken for granted.
Some will try to transform themselves, as Álvarez briefly attempted as a right fielder. Countless others will overhaul their swings to try to align themselves with a new trend.
The path back for Álvarez, it turned out, was to use the experience in the most basic way — daily baseball for the purpose of maturing into a fully formed hitter, one that both he and the Orioles believe is better than the one who led the National League in home runs in 2013 and swatted 22 long balls for the 2016 Orioles.