Willson Contreras is hitting like 2018 never even happened.
He showed up to camp this spring determined to rebound, wearing a shirt that said "Don't believe me, just watch." He admitted he got complacent last season and came out of the routine and work ethic that had gotten him to the big leagues, vowing to avoid similar such mistakes this year.
He talked the talk and now he's walking the walk.
Contreras was already off to a solid start even before he hit a pair of homers measured at a combined 903 feet during Friday afternoon's 5-1 victory. A 19 mph wind blowing out helped feed the Waveland ballhawks, but make no mistake: Contreras absolutely hammered both.
That gives him 5 homers on the young season, which is already half the total he put up a year ago (10) and places the Cubs catcher ahead of every other backstop in the National League.
He became the first Cubs catcher with 5 homers through the team's first 13 games since Gabby Hartnett turned the trick in 1934 (per Chris Kamka).
MLB
Contreras left the yard more Friday afternoon than he did in the last two months of 2018 — 1 homer in 45 games (142 at-bats).
This is what everybody expected as an encore to his 2017 campaign, when he crushed 21 homers and drove in 74 runs despite missing a month with a hamstring injury.
"He looks so much more similar to when he was really hot the second half of '17 when he got hurt. He looks exactly like that," Joe Maddon said. "...He had a chance for 100 RBI, probably 25 homers and it all went away with an injury. Physically/mechanically, he looks like he did then.
"It's a carry-over from spring training. I'm watching it closely — he's doing the same things now that he did in camp and he's doing the same things in camp that he did a couple years ago."
What are those things? What is the difference between the Contreras we're seeing right now and the 2018 version?
"I'm way more focused this year like I wasn't last year," he said earlier in the week. "This year, I'm really calm. I let it happen and just play and have fun. That's gonna be the big key for me.
"It's more mental. To be in the big leagues, you have to have the tools and the talent. Obviously, I have it, but I've been working more on the mental game and I think it's paying off."
Contreras spoke about his desire to get back to simply having fun on the field in his candid conversation with NBC Sports Chicago's Kelly Crull in spring training.
Really, even beyond the "fun" aspect and keeping things loose, it's simply a matter of avoiding complacency for Contreras.
"You learn a lot, especially when you feel like you failed like I did last year," he said. "To me, it was not a bad year, but the second half wasn't what I wanted. I think I got too complacent with myself and that's something that I learned — I have to keep going, keep working and moving forward from things.
"You just learn a lot from a year like I had last year. That will stay back in 2018. Now we're working on 2019 and so far, I feel pretty good."
With all the talk about how the Cubs' offense "broke" down the stretch last season, Contreras was a central figure in those discussions.
Now he's back to the form he had pre-2018 and it's coming at an important time for this Cubs offense when they're not seeing the heart of the order (Kris Bryant-Anthony Rizzo-Javy Baez) putting up its standard production through the first 13 games.
"This guy is — physical talents — the best catcher in the National League," Maddon said. "He made the All-Star team last year, then the second half wasn't so good. I'm not saying he can keep it up like this, but what we're seeing right now, he's very capable of doing the entire season — something along these lines."
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