After the Tennessee series, Alabama baseball shortstop Justin Lebron tried to get down to the bottom of the slump he has experienced in his junior season with the Crimson Tide.
Entering the Tuscaloosa Super Regional, Lebron has driven in 46 runs and notched 16 homers on the season with a .274 clip. That wouldn’t draw too much criticism in the SEC — if he wasn’t the same Justin Lebron that hit .360 for 18 home runs and 72 RBIs one season prior.
Lebron also leads Alabama in errors, which he did last year. However, he has 18 ahead of the supers opener against St. John’s on Saturday, June 6. In 2025, he had just nine.
The series opener against Tennessee saw Lebron extend a 12-game hit streak, but it snapped in Game 2 as Lebron went 0 for 4. That signaled it was time for a call with his hitting coach, Aaron Vorachek, who was also his high school coach in Florida at Archbishop McCarthy.
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“I saw some things swing-wise,” Vorachek told The Tuscaloosa News. The biggest thing he noticed, though, was how rushed Lebron looked.
“I said, ‘You’re cutting off the swing a little bit where instead of his hands working through the middle, his hands are starting to work to third so he gets some rollover,” Vorachek explained.
Lebron told Vorachek that pitchers were throwing him a lot of right-on-right changeups and sliders, which was causing him to be off on fastballs.
They discussed Lebron’s approach to the plate, plus direction and timing. Since, Vorachek has noticed improvements, but he continues to find Lebron to be too quick with it.
“Even this weekend, I still think his timing was a bit rushed,” Vorachek said, reflecting on Alabama’s 3-0 region championship sweep. “When he’s late with his timing, his swing looks rushed and a little off-balanced.”
“Whatever organization he’s with, I just feel like the more that they keep working on that, the more you’re gonna see a consistent Justin Lebron,” Vorachek said.
Vorachek explained to Lebron that he’s not just the lows of this season, instead describing him as an “entire body of work.” He doesn’t see the decline impacting his stock in the MLB draft, either.
“The crazy thing is everybody talks about the drop off, and obviously, there’s pressure, right?” Vorachek said. “If you look at the box score, he usually has a hit a game. If your funk is one hit a game, that’s a good funk to be in.”
In May, Lebron’s only game without a hit was in a 3-1 loss to Ole Miss.
Vorachek describes Lebron as a “unicorn.”
“Roch Cholowsky at UCLA doesn’t steal bases like Justin does,” Vorachek said. “I’m like, ‘There’s nobody in the country with your power and your speed.'”
Even with the tweaks that need fixing, to Vorachek, MLB scouts are still liking what they see. Colorado Rockies scout Zach Zulli called up Vorachek in awe of Lebron’s “‘elite swing.'”
“A lot of the organizations are very analytical now. But there are still a lot of good organizations with good baseball people that are making those baseball decisions,” Vorachek said. “I think that they can look past that and say, ‘This guy’s a dude.'”
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for The Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Justin Lebron still MLB draft ‘unicorn’ despite Alabama baseball slump
