Aristides Aquino: How 'The Punisher' got polished

Aristides Aquino likes to call himself The Punisher.

The 22-year-old outfielder swears the label is not self-affixed. Its origins date back to 2013, when Aquino was a 19-year-old in rookie ball. He liked to hit the ball hard. Or, as a teammate told him, he punished it.

The problem was he didn’t do it very often. Aquino might have possessed an intriguing collection of physical tools, but he didn’t know how to use them. He swung for the fences; most of the time he missed. His first four years in the minors, his home run rate was a meager 2.5 percent.

Last year, Aquino met Gookie Dawkins, then the hitting coach for High-A Daytona . Punisher, meet Polisher.

“That’s the first thing he told me last…