Nationals wage war on training camp monotony
WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. The days were sticking together in the humid South Florida heat. Players were jogging on the hamster wheel of early morning workouts, team stretching, fielding drills, batting practice. Most Washington Nationals regulars rarely stayed beyond the fifth inning of the meaningless games.
Then, one afternoon, on a backfield at the Nationals spring training complex, three players gathered around a batting cage. Adam Eaton and Juan Soto stood a few feet in front the plate, just off to the right and left of Emilio Bonifácio. When Bonifácio put down his warm-up bunts, Eaton and Soto treated the balls like hockey pucks, passing to each other or shooting at the back of the batting cage as Bonifácio acted as the goalie.
This routine is a favourite among the Nationals, one they did regularly last season and semi-religiously throughout the playoffs. Eaton, a hockey fan, led the most fervent group with Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon, but Yan Gomes, Howie Kendrick and Soto are among the devotees as well. The Nationals believe other teams might play the game, too, but they’re not sure.
“No!” Eaton cried when Bonifácio saved his shot, flinging his bat in mock outrage. “I should’ve passed!”
“As dumb as it is, and as short as it is — it’s, like, two minutes — it makes coming to work every day ... a little bit more enjoyable,” Turner said.
Other than honing skills, the primary objective of spring training is to battle monotony. Early March brings the dog days because hitters feel back up to speed and most pitchers are almost there. The tedium is incalculably worse now than in the regular season, players said, because the games are during the day, their schedules are inconsistent and nothing counts. This year, after winning the franchise’s first World Series, the Nationals’ spring malaise has become more acute.
Manager Dave Martinez senses the drag. He’s tried to disrupt it with diversions such as cabbage-smashing races or dunk tanks — Max Scherzer soaked pitching coach Paul Menhart the other day — but he gets it. He’s been to spring training more than 30 times. Before a recent off day, he told the players to enjoy it.
“I understand how this fluctuates,” Martinez said. “There is that little lull that you kind of got to get ’em through.”
Teams know the season can be monotonous, and they build infrastructure to break it. “Good clubhouse guys” such as Aníbal Sánchez can do that, and lightening the mood is practically part of the job for others, such as coach Bob Henley. Any deviation from routine helps, which is why pitcher Erick Fedde wasn’t surprised to hear about the hockey-style batting cage game.
“Hitting is the whole fun part,” he said, rolling his eyes at the thought of another “PFP,” or pitchers’ fielding practice.
“We (the pitchers) got to hit the other day — for real, not on the machine — and you could see everyone cheer up.”
“We love to hit,” said Patrick Corbin. “(It’s just) something other than those PFP stations.”
Eaton believes baseball workplace culture, in many ways, operates like any 9-to-5. People sometimes want their routine interrupted by good surprises. It’s just harder in spring training, when Eaton feels his brain slipping into neutral.
“You can do anything to break it up,” he said. “You can do cold tub, hot tub, sauna. You can do polar plunges where, if you’re bored, you can dive into the cold tub. That’ll get you going right off the bat.”
Others have their own ways. Sean Doolittle reads. Martinez fishes. Tres Barrera eats, apparently, because his latest iphone screen-time report said his most-used app was Doordash, a food-delivery service. Fedde goes to the beach or, because his girlfriend isn’t around, crushes the new Call of Duty video game. Corbin cooks — usually steak, but he made “pretty good” chicken and dumplings the other day — and Stephen Strasburg streams. The starter recently watched Escape at Dannemora, a limited series based on a prison break in upstate New York, and now he’s slogging through The Irishman.
“I like to (nap),” said Asdrúbal Cabrera.
Wil Crowe doesn’t want to say what he does. The young pitcher doesn’t want to sound holier-than-thou. But when pressed, the Nationals’ fourth-best prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, admits he doesn’t find any of this monotonous. The 25-year-old remembers how, not long ago, he underwent Tommy John surgery after postponing a professional career to play at South Carolina.
“It got to the point where I didn’t know if I’d ever make it back,” he said. He gestured around the clubhouse. “Now I get to do this every day for a job.”
Fans of the batting cage game say it can provide a similar perspective. When you’re struggling, or when you feel down, they say nothing snaps you out of it like a hard-hit ball. Turner is a staunch believer in it — “There’s a lot of messing with each other, and that’s what brings you closer” — but he thinks it can go too far.
“Sometimes, people get a little carried away with it,” Turner said, his volume rising. “And then you get a little scared of it, and then you got to give it a break.”
“Soto hit one pretty hard back at us yesterday,” Eaton explained later. “We’re like, ‘Oh all right, all right. We get it, you barrel everything. Just don’t try to kill us.’”
As Eaton paused to contemplate other ways the Nationals try to break monotony during spring training, there was a loud crash. Soto, five feet in front of him, had tried to sit down at his locker but missed the chair. The outfielder lay on the floor, grinning and dazed, as Cabrera howled. The prospects smiled sheepishly. Eaton jokingly chastised a camera crew, there to interview Soto, for missing the moment.
“C’mon guys! We had to get that!” After Soto collected himself, and once Cabrera’s laughter dissipated, his shoulders still shaking, Eaton grinned.
“Stuff like that goes a long way,” he said.