EVERY AT-BAT COUNTS DURING SUMMER CAMP
Jays manager favours evening intrasquad games to simulate what season will be like
Even in the not-so-life-anddeath world of professional baseball, pandemic times call for pandemic measures.
And with that in mind, the Toronto Blue Jays will jump on any and every chance to make up for lost time in the 2 1/2 week rush to opening day and through what no doubt will be a rapid fire training camp.
In the first three days of workouts at the Rogers Centre this week, manager Charlie Montoyo and his staff have been impressed with the conditioning and energy level of Jays players, and are doing their best to take advantage with a creative daily camp plan.
“It’s going to be an individual thing,” Montoyo said during a conference call on Wednesday, his first update with the local media since the team arrived in Toronto on Sunday. “Like (Tuesday), we had live batting practice, so Bo Bichette and guys like that had like seven at-bats.
“We’ve got 16 days left, so it’s more live batting practice or more intrasquad at-bats, whatever it is.”
It’s not like Grapefruit League games where at-bats for hitters and pitch counts for pitchers can be charted over weeks of pre-season games. With no pre-season at all, the Jays will monitor at-bats during the internal action.
“You’ve got to work with what you got,” catcher Danny Jansen said during a Zoom call on Wednesday evening after his late-day batting practice session. “We’ve got 2 1/2 weeks. It’s an odd time, but we’re all pros and we know what we need to do to get ourselves right.”
In a normal spring training environment, a player will get anywhere from 30-60 at-bats. Now the challenge is to maximize such opportunities over a short period. While it’s not ideal, Montoyo and company are doing their best to recreate game conditions, starting with the first of many intrasquad games Thursday at 7 p.m.
“The good thing about having control of the intrasquad games is that, right now they can play every day, and if they have a long inning we can stop it,” said Montoyo, who will favour the evening intramurals to help replicate what will happen when the season starts.
“Having spring training in your home ballpark ... we have control over what we do.
“It’s not like in a regular pre-season when the games are long and there’s the travel and that takes its toll on guys. But when you control what you have here, that’s going to help guys get at-bats and get in playing shape.”
While the 30-man roster to start the season will take shape over the next two weeks, Montoyo expects the makeup to be weighted heavier toward pitchers.
The manager also plans to have at least six starters built up as much as possible to be ready to handle the workload.
Overall, however, the soon to be second-year manager sounds enthused to see his young team pick up from where it was when spring training was aborted due to the COVID -19 pandemic in mid-march.
“I’m really looking forward to these kids playing ball because they were looking so good at the end of the season last year, and then in spring training we were playing good baseball,” Montoyo said. “I’m looking forward to them all playing again.”
HEALTHY HELPS
The Jays continue to stress that staying healthy could provide an edge over the competition.
Though the team has just 46 players in Toronto (as Montoyo confirmed on Wednesday that a dozen, including one player who tested positive for COVID-19, remained in Florida), Montoyo said players are being hounded to stay safe and healthy.
“The only message I gave them is that I think there’s going to be two types of teams going into this,” Montoyo said. “It’s going to be teams that are going to work together and follow the guidelines. They’re going to work as a group and they’re going to stay healthy and that’s going to help them win more games.
“And then there are the teams that are going to complain about everything and lose focus and get sick and they’re not going to do very well. It’s going to be a long 60 games.”
TOP PICK SIGNS
Infielder Austin Martin may have been a steal when the Jays were able to grab him No. 5 overall in last month’s MLB draft, but the good fortune will come with a price.
A Jays source confirmed the team has reached an agreement with the 21-year-old. Martin agreed to terms with an over-slot signing bonus of more than Us$7million, according to multiple reports. That bonus is the largest in club history, topping the $4.5 million that 2019 first-rounder Alek Manoah collected.
The Blue Jays also reached agreement with fourth-round pick Nick Frasso. The righthander signed for a $459,000 bonus.