No time off for this new pro
Nick Zammarelli is staying ready for baseball season
Even in the offseason, Nick Zammarelli continued his steadfast approach of wearing out pitchers.
The Saturday before his scheduled departure to the Seattle Mariners’ spring-training facility in Peoria, Ariz., Zammarelli finds himself in a swinging zone, displaying textbook precision while inside a local warehouse – one so dimly lit and cold that its almost hard to fathom this place serves as a training ground for a minorleague hopeful.
Through the generosity of others, the Lincoln native was fortunate enough to set up an indoor hitting cage adorned with the safest and sturdiest of netting. His father Nick Jr. was the family member tasked with dutifully performing the daily art of tossing batting practice.
Following the latest round of slinging baseballs, Nick Jr. admits an overall sense of general, non-specific fatigue has set in, his arm no longer as fresh as it was when his son began ramping up in earnest for the 2017 season. It’s a good tired, however. The kind that comes with knowing that for a five-and-a-half month stretch leading up to the scheduled spring training reporting date with the Seattle Mariners, baseball figured prominently in their agenda.
As the first offseason of his professional odyssey neared the end, Nick Zammarelli III in his usual quiet but confident demeanor believes he has done everything within his grasp to make sure he can hit the ground running. Officially, the 22-year-old arrived at a hotel located not too far from Seattle’s Cactus
League headquarters on February 19.
“Looking back, I don’t think there’s anything else I could have done differently,” Zammarelli said after putting his dad through one of the few remaining father-son wintertime hitting/bonding sessions before the time came to board a plane. “I’m happy with the way I approached the offseason with the way I worked.”
Before saying goodbye to the family, Zammarelli professed to not knowing what was in store for him — whether he would begin the minor-league season with either Single-A Clinton (Iowa) or Advanced Single-A Modesto (Calif.). Regarding his 2017 placement, is it a bit nerve-racking to not possess this certain knowledge prior to heading west? Or does the lack of notice in advance open the door to dictate the assignment based on spring results?
“I know I’m going to work hard and perform the way I can,” Zammarelli said. “In the end wherever they place me, it’s one of things that’s out of my hands.”
Such uncertainly will get ironed out in due time, this despite spring training at times giving off the aura that it lasts forever. As for the approach Zammarelli took during an extralong furlough, where for a different change of pace, games and school work weren’t part of the itinerary, let’s just say he wasn’t lacking in things to do in his hometown.
The Nick Zammarelli who came home last September following a combined 494 at-bats at the college/minor league level was in dire need of a break. A season that began on Feb. 19 as a junior at North Carolina’s Elon University didn’t conclude until Sept. 13 when Short-Season Everett (Wash.) – the team where the Mariners placed the former Lincoln High standout upon drafting him in the eighth round of the 2016 draft – was eliminated in the Northwest League Championship Series.
Between Elon and the regular season with Everett, Zammarelli appeared in 119 games and hit a combined – and robust – .335 with 59 extra-base hits. His approach at the plate rivaled his defensive versatility. Though most of his action with Everett occurred at third base (43 games), Zammarelli also saw time at both corner outfield spots (10 games between right field and left field) and first base (eight games).
The minor-league postseason was when the toll of a long season that began in the Eastern Time Zone and ended in the Pacific Northwest started to appear in earnest. In five games spanning two series, Zammarelli managed just two hits in 17 at-bats.
“I felt good in one of the series, then the other three-quarters of the time, my hands felt slow and I was definitely feeling it,” Zammarelli said. “It was just one of those things where you have to grind through it, but I could tell it was starting to take a toll on my body.”
Listed at 6-1, Zammarelli began the college season at around 200 pounds. When he got home from Everett, he was down to 185. Per the advice of Brian Hunter, his hitting coach with Everett and a 10-year MLB veteran, Zammarelli made a complete break from baseball. No picking up a bat, a ball, or a weight for at least one month.
“I just felt that after a long college season and a long summer that taking a month off wasn’t going to hurt me at all,” Zammarelli said.
The respite allowed Zammarelli to finally catch his breath and put everything that’s happened to him over the past several years in proper context. From his senior year in high school, which culminated with his first draftday foray with the Boston Red Sox in 2013, until last fall … the longest he ever spent at home was the two-week Christmas break during his college years.
“I know my parents didn’t mind having me around. I definitely enjoyed it,” Zammarelli said with a smile. “I never had this long period of time to hit and lift like I had. In college, the offseason, we’re on the field for four or five hours during the fall.
“I needed this break just to eat right and not be on the road every day,” he added.
Upon deciding that it was finally the appropriate time to get to work, filling the gaping hole in his daily schedule proved a breeze. Five days a week, Zammarelli would wake up and make a beeline to a place in Lincoln – call it an indoor bubble – to specifically work on fielding.
Staying in the same town, he would head over to GLG Athletic Performance Facility, LLC to lift until lunchtime. The day would always conclude with picking up a bat and taking cuts, father Nick Jr. supplying the ammunition.
“A lot of people went out their way to help him, knowing he’s home,” Nick Zammarelli Jr. said. “That’s a nice feeling.”
When he wasn’t bouncing with determination from place to place in Lincoln, Zammarelli was out in Arizona per the request of his employer. On three separate occasions, the Mariners flew him out for mini-camps.
Each camp was distinct with the ground that was covered. One camp focused on mental skills while another covered weight lifting and baserunning. The topic of the third and final camp was hitting and featured several members of the big-league team.
“It’s the fact we’re not playing games is what makes it the offseason,” Zammarelli said.
Remembering the words from his coach with the Orleans Firebirds of the Cape Cod League, Zammarelli took Benny Craig up on his offer to come to Indiana for personalized hitting attention/instruction. For four days in January, Zammarelli received all kinds of eye-opening tips and pointers that he couldn’t wait to start implementing.
“(Craig) told us when we became pros to come and see him. He couldn’t really give us a lot of personalized attention (while in the Cape League) because it was about staying fresh to perform well in front of the scouts,” Zammarelli said. “The stuff he threw at me was awesome … stuff I had never heard before.”
Even though baseball represents the way Zammarelli now makes a living – he’s yet to touch his six-figure bonus from Seattle – he doesn’t dare look at what he does as a job and for good reason.
“I know I’m fortunate enough to play a kid’s game for a job so I just go out there and try to have fun every day,” Zammarelli said. “I try not to view it as a job because then the game will catch up with you.”
Zammarelli was one of 18 minor leaguers in Seattle’s farm system classified as a JIC – Just In Case. That means he’s afforded time around seasoned major leaguers. Plus, there’s traveling in a backup capacity to select spring-training games.
For a local lad set to enter his first full season as a pro, the words of advice given by Seattle farm director Andy McKay became clearer as spring training loomed.
“(McKay) said even if you think you’re prepared, prepare even more,” Zammarelli said. “Be over-prepared and be ready to get after it.”
A sage suggestion that stresses the importance of the offseason where its potential value wasn’t lost on a certain first timer to the experience.
“I’ve realized that I’m a professional now and that I do have this time to workout and do what I have to do,” Zammarelli said. “Now I know what to expect.”