Nola joins the out crowd at summer training
PHILADELPHIA » The daily upclose-and-digitally-personal session with Joe Girardi ended on a curious note Saturday, when the Phillies manager vaguely noted that Aaron Nola is MIA from summer training camp.
Moments after Girardi referenced two other players, young center fielder Adam Haseley and minor league invitee catcher Christian Bethancourt, were not in camp but working out locally on their own, he couldn’t avoid a question about Nola.
With pitchers working at both FDR Park and Citizens Bank Park, it can be kind of challenging to put eyes on so many masked baseball men from press box distance.
What’s more, with COVID-19 still ruling everyone’s daily activities, the MLB powers to be have mandated that no comments be made concerning a player’s individual health status from any manager or team staff member.
Hence, when Girardi was given one last Zoom session question Saturday as to, ‘Hey, Where’s Aaron?’ ... he had to say only what he could.
“He ... is not here yet,” Girardi said with a mid-sentence pause for effect. “We’re trying to work our way through that.”
OK then, that’s a wrap! Thanks everybody!
Girardi said both Haseley and Bethancourt’s absences were “due to a medical condition.” Perhaps that should be considered the alternative definition for the league’s new “COVID-19 injured list.”
Naturally, no Nola is a matter of concern, medical condition or not, and even if this wasn’t a weird Fourth of July “spring” training day. He’s coming off a difficult and sometimes unsuccessful 2019, yet he remains the undisputed No. 1 Phillies starting pitcher.
Haseley, the club’s first-round draftee (No. 8 overall) in 2017, came up and provided outfield depth last season, hitting .266 with a .720 OPS through 222 at-bats as a rookie. He is expected by many to nail down a starting spot in center this season with Andrew McCutchen coming off his major knee injury.
Also listed as MIA before camp began last week were second baseman Scott Kingery, closer Hector Neris and fellow relievers Tommy Hunter and Ranger Suarez. How many of the absences are due to testing positive for COVID-19 is officially unknown, though it’s been reported all are on the COVID list after testing positive.
Thus, with the season set to begin either July 23 or 24 – the 60game schedule is expected to become available this week – the Phillies apparently have their No. 1 starter, their top closer, their starting second baseman and center fielder all down due to COVID-related restrictions. Those players have to test negative twice in 72 hours in order to return to active status, and that’s after a two-week quarantine from the time they tested positive.
With a pandemic that’s such a pain, this situation can’t be comfortable for Dr. Girardi.
“I think there’s a lot of concern and that’s why we continue to educate as much as we can, we continue to test every other day, there’s temperature checks a number of times during the day,” Girardi said. “It’s players being socially responsible to themselves, to the people around them, and to their teammates.
“The players, if you have a symptom, don’t just assume, ‘Ah, I’ve got a little headache today, it’s normal,’ or, ‘I’m sneezing more than normal today, it’s my allergies.’ You have to be completely honest in all these questionnaires that we fill out or we jeopardize everyone in the (clubhouse), so it is a concern, yes.”
But on, perhaps, a more esoteric level, can it bring people together? While socially distanced, of course.
“I worry about giving it to my family,” Girardi said. “If I get it, I feel like I’ll be OK. But your focus becomes about other people and when you’re able to do that I feel it does build chemistry.”
That’s all well and good, but with a season of just 60 games, that old working theory of every day counting becomes all the more important.
If Nola can’t go by opening day, the Phillies have a strong, new No. 2 starter in former Met Zack Wheeler. He threw two live innings at CBP Saturday and looked sharp, with Girardi low-keying, “I thought he looked pretty good.”
But Wheeler is also expected to go on the paternity list this month, with wife Dominique due around the time the Phillies will see the delayed first pitch of the regular season.
So ... anybody ready for a first pitch of the season from (hopefully) rebuilt Jake Arrieta? Or ... Cole Irvin?
“I made sure I was prepared,” said Irvin, who had mixed success when spot starting or long relieving via a couple of promotions from Triple-A last season. “I had probably close to 60 innings under my belt coming in here and I was working on a five-day rotation. Just in case someone goes down, we’re all going to need to be ready; all hands need to be on deck. The 60-man player pool might not be enough. We don’t know how all this might shake out. But it’s all of our jobs to stay ready.”
To that end, it’s not just the pitching that has be an ongoing concern during this very different second training camp of 2020.
“It’s why you build a bench,” Girardi said. “Veterans presence, role players, they know how to handle the job. They can play a big role. And I hate to say it, injuries are one thing, but someone getting COVID-19 could happen real quickly and someone else might be forced to play and usually you like experience
(there).”
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Irvin talked about the experience of literally playing in the park, after a couple of days of Phillies pitchers doing drills and throwing over at FDR Park on Pattison Ave.
“The field is in such great condition,” said Irvin, who likened the experience to “the urban youth fields” of Compton, Calif., near his Yorba Linda home growing up. “You notice the fans, and especially on the Fourth of July, with all the barbecues going and some smells that you’re very fond of on a day like this.
“So that was nice. It’s not your typical surroundings but at the same time this is a new normal that we’ve got to get used to.”