Kingery’s had a long, strange trip to second spring training
On the trip from soon-tobe-virus-ridden Florida to his Arizona home, Scott Kingery had time to think about what his next move would be.
“My thought was as soon as I got back from spring training to Arizona, it was, ‘How am I going to stay in shape? Where am I going to work out?’” Kingery said Saturday on a video chat. “For me ... for all of us, it was something we haven’t been through. But my trainers came to my actual house to work me and a couple of players out, just out of our garage.”
With essentially his own workout group in the comforts of home, Kingery might have thought he was working out the best he could during the coronavirus scare that would eventually delay the start of the baseball season for what looks to be about four months. As it turned out, however, it wouldn’t be as ideal as it seemed.
“I was quarantining, still staying in my residence,” Kingery said. “But there were still risks and I wasn’t able to say exactly where everyone was going after those workouts. So I was eventually exposed (to COVID-19) through my workout group. For me, I have to work out to stay in shape for baseball and at the same time I was trying to stay as safe as possible. But I ended up getting exposed.”
As the Phillies returned via what was (and still is) planned to be a three-week “summer training” at Citizens Bank Park and a public park across Pattison Ave., Kingery was thus stuck at home, still quarantining, only without the workout group of buddies this time. He was still hitting and throwing when he could, which enabled him to maintain what he says is “pretty good baseball shape.” But there were some hairy days before he did while dealing with the virus.
“I saw five or six people I’m close with that actually tested positive,” Kingery said. “It affected every single person differently. A couple of guys were in bed for multiple days, not wanting to move. I got it real bad one night, to the point where I couldn’t move. But for me it kind of came in steps.
“First it was a headache, and body aches, then the fever came and the chills, then after that I lost my taste and smell, and then shortness of breath and fatigue and stuff like that. It kind of lingered a while after the symptoms of chills and fever.”
All told, with the symptoms, then a couple of weeks while he tried to get through a process where you have to test negative twice just to board the flight to Philadelphia, Kingery noted, “it’s been about a month process, getting over it and then getting back to Philly and on the field.”
There he was Saturday at CBP, doing some batting practice – one round while wearing a mask – and taking some ground balls and throwing.
He said he still feels the shortness of breath and fatigue that he’d described as “lingering.”
“I’ll probably ease back into things over the next couple of days, at least,” Kingery said. “Hopefully pretty soon get some live at-bats going and work my way into games.”
Kingery is confident he can be ready to start at second base on July 24, when that long-awaited opener to a scheduled 60-game season kicks off with a game against the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park.
But manager Joe Girardi, referencing Kingery’s slowish recovery, pointed out the Phillies have options if Kingery isn’t back to full strength. That would be via three veteran role players signed in the offseason, former Pirate star Josh Harrison and well traveled utility guys Logan Forsythe and Neil Walker.
“We have experience there,” Girardi said of his supporting cast in the infield. “There’s a lot of different scenarios we could create because of those three guys. It could be a platoon situation or one guy ... but the thing is we have a lot of experience there so we will look at that.
“But Scott’s health is the most important thing. I don’t want him to end up on the DL because his legs weren’t ready or he was still feeling a little weak. We’ve got to make sure he’s good to go. But we do have a lot of options.”
Kingery isn’t planning on rushing things, either. Looking back on his first try in batting practice with a mask revealed how change can be difficult.
“It was very difficult for me to breathe,” he said. “But I think that’s partially due to the fact that the shortness of breath is still kind of lingering. I haven’t really gone full force and tested it out, to see what it’s going to be like and how my lungs are going to feel. I ended up taking it off to take ground balls and hitting again, but I’m going to wear it around the clubhouse anytime I’m just standing in there.
“I think every team understands that at this point you have to wear your mask as much as possible,” Kingery added. “If one guy gets it, you don’t know they’ve been exposed to the virus. We don’t know who’s going to have to quarantine if something like that happens. So because we’ve never been through something like this it’s kind of like on the fly, everything that we’re doing.
“If you can just take as many precautions as possible to stay safe and keep your distance from others that’s the best way to keep yourself from getting the virus.”