Cain hopes body’s always able
SURPRISE, Ariz. - Lorenzo Cain is in a good place physically, and his biggest goal heading into the upcoming season is to remain that way.
“I told (manager Craig) Counsell I want to play as many games as possible,” he said Wednesday. “As long as I’m healthy, I want to be on the field. And I feel like as long as I’m on the field, everything else will take care of itself. Being healthy is my only goal every year.
“I don’t set goals – ‘I need to hit .300. I need to hit 15-20 home runs.’ My only goal is to stay healthy for the whole season. Then my numbers will take care of themselves.”
Cain, who will turn 32 on April 13, is coming off a 2017 season in which he played a career-high 155 games for the Kansas City Royals. His production matched his availability, as he put up a .300 average, 15 home runs, 49 runs batted in and 26 stolen bases — numbers that helped convince the Brewers to sign him to a five-year, $80 million free-agent contract on Jan. 26.
Cain also was able to remain healthy in 2015, when he played 140 games and earned his lone all-star nod after hitting .307/16/72 and stealing 28 bases. Hamstring, wrist, groin, oblique and hip injuries plagued him throughout the rest of his seven-year career with the Royals, however, leading Cain to become increasingly diligent with regard to his off-season and pre-game work as his career has progressed.
“When you’ve been injured as much as I have, you’ve got to change some things up,” Cain said. “I’ve definitely ramped up my regimen I do every day. I’m trying to stay very consistent with it. I stayed very consistent with it last year, and I was able to play a lot of games.
“I do a lot of stuff in the trainers’ room, then I go to the weight room and do a lot of stretching, warming up for practice.”
Cain has produced in the seven spring training games he’s played in, hitting .368 with two doubles and an RBI. But he no longer has to worry about his numbers or whether he’s going to make the team — a far cry from his initial stint with Milwaukee, where he made his major-league debut in 2010.
“What I’ve learned is the spring is nothing like the season,” Cain said. “I just try to get my work in and make sure I’m ready for the season. That’s my main focus. If I hit .200 or .400, it doesn’t really matter to me.
“It’s about making sure I feel good, my legs are underneath me and I’m healthy going into the season. That’s the biggest thing.”
Cain, who is playing every other day, wasn’t on the bus to Surprise on
Wednesday as the Brewers took on the Royals. He was one of the key players who helped Kansas City to consecutive World Series appearances and a title in 2015.
“Might have been a little weird to see the guys,” he said. “But as you get older and you play the game, you understand it’s a business. It would have been good to see all my teammates, but we’ll play them again.”
Piña has different focus: It took 10 major-league spring camps for it to happen, but Manny Piña finally is in a position where he doesn’t have to make the team.
The 30-year-old catcher, who broke through last spring to earn a job with the Milwaukee Brewers, is in a different situation in this camp, knowing he can focus on getting ready for the season. As an example, he backed off playing in the past week to allow tightness in his right calf to subside.
Last spring, when he had to earn a roster spot, Piña said he would have played through the issue.
“It’s different,” he said. “Last year, I needed to do good to make the team.”
Piña’s first big-league camp was in 2009 with Texas, the team that signed him out of Venezuela. After that season, he was traded to Kansas City, where he spent four years before signing with Seattle as a free agent. In 2014, he was traded to the Detroit Tigers, who sent him to the Brewers in a swap for closer Francisco Rodriguez after the 2015 season.
During all that time, he saw action in only four games in the majors, all with the Royals. He got a bigger chance in 2016, when the Brewers called him up from Class AAA Colorado Springs and he played in 33 games.
Last spring, the Brewers put the two catching jobs up for grabs in a competition between Piña, Jett Bandy and Andrew Susac, who dropped out with a neck injury and opened the year on the disabled list.
Piña and Bandy got off to hot starts, but Bandy slumped badly and later was sent down when veteran Stephen
Vogt was claimed off waivers from Oakland.
This spring, Piña is the only catcher assured of a job. The other spot will go to either Vogt, currently battling a shoulder strain, or Bandy, who is out of minor-league options.
With his spot secured this season, Piña’s primary goal is to improve the relationship between catchers and pitchers.
“It’s more comfortable (to have a job) but it’s also more work,” said Piña, who served as the designated hitter in the exhibition game Wednesday against Kansas City. “I have to be focused more so the pitcher is comfortable when I catch. That’s my focus.
“If this (calf strain) happened last year, I would say I want to play. I needed to make the team. This year, the need me 100% healthy to be ready for the season.”