Newman adjusting to new guidelines
Says needs outweigh wants in odd situation
Kevin Newman has stopped licking his fingers between every pitch.
The Pirates shortstop isn’t sure when he started the habit, which he says gives him a little extra grip when he is on defense, but he has had to stop this year as Major League Baseball has mandated that players licking their fingers, along with things such as spitting and high-fiving, now is prohibited.
It’s a small example of extra precautions teams and players must take during the COVID-19 pandemic. Perhaps the biggest example, though, is simply returning to baseball at all.
The Pirates began their summer camp in full Friday at PNC Park, with all players arriving in Pittsburgh. With those extra precautions being taken — social-distancing measurements, masks on the field at times, etc. — Newman and his teammates still have to actually prepare for a season, which is slated to start July 23 or 24. That will take some time crunching. “Our coaching staff is doing a really good job of getting everything that we can get in with everybody for the certain time we have,” Newman said Friday. “It’s hard to explain because the optics of it are tough. But for the most part, we’re getting every single thing that we really do need, not necessarily everything that we want.
“So, in a normal season, I’d go out there, just me and [infield coach] Joey Cora, and I can work on specific things for 30 minutes. I can work on one individual play. I can’t do that now. But that’s something that I want; that’s not something I necessarily need. Right now, we’re getting everything that we need as players to perform.”
Newman said he was able to field some ground balls, take batting practice, stand in some live bullpens and run the bases Friday. That, in his words, is “pretty much a normal day.”
That could be a good thing, considering that it might be tough in this environment to get into a routine. This is simply how things are right now, though, so players are left to do whatever they can to get comfortable before the season begins. That will have to be good enough.
“We still have our cage time before we go out there, so it’s nice that we can get our cage routines going,” Newman said. “Then, when we get on the field, there’s definitely some give and take there because we are definitely time-slotted so we don’t necessarily have time for every individual person to go through their individual routine in terms of being on the field. But we’re adjusting well.
“The coaches are doing a great job of asking us what we need, what we would want in the time that we do have out there, so we are definitely making the most of it.”
For the Pirates to have success this year, it should be important for Newman to be comfortable. After all, he finished 2019 with a .308 batting average, 12 home runs and 64 RBIs.
When manager Derek Shelton has talked about his roster, he has mentioned his affinity for the young core. That, one would think, includes Newman.
Players have discussed how the shortened, 60-game season could allow for some funky results at the end of the year. If a team gets hot for a two-week stretch, that could be all it takes to make a playoff push.
That will require some semblance of comfort from the players themselves, which means finding whatever routine works within the guidelines at hand and simply going full speed ahead.
“We’ve only been here for a little bit, so not a lot has changed,” Newman said. “But at the field, it’s pretty much the same pre-field routine but with a mask on. When we get out there, there’s a lot more than myself that just has to be accounted for. I can’t demand a bunch of time and get all the stuff that I want because there’s other guys out there and we only have a certain amount of time.”
Will that be enough to get ready for the season?
“It’s going to have to be, you know?” Newman said. “There’s no reason in saying it’s not because it’s what we’ve got. We’re just going to embrace it and do everything we can.”