Extended spring camp to take shape
Minor league play will start a month after the majors
BRADENTON, Fla. — The Pirates aren’t quite sure where they’re going to send players who are likely to be called up by the major league team early this year.
Spring training is less than a week from its conclusion, and minor league spring training will begin shortly thereafter, but the actual minor league seasons won’t start until May.
That means that as opening day kicks off MLB’s season, there will be a month of baseball played in which the Pirates — and every other team — will need players ready to help with injuries or absences, at least until the Class AAA season gets going. As of now, though, they’re not even certain where that camp will take place.
Wherever it is, the bright side is the Pirates did this sort of thing last season with their alternate site in Altoona, under even stranger circumstances.
Class AAA Indianapolis manager Brian Esposito, who was/ will be in charge of both versions of the alternate site, thinks that this year’s site will be a lot different, and probably in a good way.
The presence of minor league spring training means that the camp will consist entirely of players who are already right near the majors. Esposito also believes they’ll be able to play games or scrimmages against some outside competition this time around.
Neither of those things were true in Altoona in 2020.
“I think the unique thing about last year was that nobody really knew what to expect or what we were going to prepare for, other than the fact that we were probably knee-deep in a pandemic, which was going to take a lot of effort for all parties involved to run a safe camp where the protocol and making sure that everybody showed up healthy was the priority,” Esposito told the Post-Gazette.
From the players to Esposito, the general sentiment about Altoona last season seems to be that it wasn’t an ideal situation, but they did the best they could.
Reliever Blake Cederlind said their living situation at the Pennview Suites in Altoona was sort of like what he imagined a college fraternity would be like. They were constantly together, unable to really go anywhere without breaking COVID protocol.
There were things to pass the time, whether it be golf ball chipping competitions in the backyard, cornhole or video games. Esposito acknowledged there were probably arguments and disagreements, but he generally feels the players got along as best they could.
“You’re around the same people every day, all day, unable to go do anything that would lock you back in, or I guess you would say that would follow your routine or your own coping mechanisms,” Esposito said. “Those things were kind of eliminated, so you had to adapt in an environment that you ordinarily might not be used to.
“I think for the greater of the good, everybody got along really well, and like I said, I think there were some people that built some bonds and moved some things forward moreso than there were any complications or conflict or hard times.”
On the field, Esposito says they tried to keep things light by letting players take some ownership over the things they wanted to work on. If a player saw a highlight on SportsCenter that impressed them, they were free to take time to see if they could do similar things.
And obviously that is in addition to the basic work they had to get done, but there was certainly plenty of down time, too. The Pirates, and ostensibly every other MLB team, only had so many pitchers to throw in scrimmages or live batting practices.
Plus, at the beginning of camp, the players’ situations were unclear. Some were able to work out at local gyms or fields during the COVID-19 shutdown. Others weren’t. Every player started from a different place, which also threw a wrench into the question of group availability.
“The main goal was to make sure that everybody was where they needed to be and not overextending themselves or rushing somebody into a situation that they weren’t really prepared for,” Esposito said.
“So it was difficult. It was different. Some days, we had a plethora of pitching. Some days we didn’t, and we just had to find a way to continue to get our hitters better or have them prepare to go to the big leagues in case
the phone rang.”
That was then. The positive is this time around will almost certainly be easier.
Last year, there were players like 2020 first-round pick Nick Gonzales and top prospects like Oneil Cruz and Travis Swaggerty in camp. Esposito did say that they tried to prepare every player in the camp in case a disastrous COVID breakout occurred on the big-league level, but the Pirates likely would have tried their absolute best to avoid rushing those young players along.
That led to some differences in how players were coached and developed. This time around, it will be mostly players who would have been in Class AAA anyway, all ready to make the leap to the majors if needed,
perhaps lending to a more singular focus.
It will be shorter, there may be games against other teams or outside players. Plus there’s a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel. After a month, Esposito and his Indianapolis team will get to return to their home ballpark with a season of their own ahead.
“I look forward to getting to Indy,” Esposito said. “Right now, my main concern is finishing up spring training strong with the opportunities we have here, and then whatever this alternate site looks like, we’ll take care of that and then we’ll get to Indy at some point.”