Dietrich wants to fill mentor, leadership void
JUPITER — Derek Dietrich would tell you he’s in the best shape of his life, as so many others in baseball do this time of year, but, well, it just wouldn’t be true.
He’s always pretty ripped, and he’s pretty proud of it. Even if J.T. Realmuto and others have taken to sometimes lightheartedly ribbing him for working out so much.
“Let me tell you what,” Dietrich said. “There are way worse things to be addicted to. He’s like, ‘I guess if you love to work out, it’s not the worst thing.’ I guess. I got one body. It’s my No. 1 tool. I take a lot of pride in how hard I work and what I do and being available.”
For Dietrich, being available has been critical to his major league career as a Miami Marlins utility man, able to play four positions and pinch-hit, plus start for spurts when injuries necessitated it. And being available is even more critical now as he gets his first shot at being a full-time player, penciled in as the starting left fielder as the Marlins began exhibition games this weekend.
But starting left fielder is only one of Dietrich’s new titles. The other: longesttenured Marlin.
Dietrich is the only remaining Marlin from 2013, the last time the franchise endured Year 1 of a rebuild. He was a rookie — in the same class as Jose Fernandez, Christian Yelich and Marcell Ozuna — on a team that lost 100 games.
Now, all of the other 66 faces in the Marlins’ spring training clubhouse are different. Nobody has been around in the majors for Miami longer than Dietrich.
“A new person brings that to my attention every day,” Dietrich said with a smile. “I didn’t know right away, but I do know now.”
Those two new titles will lend themselves, Dietrich hopes, to a third: team leader.
“There were guys along the way who helped me with [adjusting to the majors], and other guys who did not,” Dietrich said. “I want to make sure that I’m a guy who makes it easier and better for a younger player.”
Dietrich had mentors when he was a young player, because there are always mentors — at least a couple in every clubhouse. Who served in that role for him? Who on that 2013 team stands out?
Juan Pierre is one. He’s back in camp with the Marlins as a guest instructor. But beyond that, Dietrich had a hard time even recalling with confidence other guys who were on that roster.
And he doesn’t want this rebuilding team to be remembered — or, rather, forgotten — like that one apparently is.
“I want to be here. I want to stay here,” Dietrich said. “I’m proud to be with the Miami Marlins, and I hope that I’m a leader this year, next year and the years to come, so we’re not having a conversation, ‘Who were the leaders? I
don’t even know. They’re gone or we didn’t have any.’” New assignments
With one fewer coach on staff this season — the Marlins let Lorenzo Bundy’s contract expire and did not replace him — third-base coach Fredi Gonzalez is absorbing Bundy’s outfield and base running duties.
Alongside that, manager Don Mattingly said the team has catching coach Brian Schneider and administrative coach Ed Lucas leading the defensive positioning efforts. They get spray charts and other data from the front office and help implement that on the field, whether it’s a full-blown shift or a more subtle shading on a given play, working with Gonzalez and infield coach Perry Hill.
“Schneid loves it,” Mattingly said. “He loves being Fredi’s boss.”
The Schneider-Lucas tandem works, Mattingly said, because their new responsibilities mesh well with their existing ones. Schneider works with the catchers on game-calling and how opposing batters will be pitched, which can influence defensive positioning. Lucas is the Marlins’ replay coordinator, so during games he is in the video room watching every camera angle, including an overhead one.
“The charts don’t lie,” Mattingly said. “You’re amazed at how many times guys hit the ball where the charts say they’re going to hit it.”