Zooming in to start unprecedented camp

Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward was going to address his entire team before the start of MLB’s unprecedented summer training camp, just like he did when spring training opened about 4 ½ months ago. It was on a Zoom call instead of in person this time. When the New York Mets resume practice, 60-year-old hitting coach Chili Davis will be working with hitters remotely and not at Citi Field with the players and other staff members.

At Fenway Park, weights and other exercise equipment were set up July 2 in the concourse under the seats that Red Sox fans won’t be occupying when the season finally starts.

Things certainly are different for baseball’s resumption amid the coronavirus pandemic, three weeks before the start of a 60-game regular season. The Rangers, Mets and Red Sox are among the teams set for their first official summer workouts July 2, along with the defending World Series champion Washington Nationals minus first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and pitcher Joe Ross after they opted out of the season.

After the Toronto Blue Jays received a Canadian government exemption to work out at Rogers Centre, every team will be at its home ballpark to restart preseason workouts that abruptly came to a halt March 12 in Arizona and Florida.

The Rangers will hold the first official team activity in their new retractable-roof stadium, even though some players have been working out there for several weeks. Players will be staggered in different groups and times for workouts after Woodward’s remarks by video conference.

Along with some similarity to what he said in February when the team initially gathered at its spring training complex in Surprise, Arizona, Woodward

is focusing on the protocols and safeguards put in place by MLB in response to COVID-19, and the urgency of being ready for the sprint of a season that will be 102 games shorter than usual.

“This is a little different. Following protocols, being safe, making sure we’re on time, sticking to schedules, those are things that are critical for our success this year,” he said. “If we can limit the amount of exposure we have, or the risk factor in getting this virus, the team that keeps their people on the field, their players on the field, is probably going to have an advantage.”

While the home ballparks are bigger than those at spring training, teams have to adjust to making a camp environment without having several extra fields next to each other, and the absence of some additional workout-specific spaces.

“It’s a great challenge. I mean, last week I think I grew a few more gray hairs just brainstorming through this,” first-year Mets manager Luis Rojas said. “But we’ve had fun definitely with the excitement of getting baseball back and going through this path. But we did come up with different ideas, and we’re going to stagger the guys. I mean, we’re going to come in in groups.” Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed an order July 2 allowing the Red Sox to open Fenway Park without fans. The weights and exercise equipment in the concourse will allow players to work out with more social distancing than would be possible in the usual cramped facilities.

The Mets will be at Citi Field without Davis, and Rojas said the timeline for the hitting coach to join the team there is uncertain. The New York Post was first to report that Davis wouldn’t be there in person for the beginning of practices because of concerns about the coronavirus.