MLB

ball coach Mike Krzyzewski to help him prepare. His message for a team that expects to contend this season? I’m here for you at all times.

“That’s one of my great values that I tell the guys: We have to overcommunicate,” said Rojas, who can always call dad — former player and manager Felipe Alou — for advice in a pinch. “I mean, we call it that. Just to make sure that everyone knows what’s going on and everyone knows what their role is and how things are and what to expect.”

Even if that’s easier said than done during a time

when players have to abide by 100-plus pages of health protocol and spit copious amounts of saliva into a tube every other day as part of the COVID-19 test. Managers in 2020 find themselves equal parts instructor, confidant and amateur medical professional. Oh, and they have to find a way to be successful on the field in the process.

If there’s a saving grace for the newcomers, it’s that their moreestablished brethren are facing some of the same concerns for the first time. Cleveland’s Terry Francona might have two World Series rings at home and nearly two decades on the bench under his belt, but he doesn’t have a playbook on how to cope with the fallout of

a pandemic.

Same for several bigname managers in new spots for the first time, with the Angels’ Joe Maddon, the Phillies’ Joe Girardi and the Royals’ Mike Matheny among them.

“I think every manager right now has that same challenge, obviously to get the team prepared and to fulfill protocol, keep everyone healthy is the No. 1 priority,” Rojas said.

Still, the playing field isn’t quite level for all first-year managers. Ross earned the nickname “Grandpa Rossy” for helping the young Cubs capture their first championship in 108 years in 2016. Much of the core of that team — third baseman Kris Bryant and first baseman Anthony Rizzo chief

among them — remains on the Northside, providing Ross with plenty of clout in the clubhouse the moment he became Chicago’s manager last October.

“Having a little bit of background just eliminates some of the relationship stuff that you have to build when you don’t know somebody,” Ross said. “Some of the guys I’m new with, checking in a little bit more, beginning to know their personalities. I have to put a little more time into understanding how they think, their emotions when they’re good (and) when they’re bad and some of their history and talk to them before you give them some kind of hard truths that you might want to give them.”