In hopes of playing better, Giants will look better when they travel
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> When the Giants board their charter flight back to Bay Area following Saturday's spring finale, the team will look a little different than the past four years under manager Gabe Kapler.
We're not talking about the additions of Blake Snell, Matt Chapman or Jorge Soler. In addition to the $300 million-plus in free agents brought in this offseason, the Giants are reinstating a dress code for travel days that had been absent in the ultra-lax clubhouse run by Kapler.
Athleisure is out. Professionalism is in.
Suits aren't a requirement, but sweats won't be permitted, either.
“We're not bankers. We don't have to wear suits,” said manager Bob Melvin, whose look of choice has long been a dress shirt and slacks. “But when we come off the plane and check in to a nice hotel, sweatsuits I don't think are something I'd like to see.”
The shakeup carries a similar motive to other changes implemented by Melvin this spring, such as lining up on the field for the national anthem to reflect their readiness for first pitch. But this one the manager didn't have his hand in. Veteran players held a meeting to set the team's sartorial standard.
“We're a big-league team.
We should look professional all the time,” said Wilmer Flores, one player who never let his fashion sense lapse. “It's not new for me. I always dress nice.”
“I think it's good to have some rules and some guidelines,” added outfielder Michael Conforto, who was more surprised by the lack of them regarding attire on travel days after signing with San Francisco before last season. “I have all these custom suits. I hadn't been able to wear them.”
Coming up with the Mets, Flores said the standard was still a full suit and tie whenever they were on the road. As a new generation has replaced the old guard, the game has become more welcoming — and that includes to fashion choices, or a lack thereof.
By the time Conforto's tenure in New York was up, the rules had been relaxed to dress shirts and jeans. But, he said, there were still rules.
“It's pretty common around the league to have something that the team does when they travel,” said Conforto, who opted for a checkered gray sport coat. “Maybe there was just a little bit of a lack of uniformity. But at the end of the day, I think our downfalls last year were on the field. Whether or not you can draw lines from certain things that we weren't doing off the field, I think it really just goes back to preparation and a lack of execution.”
Just ask Flores, whose work ethic draws as much attention from his peers as his high style. His clothing of choice for the flight home from Arizona was a custommade, hooded gray blazer, paired with skinny black jeans and black boots.
“To play good, it starts off the field,” he said. “How you behave yourself off the field, what you do when you're not playing. I mean, we get paid, we should have a professional look.”
The fashionable Flores is happy for any excuse to dig through his closet.
“I don't go to weddings anymore,” he said. “I have a lot of clothes that I want to wear. During the season, if I don't wear it, when am I going to wear it? I think it's nice. I like it.”
Asked which of his teammates for whom it will be the biggest adjustment, Flores surveyed the room. He couldn't name just one. “A lot of guys,” he chuckled.
This year, the message espoused by Melvin at their first team meeting of camp surrounded personal accountability.
There were three basic rules: Be on time, play hard and be accountable. Players took that to its natural next step, sprucing up their style away from the field.
“It's pretty simple,” Conforto said. “There's not a lot of rules, just some pretty clear rules.
“The dress code stuff, we'll police that on our own. Being on time is across the board, for meetings, for anthems, for bus times. … The veteran guys in here, we'll make sure everyone's doing what they need to be doing and we'll get on each other if the veteran guys aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing.”
TWO MORE PITCHERS CUT >> Right-handers Spencer Howard and Blayne Enlow were each reassigned to the minor leagues Saturday morning, bringing the number of players the Giants will take north with them for their three exhibitions against the A's and Triple-A River Cats to 41.