Players itching to play; find creative ways to prepare

As Major League Baseball remains on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Marlins retain hope for a big 2020 in Year 3 under the Derek Jeter ownership group.

The Major League Baseball season is usually in its third week at this point. Minor-league baseball is just starting its season. College baseball is in the midst of conference play. High school ball is gearing up for its playoffs.

Michael Hill, as the Marlins’ president of baseball operations, should be immersed in it all. Derek Jeter, the Hall of Fame shortstop turned Marlins CEO and part owner, should be immersed in it all. The hundreds of players in the Marlins’ organization, from A ball prospects to big-leaguers, and the thousands of prep and college players who could become part of the Marlins’ organization this summer should be immersed in it, too.

But there is no live baseball to watch right now and no live baseball to play right now. Sports have been on hold for close to a month now in the United States due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

There is no sound of a ball cracking against a bat with thousands watching from the stands. No big strikeout to get out of a jam. No towering home runs. No double plays. No routine ground balls.

The only traffic making

its way through the lots at Marlins Park in Little Havana right now are from people trying to get tested for the virus rampaging its way around the world.

“This is the first time in about 30 years I haven’t been involved in baseball at this point in April,” Hill said Thursday. “There’s still so much unknown.”

Like when the season is going to start. Or where games will be played even with multiple reports alluding to different possibilities. Or how many games will be played. Or if fans will be allowed to watch. Or how large the rosters will be. Or how much time they’ll have for a pseudospring training before games take place.

But through the unknown, the Marlins are trying to create some form of normalcy. Spring training came to a stop on March 12. Preparation for the season didn’t.

This was supposed to be a big year for the Marlins. They still feel it can be. This is Year 3 of their rebuild under the Bruce Sherman and Jeter ownership group. Prospects on the cusp of their MLB debuts. Internal expectations heightening. A slight hope that this might be the year, after two years of toiling in baseball’s cellar, that this might be the year things start turning around.

“It’s unfortunate because those guys and all of us were hoping to be out and playing and improving their skill set and continuing their path to the big leagues. Circumstance and life dictated otherwise,” Hill said. “It’s something that we all recognize. It was not expected, but you deal with it.”

So the Marlins, like the other 29 MLB teams in limbo, carry on.

Lines of communication are open even though Marlins Park and the team’s practice facility in Jupiter remain closed.

The front office has been working remotely for more than three weeks, daily video chats and conference calls serving as substitute for face-to-face interaction. Scouts are relying on summer and fall reports to put together the best plan of attack for what will almost assuredly be a shortened 2020 MLB Draft.

Marlins players are following individualized plans to stay in baseball shape.

“We continue to plan for the 2020 season,” Jeter said Wednesday on the

Marlins’ Beyond the Bases podcast. “We’re going to be ready when MLB decides it’s safe to return to the field.”

‘THE WORK NEVER STOPS’

That means continuing day-to-day operations even if doing it on your own.

Hill said strength and conditioning coach Kevin Barr gave each player individualized plans to maintain their fitness. Pitching coach Mel Stottlemyre Jr. is encouraging pitchers to throw off a mound when they can to stay loose but not overdo it to the point that injuries during the hiatus become a concern.

“They’re not stretched out completely,” Hill said, “but you’re not going to lose entirely what’s been built up.”

Hitting coaches Eric Duncan and Robert Rodriguez along with bench coach/offensive coordinator James Rowson compiled a series of drill packages that don’t require a field or batting cage to help hitters maintain their timing.

“There’s no substitute for seeing it live,” Hill said, “but everyone’s in the same boat with the restrictions and the creativity they need to display to get their work in. For the most part, our guys have been able to do that.”

The players are doing their part as well.

“The work never stops,” pitcher Pablo Lopez put on Twitter this week with a video of him throwing off a mound from an indoor training facility.

Shortstop Miguel Rojas has taken advantage of the batting cage in the backyard of his South Florida home.

“Find a way to get a little bit better every day,” Rojas wrote in a March 31 post of him taking swings. “The grind never stops.”

‘PATIENTLY WAITING’

The itch to play again is also being felt as seen on social media.

“Patiently waiting,”

Rojas wrote on Sunday, “Like I’m on deck.”

“Missin’ it,” first baseman/outfielder Garrett Cooper wrote with a video of one of his 15 home runs from last season attached.

Mid-May is the earliest any form of team baseball activity is likely based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for limiting large gatherings. Jeter said any reported plans coming out regarding the 2020 season — the latest of which being that all teams will be quarantined in Phoenix and play in front of empty stadiums or that teams will play at their spring training sites with a one-year realignment in divisions based on geography — is speculation.

Neither he nor Hill wants to put a definite amount of time for how long players would need to get back up to speed to play.

Jeter also said that despite an early report that certain ballparks could be used as neutral sites if the playoffs drag into November, he has not been contacted about Marlins Park being used in that way, “but we’ll help out in any fashion that we can” should the situation arise.

“I think most importantly we need to make sure our community is safe and we all get through this,” Jeter said.

“Then you can concern yourself about getting back on the field and baseball. I don’t know the answer to that question. No one knows the answer to that question.”

So the waiting — and the preparation — continues.

“We stand ready to whatever the next step is,” Hill said.