Big, youthful staff could provide edge
People throughout baseball gave the Giants serious sideeye in the offseason when manager Gabe Kapler formed a coaching staff that was very young and short on traditional experience.
That youth, and the unprecedented size of this staff, might be paying off now at the strange grind of summer camp.
Although the effectiveness of these 13 coaches will be judged by the team’s performance, whenever it gets to perform again, they have a builtin advantage in a camp that requires long hours and shepherding 55 players. Youthful minds and bodies. Because of pandemic spacing requirements, teams cannot put all of their players on the field at once. Over the first four days of workouts at Oracle Park, the Giants were split into three groups, which meant that Kapler, his coaches and other organizational instructors taking part had to conduct largely the same workouts three times a day, each lasting about 21⁄2 hours.
On Wednesday, they consolidated into two larger groups, which still means two workouts for the staff to conduct lasting about 31⁄2 hours each.
One need not be ageist to surmise the benefit of a coaching group that averages 37 years of age with a median age of 36.
“We have a lot of energy and enthusiasm to be flexible with what’s coming our way,” 34yearold assistant coach Mark Hallberg said. “I would say that also, because we’re a little younger, there’s that energy level that allows us to deal with the diversity of work we have to do.”
The youngest coach, Justin Viele, is 29. Assistant coach Alyssa Nakken turned 30 last month. Nine of the 13 are in their 30s. The only two coaches older than that are qualityassurance coach Nick Ortiz, who turned 47 on Thursday, and 59yearold thirdbase coach Ron Wotus.
With some majorleague coaches opting out because of age or medical conditions, and others reassigned by their teams for the same reasons, it was fair to speculate whether Wotus would take a pass. Nobody would have blamed him.
But he has been on the field and, by all accounts, is keeping up with the “kids.”
“Wo is our dad, but he’s been just as energetic as the rest of us,” 36yearold firstbase coach Antoan Richardson said.
“In my short time knowing Wo, I can see that he cares about the players a great deal, he cares about the organization and he loves the game. With the combination of those things, he made his decision.”
Wotus declined to discuss that decision with The Chronicle.
He and bench coach Kai Correa share responsibility for creating the work schedule for an unprecedented training camp in which players began a threeweek process nearly four months after they had to stop training in the spring.
“I feel like they’ve done a good job, even with the same workout multiple times a day,” Hallberg said. “It hasn’t been monotonous because the people change and that makes the situations different.”
Richardson noted that the three daily workouts, though largely similar, had a few different wrinkles, “partly to keep us mentally engaged for long periods of time, and add some variety.”
But there was another reason: The groups were not created equally.
The earlymorning group featured most of the younger players and prospects, many of whom will be moved to the Giants’ alternate camp when it opens, with Sacramento still the likely venue.
Everyday players and seasoned relievers comprised most of the group that started its day just before noon. Brandon Crawford, Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, Evan Longoria and Johnny Cueto were part of this group.
The lateafternoon gang — which outfielder Alex Dickerson jokingly called the “sleepin group” — was a mix that included older players such as Jeff Samardzija and Pablo Sandoval, but also some prospects.
“Those first two groups are in different parts of their careers and working in different developmental areas,” Hallberg said. “The second group, having been established, know what they need to do to get ready for the season, especially with expedited training, just three weeks to prepare.”
Hallberg arrives at 6:30 each morning and leaves between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., similar to the spring training routine once the games start. The coaches have some builtin chill time now between groups because the player checkin process, which involves questionnaires and temperature checks, takes time.
Still, Kapler said he and his coaches have discussed days off ahead of the season.
“The one thing we want to share with our staff is, if people need a blow, we’ll give them a blow. We’ll figure out a way to cover. We do have plenty of bodies. Our staff ... even if given the option, would be on this baseball field, in the batting cages and bullpens.
“We will create opportunities to get the staff off its feet. The likelihood is that most of them will opt to be at the ballpark with the players because that’s what they love to do. We may need to take the decision out of their hands from time to time.”