For all but 10 Major League Baseball teams (including the locals), next weekend marks the start of another long offseason. Those successful 10 teams will embark on a playoff run that each club hopes culminates in a trip to the World Series. For the rest, the refrain you’ll hear in clubhouses around the country is the same:
“Have a great offseason. See you next spring.”
Off the players will go, scattering to places far and wide, landing comfortably in their winter homes in Florida, Arizona, California and other locales where they don’t have to worry about having a snow blower handy. Time to enjoy the good life.
That’s not to say they won’t work out, because 99 percent of them will. After a break, and maybe some vacation time, most will begin training again sometime after Thanksgiving. They’ll get that well-deserved break after more than seven straight months of the baseball grind (players generally get about 21 days off in almost eight months; it is a grind) and then they’ll start to gather at local gyms, high school fields and wherever is convenient to get in some lifting, running and throwing. The atmosphere will be casual and the work will be good, not great.
When they begin thinking about next season, they’ll have an offseason workout plan to follow that was laid out for them by the club’s strength and conditioning coaches. They may even get a visit or two from said strength coach during the winter, especially if they’re coming back from any sort of ailment.
But for the most part, unlike their counterparts in football and basketball, baseball players are left on their own during the offseason. The game has always trusted its players to handle their business in the offseason without too much meddling from the team. This is the way the Player’s Union wants it, and we all know that what the union wants is very, well, “influential” in these sorts of circumstances.
So if a player shows up to spring training in less than top-notch physical condition, it’s 100 percent on him. And while these are (almost all) grown men and you can correctly say that personal accountability is an attribute that should be displayed in these situations, the truth of the matter is that baseball is missing the boat on this.
The truth is that just like football and basketball, baseball is a year-round profession now. Guys aren’t selling insurance or used cars during the offseason. If they’re still property of a Major League club, then they’re still accountable to that employer, correct? Can you think of any other employer that simply turns their employees loose for four and a half months and trusts they’ll be ready to perform their designated duties properly when they return?
Nope. Baseball is doing it wrong.
This is especially true for a team like the Colorado Rockies. A team that’s been injury plagued since, well, forever. A team that deals with unique atmospheric playing conditions that can contribute to injuries. Having players live and “train” in their own in places like Florida does very little to get them physically prepared for the rigors of that seven-and-a-half-month grind done largely at high altitude.
Over the years, only a handful of Rockies players have actually lived in Colorado full time. Doing so allows Rockies coaches to work with and monitor the conditioning level and progress of these players and makes certain they will be physically ready for the start of spring training and beyond. It’s a big advantage. Yet most players turn their back on this option and want to go someplace warm where they can be certain of being able to play long toss and take ground balls on a regular basis. The Rockies have opened up their facility at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale during the winter and another handful of guys do gather to work out there – on their own of course.
What baseball should do in general is begin the process of having OTA’s – organized team activities – like football does. They have to be “voluntary” because there’s no way on earth the Player’s Union will allow them to be mandatory, but we all know that “voluntary” doesn’t always translate to being “voluntary,” right?
Invite, suggest, persuade the players who don’t live in town all year to come in for one-week camps in November, December and January. Put them through physical testing to monitor their workouts and progress. Let their teammates see what kind of condition they’re in and what level of commitment they have. Let everyone in the organization know if they will be able to count on a specific player come next season. Make certain there won’t be any surprises when the entire team arrives at Spring Training.
What the Colorado Rockies, in particular, should do is build a nice indoor training facility where players can hit, take ground balls, play long toss and throw off mounds all in a climate-controlled environment. Such a facility – something like the Denver Broncos just built – may encourage more players to stay in town year-round and actually get acclimated to the altitude and unique playing conditions they’ll be dealing with for six months during the regular season. It would be a large financial commitment by the club, but the long-term benefits would far outweigh the short-term costs.
Simply turning high-priced players loose at season’s end and telling them to enjoy their warm weather offseason is not the right way to get the most out of your hefty investments. It’s time someone inside baseball broke the mold and became the first outfit to think outside that diamond-shaped box. Kick to the curb the outdated, century-old way of doing things and start doing the offseason right.