‘A little chaos’ each day. That’s life at Texas Rangers spring camp amid COVID-19
Word from the Surprise Recreation Campus on Wednesday is that the first day of spring training for the Texas Rangers went off just fine.
Pitchers and catchers ran through their first workout, and early-arriving position players took batting practice and shagged balls.
That sounds like it was just a normal first day under the Arizona sun.
“This is much different,” manager Chris Woodward said.
Spring training 2021 will be unlike any other as COVID-19 protocols remain in place. If anything, it will be like spring training 2.0, that three-week cram session MLB called “summer camp” ahead of the abbreviated 60-game 2020 season.
Saliva tests, masks and social distancing remain standard. Multiple clubhouses are being used. Contact with the media is prohibited except on Zoom. Fans are not allowed to roam the back fields.
“Flexible” and “adjust” were the two big buzzwords on the Rangers’ Zoom channel. A third was “chaos,” which explains the need to be flexible and adjust.
“We know going in that it’s going to be not easy at times,” Woodward said. “One thing we’ve said a lot is things are going to be fluid. We’re going to be flexible with our expectations, and have to change on the fly at times. I think we’re going into every day maybe expecting a little chaos at times.”
For Woodward, he was unable to make the video work Tuesday night for his pre-camp Zoom call. On Wednesday, pitchers were working out in small groups on six different fields, and he said he was able to get to only three of them.
General manager Chris Young hasn’t even made it to Arizona yet. A power outage at his Dallas-area home forced him to scramble to an alternate location in order to give his prepared remarks.
But he forgot his notes.
“I was pretty flustered,” Young said.
The baseball, aside from being distanced, was otherwise normal, catcher Jose Trevino said. Pitchers and catchers went through fielding practice. Bullpen sessions begin Thursday.
It was evident to Trevino that everyone there is ready to go.
“Everybody’s ready to work. Everybody’s hungry,” Trevino said. “You get a group of guys that are all pulling in the same direction, it’s special. You never know what can happen.”
Not everyone is there, though. Four international pitchers — Jose Leclerc, Joely Rodriguez, Hyeon-Jong Yang and Fernery Ozuna — were delayed because of visa issues. They will have to go through intake testing upon arriving.
The Rangers will permit media on site Monday for the first full-squad workout.
Trevino said no media and no fans were the biggest differences Wednesday, when a camp unlike any other opened.
“We know who we’ve got in camp right now is who we’re going to be around,” Trevino said. “It’s almost like a little bubble, and we’re trying to keep everybody safe inside.”
