Why Kapler isn't worried about Giants having short spring originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
SCOTTSDALE -- It's not at all uncommon for a manager to compare an element of the season to a marathon on the first day of spring training. But Gabe Kapler put a pretty interesting twist on that old cliche Saturday as players started arriving at Scottsdale Stadium.
"When you train for a marathon, you don't run a marathon before you run it," he said. "When you train for a triathlon, you don't complete a triathlon before you actually have the event. But for some reason we've always said a guy has got to play nine innings before he plays nine innings. Maybe? I'm not sure."
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Kapler was talking about the shortened spring, one that will be a sprint as 30 MLB teams put the 99-day lockout in the past and prepare for the marathon that is a baseball season. The Giants reopened their doors to players shortly after a deal was reached but they'll have just 28 days from the end of the lockout to their opener at Oracle Park.
This spring is much shorter than a normal one, and that 28-day timeframe includes several that have already ticked off the calendar as players have flown in from different states and countries and taken their physicals. The actual Cactus League schedule includes just 17 games, which does not give Kapler a lot of time to ease his veterans from one at-bat all the way up to nine innings, as has traditionally been done.
He's absolutely unbothered by all of that, though.
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"We probably don't need to play nine innings to play nine innings," Kapler said.
Kapler has just four seasons under his belt as a big league manager, but one of them has proven particularly instructive in recent weeks.
The shortened 2020 season came after an abbreviated camp at Oracle Park that mostly consisted of simulated games. The Giants got the necessary work in that year, and last season Kapler saw two veterans continue to prove that traditional spring methods might be overrated.
Evan Longoria got just 26 exhibition at-bats last year, the fewest of his career in a full spring. Brandon Belt had just six at-bats spread over four games after having a bone spur removed from his heel.
"You could say that Belt had his best season," Kapler said. "You could say that before Longo and (Brandon Crawford) collided (in June), he was in a good position to have one of his better seasons as well."
Longoria at least had one advantage over others during the lockout. He has a batting cage built in his home in the Phoenix area and Crawford came over at times to get ready. Still, Crawford is a bit behind as well. Aside from some swings he took at Vanderbilt -- where Curt Casali and Mike Yastrzemski were working out -- during a vacation, those days in Longoria's cage were the only real swings Crawford got in before taking BP on the back field at Scottsdale Stadium on Sunday.
This spring is not normal, but the slow-playing will feel normal to the Giants. Their veterans very rarely took on-field BP last year, preferring high-intensity reps in the cage. Crawford was the exception, but mostly because he came out so often to take grounders. He said he's a "bit behind" right now but he's not worried. His goal is to get one full game in before the Giants leave camp, likely during the final week when they face the A's twice.
"It's not a huge deal to be playing nine innings by the end of the spring," Crawford said. "You're able to be naturally ready. If I play seven innings, I'm going to be able to play nine."
Any available innings will be particularly valuable to non-roster invitees and players on the bubble, but even there the Giants might be in good shape. Their roster is pretty much set and there aren't many position battles. They don't make many decisions based on spring results anyway, and if there's a group of players they really, really need to see before the opener, it's one you could add up on one hand.
The lockout kept Kapler from talking to his players but he was able to collaborate with coaches and he said the Giants have some "creative ways" to simulate game intensity without putting a player on the field. During the pandemic in 2020, Kapler's staff toyed with the idea of actually having players "shadow-box" their way through a day. For instance, you could play six innings during a game and then try to simulate the rest of a normal nine-inning day on a back field.
The staff ultimately realized that wasn't the best path. Game-like reps can be simulated in other ways, a process that will start shortly for position players and pitchers, most of whom have been throwing off mounds at facilities back home.
Over the weekend, the focus was on getting players into Scottsdale Stadium, through their physicals and onto the field for some light work. Kapler said there are no new injuries other than normal aches and pains, and Tommy La Stella (Achilles surgery) is the only player who might be behind in terms of making the opening day roster.
Kapler was also pleasantly surprised with conditioning. He noted that Casali, in particular, looked "jacked," and said that unlike in some past springs, nobody showed up in concerning shape.
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The Giants will play their first spring game Friday night at Scottsdale Stadium and they expect to pull prospects from minor league camp, which started earlier this month, to get through some of the early action. Kapler's focus isn't on adding up at-bats or innings for his main players, it's actually the opposite.
One idea Kapler has tossed around is giving guys more time away from the facility during the spring. Asked about the short Cactus League season, he said he actually would be opposed to MLB adding any additional spring games.
"A shortened spring training does not concern me," he said. "I think we think about this a lot. We've been thinking about it a lot for the last couple of years, and I feel like we're well-equipped to handle it."
