Reese Kaplan -- What We Miss About Spring Training

One of the things I certainly looked forward to seeing in Spring Training was the pantheon of prospective players whose names were not yet known and whose identity may never be known if not for the magic of a scorecard.  Yes, you want to see your favorites from the Major League team, you want to see the most aggressively hyped prospects and you want to see competitive baseball played under the Florida (or Arizona) sun.  

However, what's really interesting is when someone seems to rev it up during preseason and all of the sudden it becomes worth looking online to find out who is it wearing number 67 for the Mets in Port St. Lucie?  For a few days or weeks or even the whole month you may fantasize that a Joe Shlabotnik indeed has a future in Queens. 

While everyone is fully confident about who's playing first base, who's at shortstop, who is catching, who is at the top of the pitching rotation and who are the primary firemen in the bullpen, no one is quite as certain about the filler players who might indeed comprise members of the bench.  Yes, Luis Guillorme will be there, but what about the 4th and 5th outfielders, the backup catcher, the fringe pitchers and the surplus of players without a position?

The other thing that's fun to watch is when players are obviously not ready for in-season maneuvers like defensive shifts, aggressive base running and obsolete skills like bunting.  Now not only is it enjoyable seeing the players execute (or fail to execute) these aspects of the game, but it's also even more enjoyable seeing the out-of-practice (or out-of-shape) defenders look like Little Leaguers instead of Major League professionals.  

One thing that is interesting to see in the preseason is the predefined pecking order for new versus veteran players.  New players are expected to run hard on every ball hit, dive quickly if abrasively to make defensive plays and use their ingrown baseball smarts to try to show they're ready for the Show.  

The flip side is seeing how veterans are going through slow motion, giving half-effort at many tasks and generally getting a pass on their top level skill demonstration.  To be fair, it's not really necessary to see a 37 year old player damage a hamstring by sprinting on a sure ground-out, but doing a Cespedes-like effort is disheartening to say the least.  

How can the GM and Manager make proper assessments of who deserves to be here and who deserves to start games unless they see some semblance of mid-season effort?  

For a player in a borderline position like J.D. Davis or Trevor Williams, you want to see performance as if the Spring Training games actually mattered because it will better than chances of catching on with the team or enhance their desirability as a trade chip elsewhere giving them the opportunity to play regularly.  

Similarly, players coming off bad seasons like pretty much the whole New York Mets 2021 returning cast need to demonstrate that last year was an aberration and not an indication of what they have become.  We all know that Jeff McNeil is a far superior hitter than what he showed in 2021 just as we know Francisco Lindor is a perennial All Star and not just a $341 million has-been before the age of 30.  

It's going to be the first true baseball season under the new team of Billy Eppler and Buck Showalter.  Things that bothered fans in the past will hopefully not be a part of the present nor the future.  When the games actually begin, we want to see the players as anxious to make themselves look better to the fans and media as we do look forward to the owners creating incentives to show the fans that they are contrite as well.  

Well, one can dream, right?