Minor League baseball swings back to action … at last

The impact of the pandemic changed baseball for some in 2020.

It took it away altogether for others.

Minor League Baseball was not just gone as an option for fans, like those who would have attended Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders games in 2020.

It went away for developing players, too, including roughly half of those who will represent the RailRiders in the Triple-A season, which is scheduled to begin Tuesday night in Syracuse.

The Opening Day roster will feature 28 players, likely all from the 31 that were listed on the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre “Break Camp” roster released Sunday. That roster features 15 players who spent time in Major League Baseball’s abbreviated season a year ago. It also has 16 who did not play for a year.

“One of the big question marks that we have to fill in is basically what these guys did and how they developed themselves in the down time,” New York Yankees Senior Director of Player Development Kevin Reese said in a Monday afternoon Zoom meeting with media that covers the organization’s farm system.

The players trying to not just pick up their careers where they left off, but use this season to advance them closer to the Major Leagues, are further split. That group consists of some who worked out under the supervision of a Major League team, such as the parent Yankees, during the shortened season to remain on call, if needed, and others who were simply sent home to work on their own.

Modern-day athletes are used to extensive offseason workout routines, but most of those involve access to facilities that suddenly were harder to find in a pandemic. They had to improvise and, for the most part, working out with and against other athletes was removed from the equation.

“Pitchers that have not pitched in a competitive environment in a year and a half, that’s going to present some challenges,” Reese said. “We’re going to try to ramp guys up very slowly and hopefully put them in the best position to have success in the long-term and not just get rolling and have them firing away.”

Long-term health and readiness will be an emphasis when making pitching decisions, likely reducing pitch counts for starters even more than would typically be the case early in the season.

“It’s a little bit different than your typical year when everybody’s kind of built up to that 85 to 100,” RailRiders pitching coach Dustin Glant said during a separate Zoom session with the team’s coaching staff and local reporters. “It was a little bit more of a slower build with the unknowns of coming off of the one-year shutdown.

“We’ll be right around 60 to 75 range, this first time out.”

While the starters throw fewer pitchers, the relievers may throw more and not just because there are more innings that will need to be filled by coming in after the shorter starts.

“We met today with the guys and reiterated that when these guys go up to New York, they’re going to be expected to throw more than an inning,” Glant said, explaining that pitchers getting the promotion from the top of the Minor Leagues to the Major League level are unlikely to be stepping into a closer or other short-relief role.

Hitting coach Casey Dykes will have his own challenges.

“Mainly, I think some of the guys that missed a lot of 2020, it’s just getting them to get in and experience it,” Dykes said. “ … They just need to remember that even though it’s been a long time, there’s going to be ups and downs and you just have to stay in the middle and stay consistent with your work and your mentality and keep going.”

Dykes said he is excited about the prospect of watching the players with which he works begin competing again in more meaningful games. The RailRiders been playing exhibitions with altered rules with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs while preparing.

“There are some guys who have not played in a long time,” Dykes said. “It’s time to watch them go out in this opening week and watch them experience it again and watch all the work they’ve put in during an elongated offseason for some of them.”

Doug Davis will manage his 1,000th game in the opener, which will be the first on the Triple-A level for 2019 Eastern League Most Valuable Player Chris Gittens, a power-hitting first baseman, who could be one of the team’s most exciting players.

Gittens, who had 23 home runs and 77 RBI in 115 games with Trenton, is one player who did not have the benefit of being invited to work with the Yankees alternate site players a year ago.

“Gittens just needs to do what he’s done,” Dykes said of the 6-foot-4, 250-pound, 27-year-old from Texas. “He does some things that not many people that play the game of baseball are capable of doing.

Gittens, who is building a reputation for the length of some of his homers, hit three, including a grand slam, during spring training with the Yankees.

“Just the way he impacts the ball,” Dykes said. “He has to continue to do that. His last full season, he had a great year in Double-A. Now, it’s just about doing it in Triple-A.

“I don’t think he has anything to prove to anyone necessarily. He just has to keep being Chris Gittens and everything will take care of itself.”

Mike Montgomery, a 31-year-old lefty, is scheduled to get the Opening Day start. An offseason Minor League free agent signing, Montgomery had a 5.06 earned run average in 26 2/3 innings with the Kansas City Royals last season.

The Triple-A schedule for this season features six-game series, followed by a Monday off day.

The RailRiders play their home opener May 11 at 6:35 p.m. against Lehigh Valley, the Philadelphia Phillies top farm team.