PORT ST. LUCIE — Spring training used to be for players to get into shape for the season. Now, they’re coming into camp already nearing regular-season shape.
Times sure have changed.
The Mets are impressed and encouraged with how prepared their pitchers have been this week. Most have been in Port St. Lucie for weeks already, working out with trainers and throwing bullpens. Four pitchers have thrown live bullpens since the official report date passed Tuesday, and have already built up to throwing multiple innings: Clay Holmes, Freddy Peralta, Jonah Tong and Tobias Myers.
Holmes has to be ahead of schedule since he’s set to pitch for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic next month, and the same goes for right-hander Nolan McLean. The two will depart camp and forgo the majority of the Grapefruit League season, using the tournament to get ready for the start of the season. But after Holmes threw three innings in a live bullpen session Thursday, manager Carlos Mendoza went back to look at where he was around this time last year, and found that he was built up to a similar point.
“Credit to all of them, especially our starters, that they show up to camp ready to go throughout their bullpen progressions to a point where you’ve got those two guys throwing two innings today,” Mendoza said. “Whether it was Jonah with 34 [pitches] and Tobias at 27, and we saw it with Clay yesterday. I mentioned the WBC, but I went back and looked, he did exactly the same thing last year when he was making that transition. The first live BP that he went out there, he was three ups 40 some pitches early in February.”
Last year, Holmes moved from the bullpen to the rotation, which required more pre-spring prep. A year later, the pitching program is familiar and he knows what he has to do to be ready for the season. The decision to pitch in the WBC was made because Holmes felt that playing important, pressure-packed games so early in the year would be beneficial for him.
Some teams don’t have their pitchers face hitters until the second week of camp, but pitchers have been increasingly facing hitters earlier in spring, especially if they’re working on new pitches. Live bullpens are where pitchers can start to see how their stuff plays to hitters, and it’s a chance to start connecting with their catchers about how they like them to set up and call games.
“Just getting the feedback from the hitters, I think it’s important now early in camp,” Mendoza said. “You’re facing some pretty good hitters, and then they come back in the dugout and that feedback from them is important.”
