Davey Martinez played 16 seasons in the majors, retiring in 2001, and then began a second career as a spring training instructor for the Tampa Bay Rays, eventually becoming the club’s coach in 2008.
He spent 10 years as Madden’s bench coach in Tampa and Chicago, interviewed numerous times for the managerial position, and finally got one in Washington in 2018.
So he’s had a lot of experience in spring training, and he’s still not tired of it all.
In fact, he said earlier this spring that seeing all the players come together each year to rebuild relationships and build new ones is part of what he loves about the game. Ta.
“We’re starting to have conversations, players are starting to communicate with each other, we’re starting to build bonds again,” Martinez said last week of this year’s club activities, adding: “It never gets old.”
“That’s one of the reasons I’ve spent so many years doing what I do. It’s because I love it and I love going out with these guys. That’s the true meaning of spring training and everyone It’s about bringing people together, and it’s a lot of fun.”
Of course, this is an important job for managers as well (He signed a multi-year extension with the club last summer.), the expectation is that his players arrive in shape and ready to begin the necessary work to prepare for the regular season.
“The important thing all winter is to stay in shape and get ready for spring training,” Martinez explained on his second day in West Palm Beach, Florida. Fielding, running, I think I did them all. As I said yesterday, it feels like it’s already been 3-4 weeks since everyone came to camp.
“It’s great to have everyone here except maybe two or three. They’re all saying they’re ready, they’re hungry, they want to go out and compete.”
Especially for the pitchers who reported last week with their catchers, their goal is to start slow and slowly build up to the start of the ’24 season.
“All that matters at the moment is getting their feet down, their mechanics, how well they use their lower bodies,” he said.
“70 to 75 percent is good right now. As we get into the game, that factor increases and increases.”
“Right now it’s just finding my fastball.”
All of the early arrivals had been working before things officially started, so Martinez was excited about what he saw as they began the process.
Photo by Rich Story/Getty Images
The players who arrived early appeared to have taken seriously the club’s message that they were ready to enter camp.
“They took it seriously,” Martinez said on the third day. “Many of them came here early and started training because the weather was so nice. When I got here, there were already 15 to 16 people training. That’s pretty impressive. I thought, “I’m glad they’re here. I’m glad they worked so early.”
Meeting the young prospects at camp and getting to know all the big leaguers and veterans gathered is something Martinez is grateful for.
“It’s great to see them,” he said.
“They’re young. I hope they learn a lot this spring and we’ll take them forward. They’re a big part of our future. Masu. …”
He says even those attending major league camp for the first time aren’t missing a beat.
“They’ve been a good fit. They’ve been interacting with a lot of players. We haven’t really been in camp yet, but they looked at them today and we saw them go into the infield today.” I thought that was amazing.
“I’m just going to watch them, watch what they do and see how they act.”
On Sunday, ahead of the first team-wide workout, Martinez reiterated his message to everyone in West Palm Beach: As he often says, get out there and kick in the door.
“Like I said, they all have an opportunity now, so I want them to come to camp and compete and win the job,” Martinez said.
“Nothing is really set in stone. I want them to come here and try to win the job.”
What’s your biggest takeaway from Monday’s workout and Live Blood Pressure?
“They have the ability to throw strikes,” the coach said. “We had a lot of guys who were around the strike zone and threw a lot of strikes. The ball was coming out well, too.”
Martinez watched some pitchers and saw young batters take swings early in the game.
“I met Mackenzie.” [Gore] Slightly. he was really really good. [Jackson] Rutledge was good.jake [Irvin]slipped on one mound* and we had to move him to No. 5 field, and he took a full throw in the bullpen and threw the ball really, really well.
“[Hunter] Harvey, [Kyle] Finnegan, it was great because everyone threw the ball well.
“It was also good and impressive to see some of our up-and-coming, really young players from the minor leagues come in here and swing the bat a little bit.”
Bringing in some young prospects like Elijah Green and Daylen Lyle has had the desired effect, and the youngsters could be a little more aggressive than the veterans early in the spring.
“That’s right,” Martinez laughed. “They were swinging. There’s no doubt about that, so it was very good.”
“I saw Green go out there and have some really healthy hacks. Some of the other players… [Daylen] Lyle was swinging the bat and there were other young kids, another guy who wasn’t that young, but who went up there was Joey Gallo. He was swinging and hit a few balls really well.
“And I talked to him and he said the only way to really get the timing is to swing. And he’s absolutely right. You can take as many pictures as you want, but , you can’t get the timing right unless you swing that far.”
In the end, getting everyone together again was the highlight for Martinez on Monday.
“It’s great to have all the boys back,” he said. It is very fun. It never gets old for me. I love it. This was his first day. We still have a long way to go. But I enjoyed every moment. ”
Bonus quote:
One reporter noted that catcher Keibert Ruiz was seen wearing red contact lenses, which helped him see red on baseballs. No, really.
“I had to rethink it because I realized, but hey, whatever worked,” Martinez said.
“I’m not going to shy away from anything. This is new technology, so we’ll see what works and how it works.”
Also:
BREAKING: Mark Lerner told the Washington Post on Monday that the Lerner family is no longer considering selling the Washington Nationals.https://t.co/cAhJ8wQ3Rx
— Andrew Golden (@andrewcgolden) February 19, 2024
this:
[ed note – “Did you forget about the * up there? We didn’t. Did Davey say Jake Irvin slipped on the mound? Yes, he did. “It wasn’t good, so we stopped him right away. We moved him onto field five. He has such a long stride, and he was falling in a little hole and he was slipping, so we got him out of there.”]
