Even though negotiations between the MLB owners and players are far from being figured out, the Dodgers have stepped up their workouts as if games were a sure thing this summer.
It has been said that the Dodgers are one of eight teams that have amped up their workouts in the last week or so. Since then, the team has opened up Dodger Stadium and Camelback Ranch for organized workouts for players.
All workouts will be following the safety guidelines to avoid spreading the coronavirus of course. Safety has always been the Dodgers #1 priority. Since then a bigger door has opened up for the players. The team has received permission from local government officials to boost up their team workouts at Dodger Stadium.
Beforehand, access to training rooms as well as field workouts was set at only one or two players at a time and spread out by 2-hour blocks.
Dodgers Andrew Friedman stated, “Right now, we’ve found a good balance of where guys can get their work in and have us on the right side of caution.”
Friedman laid out what is expected when it comes to players working out at their respective locations: “In L.A., it’s predominately focused on [rehabilitating players] and guys focusing on responsible ways of getting in some work. In Arizona, it’s been a little more opened up, but we’re still restricting various aspects, all the while knowing it could be accelerated pretty quickly.”
Some of the activities players are now taking part in consists of bullpen sessions, getting some BP in, shagging ground balls, and even getting some time in the hitting cages while in Arizona.
“In Arizona, we’ve had guys throwing off mounds that I wouldn’t let a high schooler throw off of,” said Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president of baseball operations. “So we’ve tried to time it where guys’ bullpens can be at Camelback Ranch instead of makeshift mounds that they came across in Phoenix.”
The players are going to be preparing themselves as if the season is coming soon. Many of them, like us fans, just want to see baseball comeback already. If the owners and players can’t come to an agreement, we may not see baseball this year.
