AN INSTRUCTIVE REMINDER

The long layoff has proven that minor league players need repetitions—and lots of them—to stay sharp

- J.J. COOPER

Baseball is undergoing an unplanned experiment in 2021.

Take players away from competitive game action for 20 months. Find out what happens when they return to the field.

Early in the minor league season, the answer appears to be plenty of poor play. Too many walks. Too many strikeouts. Too many defensive miscues.

Across the country, the return of minor league baseball has been eagerly anticipated. Communities that were left without baseball for the entire 2020 season packed the stands— as much as was allowed with coronavirus restrictions—to watch players return to action.

In the first few weeks of the 2021 season, what they saw is a reminder that baseball is a sport that requires repetitions to master. Lots of them.

Just as a golfer can’t ready his or herself for a major tournament entirely by hitting drives on a practice range, some patience is going to be required for minor league players to get back into the swing of things.

Scouts watching games at all levels of the minors were quickly taken aback by the low quality of play, especially when it came to defense, quality of at-bats and pitcher’s command and control.

Unprompted, a number of them reached out over the first week of the season just to note how subpar the standard of play had been, whether they were watching Class A, Double-A or Triple-A.

“It’s god-awful,” one pro scout said. “Tons of strikeouts, bad at-bats, bad defense. Sloppy play in general and lots of plodding games. It’s hard to watch.”