‘A little bit like college’: Why the alternate site was important for Royals’ success
Imagine the weirdest lock-in party ever concocted, combined with the most high-level baseball camp, mixed with the atmosphere of the most tame fraternity house you’ve ever seen. And it was all brought to you by Major League Baseball.
Among the myriad unique circumstances that have marked this pandemic period of professional baseball — fake crowd noise, cardboard fan cutouts in seats, players and staff opting out, a 60-game season and geographically oriented schedules — the alternate training site may fall between the cracks of time.
However the experiences of the top prospects and the presumptive future core of major-league teams like the Kansas City Royals may have far-reaching implications.
After all, a lost year of development for an entire farm system could temporarily cripple an organization’s future.
But might the unusual alternate training site setting have served as an accelerator for talented young players such as budding phenom Bobby Witt Jr., left-handed pitching force of nature Daniel Lynch and potential center fielder of the future Kyle Isbel?
“I think we’re stuck in this thing of not giving due credit to what those guys did last year,” Royals manager Mike Matheny said. “I’ve watched some of these players improve from 365 days ago. How much they’ve improved, you normally would not see that had they played every day of a typical minor-league season. What they were doing was everyday baseball.”
Convergence of talent
For the 2020 season, MLB allowed teams to designate 60 players as part of their player pool for Spring training 2.0/Summer camp.
The players not on the active 30-man roster or traveling with the club as part of the taxi squad stayed ready by practicing daily, taking part in drills and scrimmages designed to keep them as viable options to join the major-league club when inevitable roster changes occurred due to injury, illness or otherwise necessitated by the season.
The Royals alternate site contingent was tested regularly for COVID-19, largely isolated from non-team personnel and practiced at T-Bones Stadium (now Field of Legends) in Kansas City, Kansas, home of a non-affiliated American Association ballclub, the Kansas City Monarchs.
At times when the Royals were out of town, the Royals’ alternate site players would scrimmage and/or practice in Kauffman Stadium.
Many of the coaches, managers, roving instructors and coordinators who would’ve overseen the Royals farm system and individual teams were all working with this group every day.
The relatively small group of players competing at the alternate site spanned all levels of the minors. Players were chosen based on a mixture of their proximity to the majors and their projections as future MLB players.
Royals top pitching prospects Kris Bubic, Jackson Kowar, Austin Cox, Daniel Tillo and Lynch were all part of the group as were pitchers with experience in the majors such as Chance Adams, Heath Fillmyer, Kevin McCarthy, Jake Newberry, Randy Rosario, Braden Shipley.
Royals starters Brad Keller and Jakob Junis spent time at the alternate site after they had their summer camps interrupted by COVID.
The alternate site also gathered top young position players such as M.J. Melendez, Sebastian Rivero, Meibrys Viloria, Kelvin Gutierrez, Jeison Guzmán, Nick Pratto, Nick Heath, Khalil Lee, Seuly Matias, Isbel and Witt.
Major-leaguer hitters like Hunter Dozier, former AL home run champion Jorge Soler, Franchy Cordero and Ryan O’Hearn each also had stints in KCK.
“We created a good bond with all the guys at the alternate site,” Witt said. “I didn’t really know a whole lot [of them] because I was just coming into my first spring training. Then just being around the older guys, getting to know them, see those faces and be around them.
“I think it really benefited all of us just because those are going to be our future teammates. It was basically like you were in a full season with those guys. You were with them each and every day.”
Cat and mouse
With a limited number of players and daily workouts, batters and pitchers quickly became familiar through constant one-on-one battles.
Strengths and weaknesses were open secrets, and liable to get exploited in every match-up.
“I honestly think it was one of the best things for me,” Lynch said. “I felt like it opened up a whole new box of stuff that I could do with my arsenal. When you face the same guys, you’re like this guy struggles with this and this, so I’m just going to do this.
“When you face the guy 50 times and he knows, you’re going to have to start throwing five changeups in a row or start throwing five sliders in a row or mix in all these different pitches you may have not thrown to him before.”
That familiarity cut both ways. Hitters also had to become better at recognizing and reacting to pitches that gave them fits. If a hole in a swing didn’t get fixed, it made for a long summer of futility.
Failing to adjust wasn’t an option.
“It was awesome,” Isbel said. “One day, they would hit you with one sequence. The next day, they would hit you with another. It was cool because we got to face them enough and got to see how us hitters and the pitchers made changes to back themselves up. It was fun. It was good experience.”
Unlike a minor-league season when teams compete against each other for a series at a time, the alternate site provided an environment where teammates were both constant opponents and tutors.
“It was actually a good time out there,” Witt said. “We were pretty much facing each and every guy every week. For some guys I guess it got old, but it benefited both of us, both pitchers and hitters, where after a start or something we could talk about what you saw with the pitcher or what they saw as a hitter, how they’re going to attack you.
“It kind of helped to see how pitchers go against you, just talking with them and kind of creating a bond with the pitchers. It kind of helped to know how they’re trying to get you out.”
Quarantined in Kansas
This collection of players who would’ve been spread across the country competing for various minor-league affiliates, logging hours on buses and flights, were forced into close quarters for the duration of the MLB season and the Royals fall camp.
While there were no campfires or sing-alongs, players stayed in the same hotel and their daily routines consisted of baseball, avoiding the coronavirus and an abundance of free time.
“A little bit like college,” Lynch said of the dynamic. “We were all in a hotel, so it was kind of like a little dorm for us all. Thankfully, we have a good group of guys, especially from my draft class, and we all get along super well. Those were pleasant guys to spend time with, guys I would have chosen to spend time with regardless. It just so happened that we couldn’t leave our hotel rooms.
As for the free time. Well, the guys couldn’t help but get to know each other. They had more time than they had options.
“I don’t play video games and I don’t like to play cards that much, I play some,” Lynch said. “I played my guitar. We would watch movies and TV. Some guys would play video games. They got a PGA Golf video game, so I would play that a little bit. That was really it. There weren’t that many options. Read. I like to read, but I’m not going to sit there and read all day.
“From 1 o’clock to 10 o’clock at night. You’ve got nine hours to do nothing. So it was a lot of just hanging out, doing our best to pass the time.”
Among the new things he learned about his teammates: Jonathan Bowlan’s Tennessee twang is totally authentic, even if Lynch still doesn’t understand Bowlan’s “lingo.”
While players had separate rooms, they did gather from time to time.
As it turns out, when you take hyper-competitive guys and have them tangle on the field every day, they also end up competing off the field.
Off the field, that just meant at the card table or with a video game controller in their hand.
The most competitive guy?
“All of us,” Witt said. “We’re all competitive. Whether we’re playing PGA Golf or we’re playing cards. There’s not one guy that’s like, ‘Nah, I’m just going to play for fun.’”
This story was originally published March 9, 2021 at 11:43 AM with the headline "‘A little bit like college’: Why the alternate site was important for Royals’ success."
