Red Sox Spring Training: Pitchers and catchers will not be reporting

Red Sox Nation awaits that spring training excitement

Today is normally a day celebrated by baseball fans the world over, and yet, here we are with nothing to be happy about. As a member of Red Sox Nation, the day when pitchers and catchers are set to report to camp is always circled on my calendar, but the lockout has forced me to delete that reminder from my schedule. Thanks to the standoff between MLB and the MLBPA it’s feeling more and more that the season is going to get shorter and shorter.

One side has negotiated in honest and true faith and has even made concessions while the other has cried victim while rarely even picking up the phone. I don’t want to go on too much about the lockout as it’s the only thing we’ve had to talk about for months, but things are getting ridiculous.

To add salt to the wound, MLB hasn’t missed a chance to have stories written to make them look like the good guys in all of this. An absolutely laughable tactic that nobody should fall for.

For the Red Sox, missing any time in spring training will be a nightmare, as it will for every team in the league. But we’re here to talk about Boston and we sure do have plenty of pitchers that will need every second of camp to get ready for the 2022 regular season.

Our two biggest arms, Chris Sale and Nathan Eovaldi have both undergone Tommy John surgery and can’t afford to miss any time with the training staff and coaches in their preparation processes. The Red Sox can’t afford to lose either guy this season if they want to make it back to the ALCS if not further in 2022.

Then we need to look at the next level of the starting rotation where we’ve got Nick Pivetta and Tanner Houck. Both still deserve as much time in spring training as possible to get their arms ready but have far less wear and tear and the big dogs. They may be able to get by with fewer reps and catch up as the season gets underway.

Finally, we get to the wild tier of our starters where we’ll find Rich Hill, James Paxton, and Michael Wacha, all of which are the definition of wear and tear. Those fellas already have the stress of fighting for a rotation spot without needing to worry about missing time with the team to get themselves in the best shape possible.

It’s been no secret that players have been doing their best to prepare for the season in every way possible. Whether it be hitting the batting cages or training with local colleagues wherever they can get on a field. But nothing beats being with your coaches and training staff as you’re about to enter the stress of the MLB regular season.

Nobody believed that the Red Sox would be a contender last season, including many members of the Fenway Faithful. I can’t blame ém. As much as I’ve tried to put the 2020 season out of my mind it very much happened and should’ve dampened any hope for 2021. Then the boys went and did the damn thing and came within two games of making it back to the World Series. Can they repeat that feat in 2022?

I think the entirety of the baseball-loving world wants this idiotic lockout to end. It never needed to happen as Rob Manfred and the owners could’ve negotiated under the old CBA while having the calendar progress as it naturally should have. But instead, the owners went the dramatic route but locking out the players then ghosting them for months.

Thanks to their idiocy not only will we as fans be hurt by missing games but the players, the most important part of the equation, will be hurt. I don’t mean to sound dramatic myself but having to ramp up spring training to get to the regular season as quickly as possible will surely spell doom for players, especially pitchers. There’s a reason why spring training is as long as it is and it’s to allow the players the proper time to get themselves right for the season, I’m not optimistic for this year.

The Red Sox will need every workout, every day, and every recovery session possible to make sure their staff is as ready as it can be for Opening Day. This pitching staff saw a massive improvement in 2021 of the previous two years and giving them their proper time to train is tantamount to success in 2022.

At the end of the day the power is entirely in MLB’s hands, that is, until we get closer to the regular season and then the players will hold all the cards. When all is said and done, we all just want baseball back. Maybe not the owners, but definitely the players and fans.