There’s a week left in spring training. This is the point where it gets monotonous. You see the finish line. You see opening day staring at you. You just want to get the season started.
But spring training still matter for some people. Look at the Rangers games last night. They played one against Colorado and one against San Diego. It doesn’t matter that they lost both. It certainly doesn’t matter to guys like Alan Trejo. Arturo Disla. Marcos Torres. Or Cody Thomas. Each one of them made it into the box score in yesterday’s game against the Rockies.
Then there are players like Pablo Guerrero, Tommy Sprecht. Kleimir Lemos. Chandler Pollard. Cameron Cauley. Cooper Johnson. And Theo Hardy. They all ended up in the box score.
How many more box scores from major league teams are these guys going to end up in? How many more spring trainings to some of them have.
To be sure, a lot of the guys who got into those two games, especially the San Diego game, were in their late-teens or just twenty. So, they are prospects working their way up the system, still raw and full of hope.
But some guys, like Cooper Johnson, are wondering if they will ever get a shot at it. Johnson is a twenty-six-year-old catcher who was drafted in 2019 by the Tigers. He’s played five seasons (six if you count his lost 2020 due to COVID) in the minor leagues with a .206 average. How much longer does his dream last? He singled in two runs last night in his only at-bat. It can’t get much better for a guy like that.
Alan Trejo is twenty-eight. He was drafted on 2017 by Colorado. At least he’s played a handful of major league games—well they were with the Rockies so they still officially count as major league. He’s hoping for another shot. He went 1-for-2 against the Rockies.
Cody Thomas is thirty. He was drafted in 2016 by the Dodgers. He’s played twenty-nine major league games in parts of two seasons with Oakland. He hit a home run in the eighth inning against Colorado.
It’s hard enough to make the major leagues, harder to stick. So many of these guys kick around the minor leagues waiting for that chance, waiting for that dream to come true. Chances are slim it happens.
But they’re not losers. They’re not failures. They got to play professional baseball. They got to do something very few of us will ever get to do or experience or even dream about.
Spring training matters to guys like that. It’s another day in the sun, a sun that might not be shining on them much longer.
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TODAY’S CACTUS LEAGUE GAMES:
Texas vs Los Angeles Angels, 2:10
Radio: MLB audio