The new Major League Baseball (MLB) season is set to start March 27, but Spring Training began over a month earlier on Feb. 20.
Spring training began in 1886 when there were only 16 teams in the league and had some teams playing inside gymnasiums due to weather outside, according to MLB.com. This is a time for teams and players to get some practice in before the regular season fames.
“It is important to get people back into shape and build up for the season,” said senior Sean Moro. “I’d also say it’s more important for pitchers to build up endurance and get their arms ready for the year.”
Just like training camp in the National Football League (NFL) or summer league in the National Basketball Association (NBA), Spring Training is MLB’s way of having players prepare for the upcoming season.
Source: Instagram, @mets
Spring Training is not just about practice and getting into shape. MLB also uses this time to test out new rules in case they want to implement them in the regular season.
In 2019, MLB started using a pitch clock in Spring Training games, according to ESPN. This would make pitchers take less time between pitches thrown to speed up the game and keep viewership up. Games would average around three hours before the pitch clock, which had people losing interest. The pitch clock was implemented in the regular season in 2023 and games lasted, on average, two hours and 36 minutes.
“I think it is important to try out new changes as baseball changes, like the robot umpires and the pitch clock, but I really think it has no benefit for the players,” said senior Ryan Richter. “Baseball is a long season, it’s basically all year round if you include Spring Training, which is a lot.”
While practice is important, testing out different rules and regulations is equally important so MLB knows what rules to put in place to keep fans engaged.
While Richter likes the testing of the pitch clock in MLB, not everyone does.
“Baseball is meant to be a slow game,” said senior Andrew Mongiello. “I completely disagree with the implementation of the pitch clock after testing it out during Spring Training. I believe that Spring Training should be used for coaches to see who they want to trade away, start or even cut. And for players, it’s important to slowly come back in and see where they should improve.”
In Spring Training, instead of the American League and the National League, there are the Cactus League and the Grapefruit League. The teams in the Cactus League each have a Spring Training stadium in Florida, while those in the Grapefruit League have their stadiums in Arizona. This allows for less money to be spent during Spring Training on players who may not make the major league roster in the spring.
With the MLB season right around the corner, the MLB will finalize rosters and rules to deliver the most exciting product for the fans this coming year.
