What happened in the exhibition game broadcasts last week on ESPN was the equivalent of dropping a shovel into the ground and touching off a fountain of oil. About a dozen players wore microphones for three dozen innings and generated viral moments that will last -- and shape the game's future.
We saw Anthony Rizzo at the Improv, expertly dropping a reference to the Astros' sign-stealing scandal. We got a portal into Freddie Freeman's baseball mind and humor on a pop-up. We listened to Pete Alonso's chatter at first base, on everything from salsa to the habits of a former college teammate.
The old refrain is that spring training results don't matter, exhibition games don't matter. But in this small handful of games in which players wore microphones, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association got to see the full potential in tearing down the walls of access and letting fans see and hear for themselves just how entertaining the players can be while being the best in the world at the game they play.
The next collective bargaining agreement is set to expire in December 2021, and while the union and MLB negotiate, the game is destined to undergo significant changes. An electronic strike zone. A universal designated hitter. An overhaul of the financial landscape, from service time to free agency. There will be some great ideas and some well-intended ideas that turn out to be bad. But the two sides should draw from the overwhelmingly positive response to All-Access Week and build on it, because it is a near-perfect antidote for a game in need of stronger connections with the public. Tony Clark, the head of the players' association, was asked his thoughts on miked-up players.
"We've been involved in a number of experiments incorporating miked players over the years," he responded in a statement released to ESPN, "including at the All-Star Game last year, and there's no doubt players' voices and the kinds of insights they can provide bring tremendous value to broadcasts."
I can speak to this first-hand, through my focus group of one. In a phone conversation Saturday, I asked my son how he was spending his afternoon.
"There's wind, Dad," he responded.
Wind gusts? A cold wind? What do you mean?
"There's wind!" he insisted.
I didn't understand. "You're not getting it," he said.
Of course. There's wind. My son's favorite team is the Atlanta Braves and his favorite player is Freeman, and he was echoing Freeman's refrain from his memorable journey around the bases Friday in the last of the all-access broadcasts.
Freeman was on first base, breaking from the bag with a 3-2 count, and when a pop-up was lifted to short center field, Freeman immediately called attention to the gusts toying with any ball hit into the air, and by extension, toying with outfielders. Freeman narrated his own charge around the bases before sliding across home with dramatic acknowledgment of the broadcast booth behind home plate.
My son is a perfect target audience for Major League Baseball and the union: 15 years old and sports-crazy, obsessed with game scores and his fantasy lineup, his wardrobe constructed around hooded sweatshirts from his favorite teams.
In my line of work, I watch baseball daily and have offered him the seat next to mine. "No thanks," he has said, almost always. "Boring."
He follows the Braves' results closely, and by the time he boards the school bus at 6:35 a.m., he'll have seen every relevant highlight from the night before, absorbed every line of the box score. But to actually sit and watch the game inning to inning, pitch by pitch? No chance, because anywhere from five to 10 minutes can pass between the fragments of action, not when there are plenty of alternatives available. Chatting with friends through his earbuds, he'll fire up apps, his Xbox or YouTube. He doesn't have to wait for something interesting.
I was into forced patience as a kid consumer, scheduling my farm chores around the live radio broadcasts and accepting limits of the two and a half channels available to us (a half because the reception for ABC Channel 8 in Vermont was less snowy at night), because there were so few choices. Big technology back then was a remote control.
But that's not my son's experience nor his expectation, and there's no reason to believe most of his peers will wait through multiple innings of three true outcomes before somebody does something interesting.
Because of those periods of inaction, no sport needs its participants to be miked up more than baseball -- and no sport is better suited for it because there are so many candidates for the all-access tools. Relievers sitting in the bullpen while waiting innings or days for the phone to ring. Starting pitchers lounging in the dugout on the days they're not on the bump. Coaches. Managers.
And yes, some of the infielders, outfielders and catchers, even while they play in regular season games. Tune in to any Tigers game and you're bound to see Miguel Cabrera joking around with opponents at first base. The Phillies' Rhys Hoskins watched the Freeman interaction and said, "That's the way Freddie is all the time." One of the hitters who was miked up this week told a mutual friend that he was very comfortable batting with the extra hardware and didn't find it distracting at all. I'd bet a lot of players would enjoy it.
Some players would not, of course, and no player should be required to participate. Some players prefer to focus on the job at hand. But for every Nick Markakis, who is famously reticent, there is an Anthony Rizzo or Dominic Smith, from a generation of players whose connections to their fans are already very different from their old-school MLB predecessors.
Cal Ripken Jr. probably set records for signing autographs, but he might have reflexively blanched at the idea of a selfie or a Twitter post. In this era, however, players have social media accounts and millions of followers who feel just one degree of separation from idols like Freeman.
Wearing a microphone for a couple of innings in the field? Chatting on-air with a teammate about his nickname, the way Smith did with Jeff McNeil the other day? Joking with the folks in the booth while warming up in the bullpen, like Zach Britton? Easy stuff, for some of them.
On Saturday, Kris Bryant wore a microphone again, and after pulling a ball into left field, he raced to second base, slid hard into the bag to barely beat the tag of Mike Moustakas, and he and the Reds' veteran shared the type of organic exchange players have just about every day all season long.
"You all right?" Bryant asked Moustakas.
"Yeah, you good?" Moustakas replied, through laughter.
"That's why I got the plastics on -- I didn't want to hurt you," Bryant said, referring to his baseball shoes. And then Bryant was momentarily confused.
"Did he call me safe?" he asked.
"I think you're out," Moustakas replied, good-naturedly trying to bait Bryant into stepping off the base.
The whole thing was authentic; it was unexpected; it was fun.
"If they did that all the time," my son said, "I'd watch."
Because, in his eyes, there would be something to see, something he wouldn't want to miss. A small victory, one of many that baseball needs, as the players and the league begin to earnestly envision a future that should give fans as much access and entertainment as possible.
Elsewhere around the major leagues
• One of the more hopeful developments of spring is the progress of the Rockies' Brendan Rodgers, who has been working his way back after shoulder surgery. He had his first spring action the other day for Colorado, and had two hits in his first four plate appearances. With the Rockies and star third baseman Nolan Arenado perhaps heading for a divorce -- via trade -- sometime in the next calendar year, it's particularly important for the Rockies to build around shortstop Trevor Story and others. That should include Rodgers, who was the third pick in the 2015 draft.
• The Mets have let other teams know they're willing to listen to offers for left-hander Steven Matz. As New York added veteran starting pitchers Michael Wacha and Rick Porcello over the winter, they had planned on using Matz in relief to some degree. But the simple fact is this might not be what's best for Matz at this stage in his career: At 28, he is two years away from free agency, and to be shifted into a hybrid role in which he both starts and relieves -- or to be moved into the bullpen full time -- could mean the loss of millions of dollars in earning potential for the left-hander. Matz had a 4.21 ERA in 32 games last season.
• The Yankees once again face the loss of their two most prolific sluggers, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, with at least part of their considerable wages squandered. Paul Hembekides of ESPN sent along these notes about the '19 Yankees.
The Yankees spent more payroll on players while on the injured list last season than six teams spent on total payroll:
Payroll in 2019 season
Yankees on IL: $93.4 million
Athletics: $89.1M
White Sox: $88.9M
Orioles: $80.8M
Pirates: $74.8M
Marlins: $71.9M
Rays: $60.1M
But the Yankees weathered the absences of stars because of production from some of the lowest-paid players on their roster. By WAR, seven of the Yankees' top nine position players in 2019 made less than $1 million, guys such as Gio Urshela, Mike Tauchman and Luke Voit. And 42% of Yankees participation (plate appearances plus batters faced) in 2019 came from players acquired via trade, the highest mark of any big-market team:
PA/BF from players acquired via trade
Athletics: 55%
Mariners: 49%
Rays: 47%
Brewers: 44%
Yankees: 42%
• Nationals manager Dave Martinez has referred to Emilio Bonifacio as the ultimate 26th man because he is defensively versatile and has an exceptional tool with his speed. Other teams will probably use the 26th man, the result of roster expansion being implemented this season, for a hitter with excellent platoon splits: somebody who's especially good at hammering left-handers or right-handers.
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• Cardinals prospect Dylan Carlson is 21 years old, the 33rd pick of the 2016 draft out of Elk Grove High School in California and has been one of the best players in spring training this year, with as many extra-base hits (four) as strikeouts, to go with six walks for an OPS of 1.158. The outfielder finished last season in Triple-A and thrived, batting .361 in 18 games for Memphis.
• The Jays' Nate Pearson throws up to 103 mph, but unlike a lot of others who reach that velocity, he seems to do it with ease, at 6-foot-6 and 245 pounds. "The best pitcher I've seen this spring," said one scout.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is a transcendent offensive talent, seemingly possessing his dad's ability to put the barrel of the bat on the ball. Bo Bichette is going to be a really good major leaguer for a very long time. And Cavan Biggio is an on-base machine. But Pearson is arguably the most important player in the Jays' organization, because if Toronto is going to ascend into the realm mostly dominated by the Yankees, Red Sox and Rays in recent seasons, it will need pitching -- and Pearson has a chance to be one of the Jays' best pitching products ever. The 23-year-old will presumably be limited in innings by the Toronto front office this season, having thrown a total of 123⅓ innings in pro ball.