Training staff seeks creative ways to keep Pirates players engaged, in shape

Though the number of Pittsburgh Pirates players who have remained in the team’s spring-training home city of Bradenton, Fla., has dwindled, the ones who remain still are getting in work in an effort to maintain some semblance of baseball conditioning.

The players remaining in Bradenton — some are in Pittsburgh, some went back to their native cities or countries with the MLB season on hold during the world’s coronavirus pandemic — have moved their training to the Pirate City complex. Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk said those players are working out three times a week in small groups in “a nonstructured, individualized format.”

“They are antsy, just like everybody else,” Tomczyk said during a conference call last week. “But with elite athletes, they are some of the greatest adapters in the world that we get to work with.”

That is more prescient for those who are at home, most of whom lack a wide variety of workout equipment that’s available in-season at PNC Park, on the road at other major league ballparks or at Pirate City or LECOM Park.

Tomczyk said players are encouraged to get outside to, for example, walk their dog, but that any outdoor workout activities should be done while keeping the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations of social distancing in mind.

“So one of our main messages is just being transparent, being collaborative and being open to new ideas and new things,” Tomczyk said, “because this is all uncharted for all of us.”

If Opening Day had gone on as scheduled Thursday, Steven Brault and Clay Holmes would have began the season on the #Pirates injured list. https://t.co/6LUpEpnTcO

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Tomczyk said he touches base with players daily about their workouts, and the training staff has individualized workouts for players of different positions and body types.

Tomczyk said the challenging aspects of his profession in these times have been a learning experience. For example, he marvels at the creative ways players have worked out that they have shared on social media.

And in some cases, Tomczyk even gets to see players in person — from an appropriate distance, of course.

“The safety and security of our coaching staff and players is at the top of our list, so if that can’t happen, then we’re not even going to have conversations of the social distancing and the unorganized workouts,” Tomczyk said. “But since those precautions and measures are there and we’re doing them, we’re able to at least make it available for them to have these unorganized sessions to allow them to continue to at least prep for the season to come.”

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