Giolito, McCann on daunting prep for 2020
Chicago White Sox starter Lucas Giolito and catcher James McCann both know how daunting the 2020 season will be — not only for players, but for everyone. They also agree that the time is now to try.
"If you asked me a week ago about playing, the answer would have been a resounding YES," McCann said during a media session this afternoon. "But you see how things can change [regarding recent positive tests around baseball and in the country]. We don't really know what the future holds. But we're at a point of no return if we don't try to play now. The virus is going to be here, there isn't any way around it."
When I asked Giolito about his comfort level heading into a pandemic, he said, "I don’t think anyone feels 100% comfortable going in, it’s a pandemic.”
But, he added, "I've done everything I can to stay away from [the virus]. I hope a lot of my teammates have as well."
The big concern from Giolito was passing the very first intake, to in a sense "qualify" to even start spring training. "I don't want to lose any major players."
Once the season starts rolling, Giolito is confident things will work out OK. "The protocols are in place. There are 70-plus pages of rules and regulations," he says. "We have to throw our trust into all research MLB and teams have done. That was what they came up with with, and we have to trust the process and put our trust in our trainers and doctors."
Both players have kept active during this down time. McCann has been training at Ben Zobrist's "barn" in Nashville, with a batting cage and live pitching. In fact, McCann (unlike in prior-year run-ups to spring training) has been catching live BP, seven or eight innings a spell, a couple of times a week.
For his part, Giolito has been in Sacramento throwing live BP against high schoolers, juco players, independent league guys. He's simulating three-inning outings at this point, 15-20 pitch range per inning, and doesn't anticipate being "off" in his prep for games a month from now.
And Giolito had a surprise guest from a couple of hours south last Saturday: Andrew Vaughn, who stepped in for every other at-bat during Lucas' session that day. "He's a very, very good hitter," Giolito smiled. "I'm looking forward to having him up with us."
Neither Giolito nor McCann will be bringing family with them to Chicago to start the season, preferring a wait and see approach to the process. Giolito says that he does anticipate several teammates having family with them in Chicago, however.
While McCann expressed obvious unease with the fact that catchers are an exception, with an umpire right behind him and a batter in front of him, with regard to social distancing protocols, Giolito is a bit more unfamiliar with the new restrictions in the game.
"I'm trying not to lick my fingers and spit [during training sessions], which is tough," he smiles. "I'm going to have to start practicing."
Giolito was unfamiliar with the new rules on extra innings and even the private rosin bag ("I don't know what you're talking about, I'll have to read up on that") but he was definitely ticked off about one new twist of Major League Baseball: the universal DH.
"I'm very upset," Giolito said, mostly (?) joking. "For selfish reasons." Apparently, Giolito has a bet with an MLB friend that says he'll hit a home run in one of his first few years in the big leagues, which may now be rendered impossible. Pay up, Luc.
Giolito sees the logic in GM Rick Hahn's continuing emphasis to the White Sox as a development-to-yearly-contention model, saying frankly that "for me, the development never stops. I'm always going to be trying to work on something."
At the same time, however, the ace wants to win.
"Why play if you don't want to win?" he asks. "With a 60-game season, every single day we have to expect to win. Over 162 games, sometimes everyone is off and you drop one and have to regroup. We can't do that this season. We have to regroup quickly and be ready to win every game."
And both players had thoughts about the recent MLB-MLBPA negotiations, which ended this week in failure. McCann, Chicago's player rep, thought it was most unfortunate that some many aspects of the negotiations leaked out to the public. Giolito was a bit more terse: "We want to play as many games as possible. That's pretty much all I have to say ... it was pretty exhausting."
Here's the full conference, with Giolito first, followed by McCann. Gracious thanks to the Chicago White Sox for providing it.