Major League Baseball's summer camp is underway.
A couple of months ago, that sentence would have confused everyone.
After 16 weeks on the sidelines, Pirates players started to report to PNC Park on Wednesday, and, on Friday, they had their first team workouts. These are the first steps to getting the 60-game MLB season started.
But how will this summer camp differ from a regular spring training, and do the Pirates have any position battles? Here are the highlights:
• Players started to report July 1. Friday was their first team workout.
Camp will last three weeks, with the regular season starting on either July 23 or 24. Eventually, they will start playing intrasquad games, but there is no schedule for that yet.
“I think it’s going to be a matter of [pitching coach] Oscar [Marin] being able to get his eyes on our guys throwing bullpens and, probably the most important thing for our position players is making sure they’re ramped up enough to run the bases and are able to do movements,” Derek Shelton said during a recent Zoom call. “So the general answer for that would be, once we determine we’re able to do it health-wise, we’ll get into some simulated game-type stuff. Until our assessments are done, we won’t do it."
The Pirates are hoping to have some exhibitions by the end of camp. The league is allowing each team to play up to three exhibitions during summer camp.
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