Here's why D-backs are getting a head start on spring

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We're still a few weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting, but there has been a lot of action at Salt River Fields over the past week as the D-backs hold their annual Instructional Camp for Minor Leaguers.

"Instructs," as they're most commonly referred to, were something the D-backs had done in the fall after the Minor League seasons ended, but in 2021, they changed things up. The pandemic in 2020 forced the cancellation of the Minor League seasons in 2020, so to get the players ramped up after missing a full year, Arizona held instructs in January.

What they found was that instead of players arriving tired after a full season of play, the players were excited about getting a jump-start on the year. That prompted the D-backs to change instructs to January going forward.

"It's something that we've kind of made a staple, and it's a nice way to want to get guys ramped up and make sure that they're in a good spot coming into Spring Training," farm director Josh Barfield said. "You get a little bit more like instruction in without playing the games, and just the overall morale is better. When January rolls around, everybody wants to be out at the facility, everybody wants to be out there working. That's not the case in September and October after a long year. Everybody, right now, is excited. They haven't played in a few months, they've been working hard and a lot of the guys live in cold weather places, so they are excited to get to come out here."

That goes for the coaches as well.

"The staff is itching this time of year to get back around guys, so the timing works out well," Barfield said. "Our facility is so nice here, so we might as well leverage that."

Sixty players were invited to camp. Many of those are starting pitchers, who take the opportunity for extra time to ramp up for the season. Some are first- and second-year players the staff wants to get a little more time with, and some are middle-to-veteran guys with whom the staff wants to work on certain things with more personalized instruction than they'll get when everyone is in camp.

In addition to the on-field activities, the organization also has players from the Major League team speak to the group to share some of the lessons they've learned.

D-backs outfielder Jake McCarthy spoke, Corbin Carroll was scheduled to do so on Thursday and veteran shortstop Nick Ahmed and third baseman Josh Rojas have also interacted with the group.

"It's kind of cool to see these guys who were part of instructs before come back and speak to the guys," Barfield said. "They've been in their shoes recently, so it's great for the players to hear about their journey. It's also cool just to see the connection. I think that's one thing that we really push here: connection, top to bottom, in the organization. It makes that transition to the big leagues easier for these guys, because when they get up there, they feel like they know these guys a bit instead of just having them be faces on TV or something."