Prospects headed to D-backs instructional camp

This story was excerpted from Steve Gilbert’s D-backs Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Diamondbacks pitchers and catchers won't officially begin their workouts at Salt River Fields for another month, but that doesn't mean there won't be activity out on the back fields of the complex.

From Monday through Jan. 25, the Diamondbacks will host approximately 60 of their top prospects for an instructional camp to give them a head start heading into Spring Training.

In the past, teams would usually hold instructional camps at the end of the Minor League season, but it became clear that it was more advantageous to hold them before Spring Training.

"I think the challenge that a lot of times teams faced with that was that these players just had a really long season, they hadn't been home for a while, they were gassed," Arizona farm director Chris Slivka said. "You know, they were gassed. And at the end of the day, anything that you worked on with them in the fall, you then wouldn't have the opportunity to build on that with them until the next spring."

With a camp in January, the Diamondbacks will be able to work with their players and then give them a few weeks off before they report to early spring camp on Feb. 16.

"When they come back for early camp, now we can just build on what they just worked on," Slivka said. "And there's more recency in their heads for what they were working on and we can continue to stack days and get a lot of great work done over Spring Training."

Another factor that makes the January camp better, Slivka said, is that the Minor League Collective Bargaining Agreement includes a quiet period from just before Thanksgiving until Jan. 2 when teams cannot reach out to their players or mandate that they do anything. Players, however, can reach out to the organization to ask questions or need something.

Once Jan. 2 hits, the Diamondbacks begin contacting their Minor League players to touch base with them, and the January camp allows the team to get a first-hand look at them.

While the camp will include most of the team's top prospects who are not on the 40-man roster, one notable absence will be left-hander Yu-Min Lin.

Lin, who is the organization's No. 7 prospect per MLB Pipeline, has to fulfill a military obligation in his homeland of Taiwan. That obligation was shortened somewhat as a result of Lin pitching Chinese Taipei to the gold medal in the WBSC Premier 12 last November.

Between the military obligation and then getting all the necessary paperwork done to come to the U.S., Lin will be a little delayed and therefore is not likely to be a non-roster invite to big league camp.

That shouldn’t impact him being ready for the regular season, but the Diamondbacks don't want him trying to rush to get ready for big league camp. Instead, he will be on the Minor League schedule and likely see some action in big league games.