The baseball season really never ends. From the minute the World Series is over until Opening Day, the baseball world is in full gear with the hot stove, spring training and offseason workouts. The reason I bring this up is because today’s players really never have any time off, and keeping their bodies in top shape is a priority each winter. Frequently you hear players coming into camp in the “best shape of their life” or feeling “100 percent,” but that is before the grind of a 162-game season begins.
Two players who have had relatively parallel careers up until this point have taken two very different approaches this offseason: Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Russell Martin and Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto.
Martin, who set career-lows in every category besides stolen bases in 2009, decided that he wanted to get his power back and came into spring training tipping the scales at around 230 pounds, a 20-pound increase.
Soto, the 2008 National League Rookie of the Year, hit an abysmal .218 in 2009 and after weighing in at over 240 pounds by season’s end, decided it was time to trade in the burgers for broccoli and slimmed down to around 200.
Good for both of them to set and reach goals, but these two extremely different approaches to improving their games has me concerned on both fronts.
Will the added weight be too much for Martin? Martin already has suffered a groin injury that will sideline him for about a month. Remember that Martin is so valuable because he has the ability to steal bases at the catcher position, and with the added weight, owners may watch his power numbers rise at the expense of his SB total. Also, because catching is a physically demanding position which puts a lot of stress on the knees, I have to wonder if the extra poundage will lead to another injury at some point this season.
Soto, who took the opposite route and shed his unwanted weight, has me concerned as well. Soto’s power numbers dropped from 23 homers in 2008 to 11 in 2009, and I do not believe that dropping 40 pounds is going to do much to help him muscle out balls that would normally fall at the warning track. Considering that his average, stolen base and run totals were not enough to make him even a good fantasy catcher in 2009, if he is going to lose his power, owners are going to have to hope for a huge turnaround from Soto in other areas of his game.
Keeping these things in mind, I still believe both catchers can have rebound years, but owners will be creating a new definition of weight watchers in 2010.
