How the Yankees’ abbreviated spring will put the squeeze on the players who could make or break the season

Players — particularly hitters — complain annually about the length of spring training.

This is not like bygone days for the group that reaches a 40-man roster. They are not selling tires in the offseason. Their job, pretty much, is to stay in shape 12 months a year.

I bridge a previous era — the 1980s — to this one. I remember players showing up out of shape and working themselves into better condition in Florida and Arizona. I also remember cigarettes smoked in clubhouses, beers drank and plenty of not-safe-for-work magazines laying about.