Citi Field opened for baseball Friday, complete with hand sanitizers near each foul line, socially distanced markers and masks for players and staff.
Some 113 days after the COVID-19 outbreak shuttered spring training, the Mets returned to workouts for a 2020 season they hope will materialize. Over three staggered sessions that began at 9 a.m. and were set to conclude 12 hours later, the familiar sound of ball meeting bat and thumping leather echoed throughout a near-empty ballpark.
“It’s hard to see my teammates and be [distanced] from them, so that is the hard part about all those protocols,” Wilson Ramos said after a morning workout. “But at the same time I am happy to be here and do what I like to do, especially here at Citi Field because it’s home.”
Ramos crushed the first batting practice homer of spring training 2.0, a shot to center field that hit the black retaining wall in front of the apple. He joined fellow catchers Tomas Nido and Rene Rivera in the cage before moving to work with the pitchers.
Manager Luis Rojas held pre-workout Zoom meetings with players spread out in different rooms, just to set the tone for camp and offer reminders about the safety restrictions.
Players were allowed to use the weight rooms in the home and visitor’s clubhouse in small groups and a makeshift cardio workout area was created behind the right-field fence. An additional pitching rubber, on a slope, was placed on the warning track in front of the bullpens.
“Once we hit the field it almost was like camp,” Rojas said. “We were out there and maintaining our distances, but once they started playing catch and throwing the ball around in BP … it felt pretty normal to us.”
Ramos and Edwin Diaz are among the Mets players who opted to leave their families behind while attending this three-week session. Ramos, who lives in South Florida, has a 6-month-old son and cited the conveniences of a swimming pool in his backyard and playground nearby at home. Diaz, who lives in Puerto Rico, called it a “collaborative decision” with his family that he would travel to New York alone.
The regular season will begin July 23-24 with games likely to be played in empty ballparks.
“I have the same mentality that all athletes do: we prefer to have fans here in the ballpark,” Diaz said. “That is what we play for, but there is no pressure, with fans or without fans. I need to do my job and I know fans understand that. This is for both our safety and their safety.”
Ramos said the vibe was positive on Day 1.
“The guys I have been talking with, they feel good,” he said. “They feel confident to be here. Today is the first day and we didn’t get a chance to talk a lot, but all I see today it feels good and I feel happy to be here working out. I understand the part we have to respect. We have to be separate, but at the same time we have to be close mentally.”
Ramos compared the 60-game season to the type of schedule he faced playing winter ball in Venezuela as a younger player. The Mets will play their entire schedule against the NL East and AL East, minimizing travel.
“I know when you play in that short season you have to think about that and I will let my teammates know how to play a short season,” Ramos said. “You don’t wait until the next day. You have to go out there and play hard every day.”