Kansas City Royals outfielder Hunter Dozier felt like the rug got pulled out from underneath him just as the team reached the most critical point of spring training.
Rust had been knocked off, players had acclimated and built up. It was time to start shifting into regular-season mode.
That never happened. Instead, MLB suspended spring training and delayed the start of the baseball season as the country attempted to devise a strategy to weather the storm that is the COVID-19 coronavirus global pandemic.
Players like Dozier, 28, have had to switch gears and move into a perpetual holding pattern as they try to stay ready for a start date nobody can pinpoint for certain. They’ll continue training and waiting for the phone call that tells them it’s time to play ball.
“Timing was coming along,” Dozier said during a Zoom video conference call with reporters on Friday afternoon. “I was starting to kind of just get into the rhythm of things, playing more. It’s hard at the beginning of spring training when you play, you know, every other day, you know, get two at-bats.
“So we had like a week-and-a-half left where we were really going to start playing a lot of innings, getting a lot of at-bats. But I was feeling good. I know as a team. We were feeling good; we were ready to get going. It was unfortunate that it had to stop.”
Last year, Dozier made the club out of spring training for the first time and enjoyed a breakout offensive season. He posted a slash line of .279/.348/.533 to go along with career highs in home runs (26), RBIs (84), runs (75), doubles (29) and triples (10).
He tied for the MLB lead in triples and joined George Brett as the only two Royals third baseman to hit 10 triples in a season (Brett did it four times).
Dozier, who moved from third base to the outfield this season, also became the first player in club history with at least 25 homers, 25 doubles and 10 triples in a season.
Across the majors, only five players have accomplished that feat in the past 30 seasons — Nicholas Castellanos (2017), Curtis Granderson (2011), Grady Sizemore (2006) and Nomar Garciaparra (1997 and 2003).
Along with building on that individual momentum, Dozier and the Royals were hoping for a fresh start under new manager Mike Matheny and with a retooled bullpen in hopes of eliminating the sour taste of the past two seasons and 207 losses.
“Oh yeah, it’s definitely a disappointment,” Dozier said of the delay. “We wish we were playing right now. We wish everything was normal, we weren’t doing this right now. But, you know, we can’t control that. … I feel like we will be ready. I know I’ll be ready. But yeah, it’s just kind of the hand we’re dealt right now. We’ll, we’ll do the best we can, when we get back and get going.”
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Dozier is back in Texas where he resides with his wife, Amanda, their son, Bodhi, and daughter, Blake, who was born during last season.
Dozier typically gets up at 8 a.m. to go work out with teammates Ryan O’Hearn, Cam Gallagher, and Matt Reynolds. Relief pitcher Kevin McCarthy also works out in the same area.
