What we’ve learned from MLB Summer Camp

It was a spring training unlike any other. In fact, the so-called MLB Summer Camp didn’t even take place in the spring. But there are some important items to take away from the tune-up practices and games teams held just ahead of the upcoming 60-game season. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Luis Robert looks like the real deal

It looks like the White Sox knew what they were doing when they offered outfielder Luis Robert a six-year, $50 million contract before he even took the ballfield in a regular season MLB game.

Robert has hit multiple home runs during Summer Camp, including this blast while losing his balance. It’s not an isolated incident in MLB history, but a 22-year-old rookie being able to do that is incredible.

Pitchers may not be ahead of the hitters

The truism about pitchers being ahead of the hitters in the early part of the season could be turned on its ear in 2020.

Consider the case of the Cubs, who are rolling with Kyle Hendricks on Opening Day as he’s the starter "that can go deepest the earliest" as Jon Lester and Yu Darvish take a gradual approach to game-readiness. For the Mets, presumptive Opening Day starter Jacob deGrom will likely be limited to 85 pitches.

Yoenis Cespedes may have something left

While most of the baseball world wrote off Yoenis Cespedes, who hasn’t played in a major-league game since July of 2018, the Mets stuck with him and he appears to be a lock to make the Opening Day roster. That would not have been possible without the delay to the season and MLB Summer Camp.

The advent of the universal DH this season will make it easy for new skipper Luis Rojas to inject Cespedes’ potent bat into the lineup on a regular basis.

It will take time for players to adjust to the "new normal"

High-fives and the like are out this year due to COVID-19 – as is spitting – and that will take time to get used to, per the Dodgers’ Justin Turner.

"That’s going to be tough for everyone," he told ESPN. "It’s just almost second nature. Spitting for a pro baseball player is like blinking. It’s going to be a tough habit to break."

Practice routines once taken for granted were turned upside-down during Summer Camp. White Sox reliever Steve Cishek reported that he could only get into the trainer’s room or shag flies at appointed times. He jokingly told ESPN, "I feel like we’re back in high school, waiting for the bell to sound before we can go to the next class."

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