What Spring Training cuts for the D-backs look like: “They’re not forgotten”
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Ariz., Scottsdale — Sunday marked the D-backs’ first roster cut of the spring, with nine players being sent to Minor League camp.
No one in the group was surprised, as most people are by this time in spring, but it’s still a day that everyone dreads, from general manager Mike Hazen to manager Torey Lovullo and the coaches.
On the days preceding the day, which are often Sundays, the maneuvers are discussed. Lovullo anticipates that his coaches will be prepared to inform the players who are being sent down of the areas in which they need to improve on that day.
“I expect every coach to be prepared and give excellent attention to the player,” Lovullo stated. “Make it his moment. Be very attentive to the player’s needs. It is all about who’s getting sent down.”
Lovullo was on the other end of these conversations during his playing career, so he’s hyper-focused on ensuring the players feel respected. Both he and Hazen want a very organized process.
Bench coach Jeff Banister finds the players and brings them to Lovullo’s office. It’s important to the staff that they get to a player before he gets into uniform. They don’t want him to dress in his baseball uniform, thinking he has a regular day ahead of him, only to have that rug pulled out from under him.
While Banister doesn’t deliver the news, players know what it means.
When the player enters the office, he will find Lovullo, Hazen, his position coach and farm director Shaun Larkin waiting.
“Walking into my office before they sit down, they know what’s going to be happening there,” Lovullo said. “It’s probably something they’ve been dreading. So, I try to connect with them a little bit from a place of empathy. We’ve all sat in that chair, and we all know what that feels like. So that’s my starting point and then I start to deliver very important messages about how important their development is to this organization.”
Part of that message is what the team would like to see the player work on while in the Minors, and that is why Larkin is in there. As head of player development, he’s tasked with setting up a plan to make sure that gets done.
Hazen also asks Larkin to follow up with the player a day or so later because even though what they want the player to work on is laid out in the meeting, the GM knows that sometimes, after a player hears the news that he’s being sent down, everything else becomes a blur.
Before the player leaves the office, Lovullo will ask them how they think their time in camp went. If their answer matches what he’s seen, that’s good. If it doesn’t, he will explain what he saw and make sure they’re on the same page.
Players are obviously disappointed, which is to be expected, but they also know that it comes with the territory and usually don’t react with anger or raised voices
The previous two seasons, left-hander Kyle Nelson was among the team’s final cuts, but both times his stint was cut short after a few days due to injury. The team has observed how professionally he has received the news, even on his good days.
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