KNBR
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — There are asterisks, sure. But it’s just about ready.
“We’re 100 percent functional,” Giants senior managing director Jon Knorpp announced, over the din of machinery and against an empty background, few pictures and banners trumpeting a return of baseball season.
The Giants’ camp opened Tuesday, pitchers and catchers spilling inside the new digs that are in their own way a reflection of the team they will house: There are signs that once it’s fully ready, it will be a sight to behold. The team, of course, has a longer timeline to come together, but the new facility, while crawling with beeps and bams and ladders and tape, is able to be home for the players on Day 1, albeit with some caveats.
A Scottsdale Stadium overhaul about four years in the making and a Phase 1 with an tagprice of about $50.6 million — both city and team chipped in — has turned a spring training facility that the Giants wanted to see upgraded into a new-age wonderland, though it’s occupied by plenty of hardhats.
“We’ve had a great partnership in the city of Scottsdale, and we reached the point with our minor league and major league facilities where we were just so far behind the curve of the competition, which is the curve of what the modern facility demands,” Knorpp said, adding Monday was the target date, and now mostly cleanup will be done until games start Feb. 22. “We had to make some significant changes.”
The most important aspect of every avenue of baseball is the players’ comfort, and the proximity of the locker room is key.
Outside the door is a field, the shortest possible commute. Out another door and around the corner is a brand-new gym featuring windows that open to let in Arizona air, two levels of machines that will be tested by the dozens and dozens and dozens of players who walk through (26 non-roster invites at last count, with a total-player headcount approaching 70).
Snake through the hallway and you arrive at Gabe Kapler’s office, which the manager has insisted will be open barring sitdown meetings. While Kapler and Bruce Bochy saw eye to eye before his hire — Kapler was Bochy-endorsed — even the eyeline for the manager has changed this year. No longer is the Giants manager resting on a comfortable chair or behind a majestic desk; Kapler has a standing desk, blackboards to his left and right and straight ahead of him.
Kapler mentioned one would be for notes, another for schedules, a third for lineups. There’s a coffee maker and some light guitar strumming filling the place, more of a mood than a room. Not far are communal meeting rooms, the communication between managers and staff and players and trainers more heightened than ever.
“A lot of our coaches walked in late last night to a clubhouse and a weight room and a training room and a facility that is usable on Day One,” Kapler said to begin his first Giants camp. “And that’s such an awesome accomplishment. There was a lot of concern that we wouldn’t get through the finish line, but we did.”
Walk upstairs, and there are not many signs on the walls, which is filled with meeting rooms and training rooms and front-office hideouts. There’s a large and largely empty game room, with a few pingpong tables, that overlooks the fields and could be an ideal spot for Farhan Zaidi to introduce a major free agent. You know, one of these years.
In all, the sprawling facility is about 40,000 square feet, and the players seemed pleased with their second home. Phase 2, which will overhaul the seating and fan experience, is not yet launched and numbers are still being bandied about. The new minor league facilities are on schedule to be ready for March 1, 2021.
Change has come to the Giants, but perhaps none more tangibly than in Scottsdale.
