SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Cooper Hummel leaned over, grabbed the black-and-tan Rawlings first baseman’s mitt out of Blake Sabol’s hand and began gesturing around the palm of the yet-to-be broken-in leather.
“This,” he told Sabol, “is the palm pad. If you ask for no palm pad when you design it, it stops here,” moving his hand to the base of the thumb. “That breaks it in better. Someone who knows gloves needs to open this up and snip that.”
Consider it lesson No. 1 in Sabol’s spring training objective: Adding a third position to his arsenal, first base, in addition to his duties behind the plate and in left field. (Another change: His number, switching to No. 26 after Jorge Soler claimed No. 2.)
The 25-year-old’s reward for lasting the entire season on the major-league roster last season as Rule 5 pick was a full set of options, meaning he’ll need all the versatility he can provide in order to spend as much time as possible in San Francisco instead of Triple-A Sacramento.
On Thursday, Sabol was absent from the catching group on the main field as he spent his first full day dedicated to first base on the backfields.
“Good first day, getting my feet wet again,” Sabol said afterward, though the glove still has some breaking in to do. “The backhand was not staying in today.”
As a rookie last season, Sabol played 43 games in left field and spent 55 more behind the plate. He even served as the designated hitter 10 times, finishing the season batting .235 with 13 home runs. But the last time he played first base regularly was when he was in college at USC.
Manager Bob Melvin brought the idea to Sabol on one of the first days of camp.
“Obviously he’s athletic. He can handle the outfield. So with maybe a lack of options at first base, left-handed hitting first base, will maybe increase his versatility some,” Melvin said. “This just creates another option for him to potentially be on the team.”
Sabol quickly put an order in with his Rawlings representative. He asked a few other first baseman, and they recommended the Heart of the Hide model. What they failed to tell him, apparently, was the secret Hummel passed along, something he learned when making the same move as Sabol.
“For me, it feels like the organization is looking for a way to get me in the lineup,” Sabol said. “That feels good. If I wasn’t hearing anything, then it would be feel a little bit worse. I think there’s a little bit of buzz.”
Winn ‘not overwhelmingly concerned’ with elbow
Almost as soon as Melvin practically proclaimed Keaton Winn his fourth starter, the 25-year-old split-finger artist felt a twinge in his right elbow during a bullpen session, leading the team to shut him down for a few days. Elbow soreness is always cause for alarm, as it often serves as a precursor to Tommy John surgery, and Winn also missed time last season with a sore elbow.
But after an MRI came back clean, Winn said he is “not overwhelmingly concerned” and still expects to break camp with the club if everything checks out OK when he is re-evaluated this weekend.
“I think I might’ve just got on it a little too quick,” Winn said. “I probably should have built up a little longer and gave myself a little more time. But I was like, we’ve got lives coming up, so I’m gonna crank on it today. I just woke up a little more sore than normal, so I talked to them and they said, well, let’s just do the smart thing.”
Taped ‘Tay’
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With no live batting practice on the schedule, Melvin intended Thursday to be a light day for his players ahead of Saturday’s Cactus League opener.
Following the casual Thursday theme, players weren’t required to wear their jerseys, which created a problem the Rogers’ twins thought they put behind them last year. With plenty of new teammates and coaches — and, now, no jersey numbers to tell them apart — Taylor got creative and turned to baseball players’ favorite fashion accessory: White athletic tape, which he used to spell out “T-A-Y” on the back of his black workout shirt.
“There was just a couple people that made comments like, without jerseys how are we gonna know?” Rogers said. “So I made a joke of it.”
A successful one, judging by the chuckles in the press box. There weren’t any alterations made to his brother’s shirt, though, reporters noticed.
“I figured since I was doing it,” Rogers deadpanned, “deductive reasoning would kick in.”
