Believe it or not, baseball is barely more than a month away.
Giants pitchers and catchers will hold their first workout Thursday, Feb. 16, while position players will join for the first full-squad workout to begin the following week, Monday, Feb. 20. Both groups are scheduled to report to camp at the Giants’ facilities in Scottsdale, Arizona, the day before their first workout.
The club officially announced the dates Thursday, with all but the finishing touches made to their roster. Addressing reporters over Zoom Thursday afternoon, president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said, “we feel really good about it … I understand there’s some skepticism because we had a couple pursuits fall short, but we also did a lot of good work and we think we got better.”
Fans will get their first look at the club in action when they open Cactus League play Saturday, Feb. 25, at the Cubs. They host their first game at Scottsdale Stadium the following day, at 1:05 p.m. against the Reds. Their Cactus League schedule, which you can find in full here, wraps up Saturday, March 25, before they open the regular season at Yankee Stadium on March 30.
For the first time since 2009, Brandon Belt won’t be in Scottsdale — or Arizona at all — after signing with the Blue Jays. Carlos Rodón will be training in Florida, too (alongside Aaron Judge), while Evan Longoria will be just a few miles away, in D-backs camp.
The new faces in Scottsdale include the pair of outfielders they signed in free agency, Mitch Haniger and Michael Conforto, as well as starting pitchers Ross Stripling and Sean Manaea, and relievers Taylor Rogers and Luke Jackson.
For the first time since 2017, the World Baseball Classic will also be taking place while teams prepare for the season.
Players set to participate in the tournament will report a few days ahead of time, Feb. 13 for pitchers and catchers and Feb. 16 for position players. Team USA will train at the Giants’ facilities in Scottsdale, and will scrimmage them at Scottsdale Stadium on Wednesday, March 8.
Logan Webb has committed to pitching for Team USA, and Joc Pederson will play for Team Israel, which will be based in Florida. Camilo Doval has also been rumored to potentially play for the Dominican Republic, though his participation hasn’t been announced, and Giants officials were concerned about his workload last season.
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