Thursday, a tentative agreement was reached to get the Major League Baseball season underway as players and owners were able to work out their differences following a lockout that lasted over three months.
Now that the negotiating is behind them, players, coaching staffs, front offices, support staff, and broadcasters have to quickly ramp up preparations for the season which will begin with Spring Training this Sunday when players are required to report to camp. Sources with the Twins say the first games will take place March 18 in Fort Myers with a new schedule being put in place. The regular season will being April 7 at Target Field when the Twins host the Seattle Mariners.
Cory Provus is now entering his 11th year behind the microphone for the Minnesota Twins Radio Network, including here on WCCO Radio. Provus, who teams up with former Twin Dan Gladden along with studio host Kris Atteberry on the broadcasts, sat down for a Q&A with WCCO Morning News host Vineeta Sawkar Friday as they get ready to quickly start the baseball season.
Sawkar: What was your reaction when we first heard a deal was done?
Provus: I tried to remain optimistic the entire time, but it seemed like every time my optimism was at its peak, I was then just heartbroken by something I read on Twitter that sent me kind of into a downward spiral. I felt good yesterday morning, but then midday when you start reading that the (MLBPA) Executive Committee voted no, then I wasn’t sure. But to see the bulk of the players like what they saw, and not let those eight guys drive their decision, I thought was really discouraging.”
Sawkar: What can we expect the next few days?
Provus: I’m just thrilled that baseball is back, and spring training will get going really today. Guys will start showing up today and then we’ll have our first broadcast, which is great to say, probably a week from today. These next three or four days are going to be wild, just watching all these players sign, and then trades too. That’s going to happen too, so there’s a lot. There’s going to be this massive flurry of activity that’s going to be great for the game.
Sawkar: They’re saying all 162 games will be played and opening day is April 7th?
Provus: We’ll get all 162 in, and the Twins were scheduled to open up the road. They had three in Chicago against the Sox, then three in Cleveland. They’ll make up the three with the White Sox at the end of the season, so following the last series of the year there will be kind of a wraparound to finish those games and then with Cleveland, the Twins were fortunate that their schedule opened up with all divisional play. They still have two more trips planned to Cleveland. They can knock out those games with doubleheaders. It’s not a massive, massive interruption in terms of scheduling and losing off-days at this juncture. It’s not the worst case scenario.
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Sawkar: Now we need to catch up as fans as what’s next for the Twins. A lot of the tweets I saw yesterday was that we need some pitchers. What are you hearing as far as the starting rotation?
Provus: The Twins have needed arms now for a while, and more so now than I can recall entering a season. Outside of Bailey Ober, Joe Ryan and Dylan Bundy, there’s really nobody that’s locked in right now to the rotation. Randy Dobnak, of course, Louis Thorpe, some of the other guys, Griffin Jax, other guys that we saw throughout the year are certainly going to be in contention. That is going to be item number one through ten for Derek (Falvey) and Thad (Levine) right now, is to try to sort out how they’re going to get this thing together, how the Twins can compete. That’s the honest look at it, the Twins right now, they’re not going to be a contending team in the division unless they improve their pitching. They just don’t have the arms to matchup right now, both in the rotation and the bullpen.
Sawkar: What are we thinking about as far as the game of baseball? Are you seeing any changes or anticipating maybe speeding up play? What can fans expect this season?
Provus: I think that was something that I was following more closely than I was the economics of all that was going on the last three months. In my mind, as a fan and just somebody that watches just the state of the game today and where fan interest is, you had to do something to drive it forward. And I think the calendar pushed it to the point where it was going to be hard to do for this season, but come 2023, yes, there will be changes. What baseball decided, what we learned yesterday, is that because in the past, Commissioner Rob Manfred, he could more or less unilaterally make changes within the game on his own. There was no collaboration. Well that changed in the CBA yesterday. They're going to have some current players, umpire, and I think there's going to be even non-uniform players. It is going to be a committee that's going to come together and work together to find out what the best way to improve the game will be. And that'll be in time for the 2023 season.
Sawkar: What changes do you want to see?
Provus: I am for the pitch clock. I think that will happen, but I think you just can't have it happen now. I think too many guys will get hurt if they just try to throw in at this point. But you give guys a full off season to prepare, work with their strength and conditioning coaches, their training staffs, come up with the best way to kind of look at whether the pitch clock's 20 seconds, whether it's 14 or 19, that's going to be decided and they'll have time to prepare for that. I didn't mind the shift. I thought it was good strategy, but I'm kind of moving against that as well that I think that's something else that will be looked at.
Sawkar: What about the length of the game?
Provus: The length of game doesn't bother me as much, as long as the action is good. One of the best games I saw was a couple years ago. 2019 the Twins and Yankees played just a thrilling game at Target Field that ended on a Kepler hit, the game-winning shot to left center field. Aaron Hicks made this diving catch to win the game. It was dramatic. It was back and forth. The game could have been four hours and 35 minutes. I have no idea, but it was compelling. It was action. And I will take action over anything else. Anything to create action. And then I don't mind if a game maybe is 3:15, 3:20, as long as I'm entertained and we're all entertained throughout that night in a game.
Sawkar: The expanded playoffs, it's got to bode well for the twins?
Provus: It's certainly going to help out. I think teams that are going to just honestly be shooting for .500, I think it opens up a path to get to the playoffs. Now you can argue, is that system working? Is that the right way to do it? Are you rewarding mediocrity by getting a team in the playoffs? If anything, it's going to keep teams from selling around that trade deadline. If they're hovering near .500, where in the past if there were two or three teams above them, it probably wasn't going to work out. They probably had a sell. Whereas now I think there'll be more teams that are going to be in it that, are going to fight, that are going to try. The wildcard games are not just a one game winner-take-all kind of thing. It's the best of three series. That's also new. And that's great. You have a bit of a chance now. It's not just the one game and if you have a clunker you're done, you have at least a chance to do it again. I think that it's certainly good for the game. I thought 14 teams was too much. 10 was okay. But 12 I can live with. 12 is something that I want to see play out. But I thought 14 would've been too much.