This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki's Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Aidan Miller thought somebody made a mistake this spring when he found his locker next to Bryce Harper’s and J.T. Realmuto’s lockers at BayCare Ballpark. A few feet away, Justin Crawford found his locker near Bryson Stott, Alec Bohm and Trea Turner.
Across the way, Andrew Painter’s locker sat next to Zack Wheeler and Taijuan Walker.
“It’s great that Painter, Craw and Miller are next to those guys,” left-hander Jesús Luzardo said of the Phillies Nos. 2, 3 and 1 prospects, respectively. “It’s good to get a feel for how the veterans act, how they go about their business in the clubhouse [and] how they interact with everyone. Slowly, those interactions help you learn how to go about your business.”
What might Phillies prospects learn this spring? We asked several veterans about the lessons they learned early in their careers:
Alec Bohm
“You don’t know what you don’t know coming into camp for the first time. It’s your first experience around guys you grew up watching in high school or college or whatever. You see how they interact. You see how they work, how they take care of their bodies. That was a big thing for me. I remember talking to [Andrew] McCutchen about taking care of yourself to find a way to be on the field every day. As a young kid, that’s not something you really had to think about. In college, you’d roll out there, you’d stretch a little bit and play. It’s doing everything in your power to stay on the field.
“As a young hitter, I remember seeing a lot of stuff [in the batting cage]. ‘Oh, yeah, I never thought of that. That makes sense.’ Because there’s no magic pill when you get up here. It’s not like, ‘Here’s the secret.’ There is no secret.”
Brad Keller
“When I got to Kansas City, Blaine Boyer helped me out. He said, ‘As crazy as it sounds, look around and take it in.’ He’s like, ‘The run in [from the bullpen], that’s your moment to finally embrace that this is the big leagues. This is what you worked your whole life for. This is really cool.’ Obviously, once you get on the mound, you have to block that out and lock in. But he said, ‘If you don’t do that, you’ll never actually grasp how cool it is, how special it is.’ I was always under the impression of, ‘Don’t look up.’ But I did it. You kind of got those nerves out of the way because you were more in awe instead of, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’ It helped me out a lot.”
Jesús Luzardo
“I stuck like glue on [A’s reliever] Yusmeiro Petit. He was like an older brother to me. He took me under his wing. He was a workhorse. He was the first one in the gym running. Back then, I ran a lot, so I’d be with him, running and working. He’s from Maracaibo [Venezuela], which is where my family’s from. He was a nice guy to everyone; it wasn’t just me. But I would bother him. I would pick his brain with a lot of stuff. He was always really nice answering. Looking back, I was so stupid and immature with the questions that I asked. I can’t even remember, but it was about throwing programs, workout routines. But he would say, ‘This is what works for me. This might work for you. Try this. Try that.' He was a great example for me.”
Brandon Marsh
“I remember Mike Trout telling me to have no expectations. I was just asking him, like, ‘Hey, if you have any words of wisdom for me, I’m new here, and I need all the help I can possibly get.’ He was like, ‘Yeah, bro. Just go up there and know that you’re a dude and just don’t expect it will happen. Just go up there and do it.’ Like, don’t have the expectation that you’ll be the greatest player ever. Just go up there and really just be you. It still lives in my mind, the day that he told me that.”
Aaron Nola
“I wish I had more time with Cole [Hamels]. The first time I watched him pitch was the [July 2015] no-hitter. I saw how he commanded his stuff to both sides of the plate. I remember Aaron Harang, Chad Billingsley, Jerome Williams. They made it simple. It was command … command both sides of the plate, down, up, all four corners. My pitching coaches then made it simple as well. It was about getting in a good delivery spot, so you can throw your pitches where you want. Now, when things are going wrong, I still try to get back to the simplicity thing.”
Cristopher Sánchez
“I talked to Ranger [Suárez] a lot. We sat close to each other. But every day I came to camp, I tried to watch the veteran guys and how they went about things. It’s a privilege to be surrounded by players that can help you grow, both as a player and as a person. But it’s on the young guys to take advantage of the opportunity to learn. They shouldn’t take it for granted.”
Kyle Schwarber
“Jon Lester said, ‘Just be known for winning.’ It’s always stuck with me. It clicks. If you’re focusing on winning the game, doing what you can to help the team win, you’re probably doing something [positive] as well. It’s not being the subtractor; it’s trying to be a positive. It doesn’t mean it’s always on the field. It doesn’t have to be at the plate. It can be a nice play in the field. But that’s always stuck with me.
“Also, listen to conversations. That’s something I always tried to do when I was young, and I still do. You hear baseball talk. You watch guys in the cage. You’re listening, watching and observing. I think that’s very valuable.”
Trea Turner
“It was the first opportunity to see the older guys and see how they work, how hard they work, how smart they are, things like that. And when those things add up, you can kind of tell who has a better chance and who doesn’t. You know? It’s more observing, I would say. But the conversations are there. Like, I just talked to Justin. He’s like, ‘Hey, I want to pick your brain about stealing bases.’ I said, ‘Yeah, whenever. Come talk to me.’ It’s just the opportunity by being around each other, learning from each other. No matter how old you get, you can still learn a thing or two.”
Taijuan Walker
“Things were different then. Get there at 5:30, 6 in the morning before anyone else gets there. Keep your head down. Don’t say a word. Fifteen years ago, if you did something they didn’t like, your locker’s gone. It’s getting cut up. … That didn’t happen to me. I was smart. I kept my mouth shut. For me, it was watching routines. I remember watching Ichiro [Suzuki]. He’d be there early in the gym, doing his prep work. Watching Félix [Hernández]. He was just different. He was gifted. He kept everyone loose.”
Zack Wheeler
“We definitely showed up a lot earlier then. Everybody just kind of did their thing. There was really no sitting down and talking with a young guy. I talked to Painter just the other day for a quick second. Nothing crazy. Just what to expect, stuff like that. Nothing that he doesn’t probably already know. But it was something I felt like I needed to say. But it’s definitely different today. We have a lot of older guys that the younger guys can talk to. And they can pick who they want to talk to because we’re all available. You can ask me something and I’ll try to give you the best version of an explanation. But maybe Noles has something different. You can pick your poison. There’s all different types of pitchers. There’s all different types of hitters.”