With Spring Training set to start on time, subject to agreement on health-and-safety protocols, the Rays are getting ready for the short trip south to Port Charlotte, Fla.

Tampa Bay’s clubhouse staff loaded up three trucks full of gear and equipment on Wednesday morning for the roughly 80-mile drive from Tropicana Field to Charlotte Sports Park, the Rays’ Spring Training home. As ever, “Truck Day” is a sure sign that Spring Training baseball is just around the corner.

“We’re all ready to get back to work. It’s a bright spot in our day, and we’re pumped,” said Tyler Wall, the Rays’ head home clubhouse and equipment manager. “I’m feeling very blessed and fortunate to be taking on this challenge, and I’m ready to get to work.”

Amid the typical spring necessities -- more than 18,000 baseballs, 8,000 pieces of Nike apparel and so on -- were reminders that this Spring Training, like the season before it, will be different for players, coaches and staff. Wall said their shipment included between 2,500-3,000 Rays-branded masks for players and 5,000-6,000 medical-grade masks at the training staff’s request.

The Rays also packed 50 cases of hand sanitizer, a few Clorox 360 sprayers and more personal protective equipment to minimize the spread of COVID-19 when big league camp opens in two weeks.

“Making sure we had everything that we need as far as PPE-type stuff, masks are a big thing this year that we’re bringing that we haven’t brought in the past,” said Wall, the Rays’ former equipment manager who recently added managing the home clubhouse to his duties.

Given the recent ambiguity about exactly when Spring Training would begin, Wall said he and his fellow clubhouse staff members had more equipment sent to Tropicana Field and prepared for the spring in St. Petersburg more than they would have during a typical winter. With all that in mind, the club needed three trucks to carry everything this year, compared to their usual two.

“The main thing is that we’ve sort of had to focus on what’s ahead of us and make sure that we’re ready with so much uncertainty,” Wall said. “We’ve had to prepare for a regular Spring Training, even though we don’t know if that is happening 100 percent. The biggest challenge was making sure that we are 100 percent ready to go.”

And there’s a lot more that goes into that than just loading up the gear and watching the trucks roll out on Wednesday morning. That’s why Wall, who previously worked alongside former clubhouse manager Ryan Denlinger on days like this, went out of his way to thank the Rays’ clubhouse staff when it was all over.

“I’m feeling very blessed and fortunate, looking forward to the challenge. The biggest thing that I’m noticing now is that we really don’t have a second set of eyes on things, so I’ve got to make sure I’m double-checking everything and taking care of my guys -- the guys that work so hard to help me and get everything prepared,” Wall said. “I would be nowhere without my crew, so I want to give a big shoutout to them. They’ve really, really stepped it up and got us to where we are today to be able to get stuff down to Spring Training.”