PHOENIX -- The early leader for the annual (and very unofficial) Best Shape of His Life Award in Brewers camp is outfielder Sal Frelick, who added 25 pounds of muscle since the end of last season with an appropriate approach, given his proud Italian heritage.
He ate everything in sight.
“I don’t know if it’s the best shape of my life, but I put on a ton of muscle,” said Frelick, who finished last season at 167 pounds after a long year that began with extensive Spring Training work at third base and ended with him winning a Rawlings Gold Glove Award in right field. “I just wanted to make sure I had a good offseason and built back the sort of body that would be ready for the long season.”
Brewers strength and conditioning specialist Jason Meredith sent Frelick home last fall with a supply of protein powder, and Frelick, who used to regularly skip breakfast, adopted a policy of four meals a day between workouts at a gym near his Boston home and hitting sessions at his alma mater, Boston College.
It helped that mom’s home cooking was only 20 minutes away in Lexington, Mass., where Frelick grew up. Many days, he went home for lunch.
“She’s the best cook in the world, especially when it’s Italian food. I can’t really eat red sauce unless it comes from my mom,” said Frelick, who also cooked for himself at home. “I ate a lot of steak and chicken and rice, stuff like that. A lot of it was just routine-based, carving out time to make sure that my lift wasn’t going on without a good source of protein.
“I have to stay consistent. If I miss even one day, I lose a ton of weight.”
Example: Frelick weighed in at 192 pounds when he left Boston for Spring Training. When he took his Brewers physical this week, he was already down to 189.
He’s aiming to stay around 190 pounds for as much of this season as possible, as the 24-year-old 2021 first-round Draft pick heads into his second full Major League season. Last year he hit .259/.320/.335 in 145 games, providing most of his production on the basepaths and in the outfield. At the plate, his 83.4 mph average exit velocity was the lowest in baseball, per Statcast, and while that may not dramatically change with the added bulk, Frelick is eager to feel stronger as the season wears on.
“Looking back on it and working with Meredith, what he was saying is that you’ll feel better,” Frelick said. “Down the stretch, waking up in the morning, I was tired. And then we’re making sure I can play the game hard and go run into walls and stuff like that. I want to make sure I have that built-on layer for playing at a high level.”
Frelick wasn’t the only Brewers player who spent the winter discovering his inner chef. There was also left-hander Robert Gasser, who compiled a 2.57 ERA through his first five big league starts last season before having it all taken away by an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery.
While Frelick was busy adding bulk in Boston, Gasser found himself idle in Arizona, where he faced the prospect of 12-14 months of rehab.
“The first month, I was still riding the high of, ‘OK, I made it.’ Then it sets in,” Gasser said. “You try to make the most of the opportunity, make the most of where you’re at in a given moment. I wanted to be in Milwaukee, I wanted to be pitching, but I had to make the most of what I had. There were definitely some tough times and I had to figure out what I liked to do outside of baseball. It was a time to be a regular person.
“Once I got a grip on that, it started to turn around a little bit.”
What Gasser found is that he likes to cook. His specialties are steaks and fresh-cut baked French fries. He’s also been experimenting with homemade salad dressings.
“I love to golf and fish, but those are two things that are tough to do [after elbow surgery],” Gasser said. “So I got into cooking a lot. I also got into journaling. It keeps my mind busy, I guess. I get in trouble when I just sit there and watch TV and do nothing. That’s when times are boring and tough.”
Gasser has been on a throwing program for the past two months, backing up 15 feet every three weeks. Barring a setback, he will be throwing off the mound in April and hopes to be built up to 3-4 innings by late July. That would put an August return to the Majors in play.
“Obviously setbacks are part of this process, and I’m prepared for that if it happens,” Gasser said. “If not, even better.”