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Young Mets Discover Unlikely Pals: Yankees
By TIM ROHAN OCT. 18, 2014 -- The New York Times
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Scottsdale Scorpions’ clubhouse is divided into five sections, one for each group of top prospects. On any given day, you may find the San Francisco Giants playing cards in one corner, the Mets lounging and keeping to themselves in their corner, and across the room, in the Yankees’ corner, L. J. Mazzilli freestyle rapping with Dante Bichette Jr. and a few others.
Only here, perhaps, in the Arizona Fall League, can Mets and Yankees coexist as teammates. The other day, Mazzilli, a Mets prospect and the son of the former Met and Yankee Lee Mazzilli, sat at the Yankees’ table trying to choose a song to play on the speakers.
“The Yankees guys got that Yankee swagger,” Mazzilli said. “I gravitated to it.”
Every year, each team sends seven prospects and maybe a few coaches to the league for six weeks of extra work. Some players, as designated by their teams, are guaranteed playing time, and some coaches are guaranteed certain roles. Factoring all that, the league divides the 30 major league organizations into six teams.
Every now and then, the Yankees and the Mets are put on the same team, and some unusual situations arise. A Mets hitting coach gives tips to a Yankees slugger. A Mets outfielder takes batting practice against a Yankees coach. A Mets trainer helps nurse a Yankees player back to full health. And they all acknowledge that they kind of like one another.
When everyone arrived, P. J. Pilittere, a hitting coach in the Yankees organization, joked with the other coaches that the clubhouse looked like an awkward high school dance. All of the players stuck to their corners, their cliques.
Slowly, though, everyone started to branch out. Most of players vaguely knew one another, or at least a few others, from playing in the minors or in college. Being here meant, to some degree, that you had talent. Derek Jeter and Michael Jordan first met while playing in the league in 1994 and became good friends.
The league’s setup also created a mellow environment. The players’ regular seasons had ended, and they were playing games in the desert in front of a few hundred people. They stayed in apartments together and spent their free time hanging around town. One player referred to it as a vacation with some baseball thrown in.
“Nobody’s job is on the line here,” the Mets’ Brandon Nimmo said.
The clubhouse felt light and loose minutes before a recent game. Some players would not make it onto the field until just as the national anthem started. For now, the Yankees were playing music, laughing over an inside joke and carrying on.
Bichette, the son of the former major leaguer by the same name, was asked what everyone else in the room thought of the Yankees, their music and their brashness.
“I’ll tell you one thing,” he said. “They would say that we can hit.”
Across the room, the Mets were watching “Monday Night Football.”
Rob Whalen, a Mets prospect and a lifelong fan of the team, was asked how he felt about having Yankees teammates. Whalen grew up going to Shea Stadium because his grandparents lived in Flushing. His favorite player was Mike Piazza.
“It’s a little weird, but I like it,” Whalen said. “Having guys like Judge on your team, it’s good to have him on your side for once.”
Whalen was referring to Aaron Judge, the Yankees slugger who looks as if he struggles to fit through doorways. He stands 6 feet 7 inches and is listed at 230 pounds.
The Yankees took him in the first round in 2013, but he did not play the rest of the year because of a quadriceps injury. He returned and played this year without problems. Then he felt discomfort during the instructional league, and he arrived here worried about his quad again, wanting to be cautious with his training.
He arrived at the park early, and Debra Iwanow, a trainer in the Mets organization, helped him with his stretches, the cold tub — his whole routine. “Deb’s been great,” Judge said. “She’s bent over backward to help me with anything.”
Judge also approached Valentino Pascucci, the Mets’ 6-6 hitting coach for Class A Savannah, asking for advice on his approach at the plate, as a bigger hitter. They talked about Judge squaring up his body and fighting the urge to pull every pitch.
“When he aims right back up the middle and lets his hands work, it all kind of flows together,” Pascucci said. “He’s obviously fun to watch.”
Pilittere helped Mets hitters, too. He raved about Matt Reynolds’s consistency, Mazzilli’s persistence and Nimmo’s work ethic.
As Pilittere threw batting practice to Nimmo, the crack of the bat sounded firm and sure each time. Afterward, to the side, Nimmo chatted with Pilittere about an adjustment he was tinkering with. As he came off the field, Nimmo proclaimed that of all the coaches, Pilittere threw the best batting practice.
“It’s firm, realistic,” Nimmo said. “He’s consistent.”
Nimmo, like everyone else, was starting to mingle with his other teammates. He had a place just north of Scottsdale with two Pirates, Josh Bell and Tyler Glasnow. He knew Bell because they were drafted the same year and had stayed in touch.
On their day off last Sunday, Nimmo went over to Peter O’Brien’s apartment with Greg Bird, another teammate. Bird knew O’Brien because they were both Yankees prospects, until O’Brien was traded to the Diamondbacks in June for Martin Prado. And Nimmo knew Bird growing up. Nimmo is from Cheyenne, Wyo., and Bird from Aurora, Colo., about two hours away, and they often played against each another.
At O’Brien’s apartment, they grilled steaks, watched a documentary starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and talked baseball. No matter their backgrounds, they could always talk baseball.
“I like all these guys,” Bichette said, looking around the clubhouse. “The Mets might be some of our favorites.”
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