The Dodgers and San Diego Padres opening the regular season in Korea this year was a cool spectacle for many — but not everyone. While the teams enjoyed the trip, heading abroad for two regular season games before the start of the year can mess up timing for the players.
Baseball players are creatures of habit, so whenever something changes for them, it can cause a ripple effect. While expanding the game around the globe is crucial, it does come at a price.
Both teams came back to the United States to play multiple exhibition games, which can create a strange mentality for all. Dodgers infielder Miguel Rojas joined The Chris Rose Rotation and discussed how he felt about the team having to go overseas for a few games.
Rose asked Rojas if players discuss aspects like this or if they just take the orders and run with them.
“I feel like we have no say on that. I feel like MLB and the organization are going to do things that are the best for the sport. And what they think is expanding baseball, putting them in a different part of the world, and I think that’s a great thing. But sometimes the players are the ones who are suffering — a really long flight, the jet lag, the things you have to get ready to start the season when you’re not supposed to be starting the season just yet, you know? Other teams are still getting ready, still preparing. You’ve got two starters forcing themselves to get ready maybe a week and a half before the season is starting.”
Both the Dodgers and Padres were thrown into a different timeline than the other teams across baseball, which could cause some changes going forward. As Rojas mentions, the jet lag and early start is problematic, but it’s just another aspect that the players have to push through.
He also discussed that while it was a cool experience, players like Tyler Glasnow had to make their debut with the Dodgers in Korea, not Los Angeles. Especially for Glasnow, who is a hometown kid, it likely took some of the excitement away for him.
“Glasnow, for example, he was throwing his Dodger debut not in L.A., where he’s supposed to be throwing his first start in front of his family and all that. He’s doing it in South Korea. Those are things as a professional player you have to do because that’s your job and you have to do whatever the organization is telling you to do, but at the end of the day it’s a little hard for us to be getting used to something like that, like flying overseas and playing all the way over there just for two games for the regular season, and then coming back.”
One silver lining in this is that the teams didn’t have to fly overseas during the season. They were able to come back for a few days before the start of the regular season, rather than taking the long trip in-season.
If the trip messed with the Dodgers’ timing, they didn’t show it on Opening Day back in America.
The Dodgers dominated the Cardinals, 7-1, on Thursday, and Glasnow looked sharp in his home debut.
Photo Credit: Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports
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