Someone’s first spring in big league camp is supposed to be about learning. But this year offers an unusual twist: Maybe it can also be about teaching.
Take Rays third base coach Brady Williams. This is his first year in the gig—his first season on a big league staff in any capacity. He spent the last four years as the manager of the Durham Bulls in Triple A and the decade before that working his way up the organization beginning at the lowest levels. Which, ordinarily, would mean soaking up as much as possible from everyone around him this year. But this season? The dynamic is reversed: Williams may be the most junior member of this coaching staff, but he’s also the one person who has substantive experience with the new rules, such as the pitch clock and shift ban.
Those rules were originally tested last year in Triple A. (So were others like the limitation on pickoff moves and larger bases.) This means the closest a team can get to an expert is someone who just got called up. That dynamic applies on the roster with younger players helping out veterans. But it’s especially important on the coaching staff—where teams are trying to figure out not just how to adjust to the rules, but also how best to communicate those adjustments to their players and how to get the most out of the new landscape strategically.
