Canes Get First Taste of Pro Ball

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The 2020 MLB season ended Tuesday, but the future of professional baseball is in action on back fields across America.

While the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series in six games over the Tampa Bay Rays, minor leaguers have begun preparing for the 2021 season. That meant different things for each of the five newest ProCanes: Slade Cecconi, Tyler Keysor, Chris McMahon, Brian Van Belle and Freddy Zamora. But one thing was clear for all of them, their professional careers were officially beginning.

Cecconi was the first in the group to get called into action. The former first-round pick of the Diamondbacks was added to Arizona’s 60-man roster and he reported to the team’s alternate training site (ATS) during the 2020 MLB season.

“I was actually training in West Palm and I got the call while I was in my hotel in the afternoon,” Cecconi said. “I got the call that I was getting added and they had had me fly out the next morning on the first available flight out to Arizona. So, it was it was really, really kind of sudden, which was unexpected, but definitely nice.”

The right-handed pitcher spent two months in Arizona, finishing the MLB regular season at the ATS and staying to participate in the instructional league.

“It was really cool. Actually, I think the week before I got there, there was actually a call up from the 60-man, which was kind of cool to think of and see, just the guys that are right there and are the next generation of players in the big leagues,” Cecconi said.

Three more Hurricanes were invited to instructs, with McMahon and Zamora heading to Arizona to join the Rockies and Brewers, respectively, and Van Belle reporting to the Red Sox’s facility in Fort Myers, Fla., to participate with their instructional league team.

For McMahon and Van Belle, the invitations meant they would get to pitch again for the first time since early March.

“It was really frustrating that we didn’t get to finish the season at Miami and I couldn’t play with my brothers,” Van Belle said. “But at the end of the day, I feel like in any situation, the only thing a person can have control over is their preparation and their effort. Throughout the whole process leading up to the draft and when I signed, I was hyped up for that. I was grateful for the opportunity but after I signed, the main thing I was thinking about was staying prepared and using all my efforts to get better every day and staying ready to go for whatever is to come. So, that’s when I started working out with [Miami strength and conditioning coach H.R. Powell] and just taking every day like it’s my last how I’ve been doing for years now. Thankfully, I was given the opportunity to come here for the instructional league.”

“Obviously just the whole wait for what feels like basically all of 2020 was tough,” McMahon said. “So, finally being able to play some ball with some new teammates now and getting to know the guys the coaches and just being back out on the ball field is just what it comes down to and it’s good to be back.”

Van Belle learned of the possibility of an instructional league through weekly Zoom calls with one of the Red Sox’s minor league pitching coaches, while McMahon received a call three weeks prior to the start of instructs informing him that he was invited. Both players had been training in anticipation of an opportunity to play baseball this year and were happy to learn their dreams would become reality.

“We were just talking week-by-week and I was throwing my bullpens and he said, ‘There may be an instructional league and we don’t know who’s going yet but, if you’re one of those guys, just make sure you’re ready,’” Van Belle said. “And I thought, ‘I’ve been preparing every single day and trying to get back out there and compete.’ Honestly, it’s been since my last start against Pitt since I’ve kind of felt adrenaline at all. And then when the list came out that I was invited to come here, I was ecstatic and I was ready to go.”

“It was a good feeling when you get the phone call and you don’t have to hit the panic button,” McMahon said. “You don’t have to worry about anything it’s like, ‘Okay, let’s go, let’s roll.’ Honestly, it was exciting just because I was getting to start my pro career with a new team and playing ball again.”

Zamora’s instructional league experience is a bit different than the others, as the five-tool shortstop is still rehabbing from a knee injury that kept him out of action for Miami’s abbreviated 2020 season. Despite not being able to play in games, Zamora has enjoyed his time in the desert getting to know his new organization.

“Everything has been great so far,” Zamora said. “To be able to focus on baseball has been really good for me. I’m loving the process and just trying to get back on the field as soon as possible.”

The Miami native got to Arizona in July and had to adjust to temperatures that were routinely over 100 degrees while transitioning his rehab under the direction of Brewers personnel.

“They’re really happy with my progress so far and they always tell me that I’m good where I’m at right now,” Zamora said. “With some stuff, I was ahead of schedule and they were pretty happy with that. They just told me every day to just keep working, keep grinding and know that you’re going to come back better and be a better player.”

Zamora, who will begin fielding ground balls next week, has been hitting and lifting weights in addition to rehabbing his knee. He expects to be fully cleared in about a month, but will not get to play until spring training because instructs will be over by then.

“I’m pretty anxious right now like I want to be playing right now. I wish I could be playing right now in instructs, but I’m excited,” Zamora said. “It’s been a long time, definitely the longest I’ve gone without playing baseball. Thankfully, I’ve had the right people around and I’ve been surrounded by good positivity. I’ve kept my head up this whole process so I’m just excited that it’s close to being completed. Once I get back on the field, I just want to be able to show what I’ve accomplished during this year.”

Keysor is in a unique position, as the right-handed pitcher has been working on strengthening his arm in advance of spring training next year with the Reds.

“It’s more of prehab, I’d say,” Keysor explained. “They sent me out to Arizona right after I signed with them and they did a physical evaluation of me, just like to see where I’m at with my arm and everything. Even though my arm is fine and I have no pain or anything when I throw, there were some things that showed up in MRI that they just wanted to nip in the bud now while we’re not playing and while I’m not throwing. They figured I might as well just be prehabbing and trying to get my arm as healthy as I can ahead of spring training.”

In addition to working out and throwing two bullpens a week, Keysor is finishing his degree at Miami and has his eyes set on graduating in December.

“It’s definitely been kind of weird, but I’m trying to stay as productive as I can,” Keysor said. “In addition to my prehab, I’m doing an internship right now. Since the fall semester started, I’ve been doing about four hours a day so I can graduate on time in December. It’s with a company called Athletes Soul. They’re a nonprofit organization based out of California and what we do is help with the transition period for athletes.”

Standing 6-foot-5, Keysor is a projectable pitcher who has experience starting and coming out of the bullpen. He signed with the Reds because of a familiarity with their organizational philosophy and is already seeing improvement in his delivery while working remotely with their coaches.

“Kyle Boddy, the CFO of Driveline, is a pitching coordinator for the Reds and that’s 100 percent the only reason I went with the Reds when the whole free agent signing was going on,” Keysor said. “I’ve been working with him and his guys over the past few months, just trying to clean some things up in my mechanics. It’s nice because I can just send them video and they see almost everything through video.

“From my previous experience with Driveline, it helped me a lot,” Keysor added. “So, I figured that was the best way for me to be able to develop would be working with someone like that. I had already gotten my feet wet with the whole Driveline atmosphere, going up there this summer after my junior year. My relationship with Kyle is great. Going up until instructs, I was talking to him quite regularly. Now that he is at instructs, it’s not as frequent because he is busy there, but I’ve been working with one of his guys and he is just as good. We’ve made some big strides these past few weeks and I feel great about where I’m at heading into next year.”

For Keysor, that opportunity could come as soon as January. The Reds are hoping to hold a first-year player camp shortly after the new year begins and he is hopeful to participate.

“It will be nice to be out in a team atmosphere and being around a bunch of guys and getting to work with like actual coaches,” Keysor said.

While Keysor will have to wait to officially put on a pro uniform for the first time, several of his former UM teammates had that unforgettable experience recently.

“I walked in there the first day and they told me my locker number and I walked up to it and it was crazy to see my name on the back of a Red Sox jersey,” Van Belle said. “I look back and I think of everything that I had to go through like the obstacles to get here and it just tells me to never to take anything for granted. For me to be here, it’s been a crazy ride and obviously I’m planning on having more to write in the book. To see that was special.

“I took pictures of my locker and sent it to my parents and to a lot of people that mean the most to me,” Van Belle continued. “But at the same time, I took it with a grain of salt because I feel like this is just the beginning. It was a cool moment, but I’m ready to get the ball rolling already.”

For McMahon, who was selected in the second round of the 2020 MLB draft by the Rockies, the experience was made even more special by being in the same locker room MLB stars Nolan Arenado and Charlie Blackmon use during spring training at Salt River Fields.

“We’re lucky enough right now to be in the big league locker room, where spring training is, so it was really cool to see my jersey in my locker and see the McMahon nameplate up top,” McMahon said. “It was pretty special.”

Cecconi got a true big league experience for his first professional outing, taking the mound at the ballpark he hopes to call home in a few years.

“It was awesome and it was even cooler because my first outing was actually at Chase Field, so it was just really cool environment for my first professional outing,” Cecconi said. “It was really cool because it just felt like I was in a position where so many other great pitchers have been and I was just kind of soaking that all in.”

Van Belle’s first time on the mound in a Red Sox uniform brought back memories of his time at Miami.

“I warmed up in the bullpen and literally did my whole game is routine as I would do at Miami. I went back to my whole routine and I was getting those same feelings as I did on Friday nights this past year,” Van Belle said. “Throughout each moment, like long tossing in the outfield I felt those same feelings. I was looking around the stadium and I was envisioning the transition between like Mark Light and JetBlue Park and I was like, ‘I used to do this same exact thing seven months ago in a completely different stadium and it was filled with people and now I’m standing inside of our empty spring training facility.’

“Going through my whole routine and then going to the pregame bullpen, just having those same kinds of feelings and everything as I did at home at Miami was pretty cool,” Van Belle added. “Once I stepped on the game mound, it all came back. I felt the adrenaline in the bullpen, but once I stepped on the mound, it was unreal. It literally felt like it was my first time pitching since I had Tommy John [surgery] in 2016. As soon as the batter stepped in there, I was so excited just to throw a ball and compete and get into that competitive nature again. It was only 20 pitches, but I ended up doing really well so it was a good day overall. Just getting back into that competitive nature was huge. At the beginning, it was kind of hard to control it because I hadn’t felt that since March.”

The adjustment from college to pro ball has been swift for Cecconi, McMahon and Van Belle, as each player has gone from dominating on the mound at Mark Light Field to learning what it’s like to pitch as a professional.

“Learning hitters on the fly has been the biggest adjustment,” McMahon said. “Just reading how they swing and stuff like that based on what you see instead of a scouting report. We don’t really have much of a scouting report like we had at Miami, but it’s kind of it’s good because as a pitcher being able to read those swings and maybe what they’re trying to do and what they like to do based just off of their swings or foul balls and stuff like that can really help you as a pitcher. You can just forget the scouting report a little bit and just go based off that. I think that’s been the biggest adjustment right now is just trying to learn these hitters on the fly and make those adjustments, even within an at-bat.”

Van Belle feels the biggest adjustment from college to professional baseball is how much a player is expected to do on their own and how important self-motivation is to a player’s success.

“Since the day I got here, I noticed that, obviously, it’s different than college. It’s a lot more individualized and you literally have to take the matters into your own hands as far as routine and everything that works for you because there’s really nobody is going to be telling you what to do and pushing you like how it is in college,” Van Belle said. “We have team stretch and we do our throwing and we have certain drills that we do, but you’re really on your own.

“You get here and you can look around and some guys may be sitting at their locker on their phone until team stretch and then other guys are working. You’ll see hitters in the batting cages doing their own routine and then there are other guys that are taking the time on the turf to do mobility and extra stretching before they go out and throw,” Van Belle continued. “I feel like having a routine, which I’ve had since I was in Miami and it was something I always took pride in, that’s something that helped benefit me here because obviously if I didn’t have routine right now I’d probably be lost and I wouldn’t know what to do every day when I get here.”

For Cecconi, the ability to focus on baseball fully allowed him to build off the solid base that he left Miami with after being drafted.

“I liked the adjustment going from college to pro,” Cecconi said. “College is great, but obviously there’s a lot more on your plate with school, workouts and social life and trying to schedule everything around it. When I was at the alternate site, I was really just able to focus on baseball for the first time and it was great.”

Zamora believes his time in Arizona is beneficial now as he finishes his rehab and will be even more important when he returns for spring training.

“It’s benefited me a lot because all the coaches that have come in for instructs have a lot of knowledge to share,” Zamora said. “I’ve just been listening to them, talking to my teammates and just introducing myself to them and learning from them has been nice. Just them knowing who I am and meeting me earlier than expected has been great. If I wasn’t here now, I would have met them in spring training so it’s nice just getting the relationship started with them.

“I think it’s been huge, honestly, because when I first got out here I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know where to go to eat or anything like that. It was a pretty major adjustment process for me,” Zamora added. “Now that I’ll come back in spring training and just knowing the surroundings and where I could go to get food you know all those type of stuff, I think that that’s going to help a lot as far as off the field. Being here is going to help me even more on the field just because I know all the faces now. I’ll be walking in to spring training with confidence because I will know what’s going on. That will allow me to worry about one thing and that is just going out there and playing with full effort.”

Getting to know their new teammates in their respective organizations has been another benefit of attending the instructional league and that is something the new ProCanes have really enjoyed.

“It’s been a cool transition. I’m really happy to be here,” Van Belle said. “There are only 62 guys here and almost everybody here is kind of like a top prospect. Out of all the free agents that signed, there’s only three of us here out of 16 or 17 that the Red Sox got in June. So just knowing that I’m one of the three free agent guys that are here, I told myself, ‘They’re giving you this opportunity to be here, so you better take advantage of it.’ Even though it doesn’t really mean anything like statistics-wise, I’m really big on first impressions. So, since day one — ever since I went to Broward [College] and Miami — I always had that little chip on my shoulder, like no matter what the situation is, try to prevail and prosper and just make the best of it and really separate yourself from everybody else, as well as getting to know everybody and learning the ropes of minor league baseball.”

A team captain at Miami in 2020, Van Belle understands the importance of building a relationship with his teammates and that is why he has tried to connect with his fellow Red Sox ever since he arrived in Fort Myers.

“Just being here with the small amount of people, it’s been good because I got to meet everybody and have a conversation with them,” Van Belle said. “If I was just going straight to spring training with over 150 guys here, it would be extremely hard to even get to meet everybody and have conversations and make impressions for them. But here, every single day I’m trying to have a conversation with people and get to know them, where they’re from, how they got here, all their backstory. Everybody has a different path, but they all led us here into meeting each other so I’m just trying to take advantage of this time and connect with as many people as I can and just learn the ropes.”

McMahon went from being a respected player in Miami’s clubhouse to one of the new guys with the Rockies organization. But the right-handed pitcher is learning from the more experienced players with the Rockies and learning how to do things just like he did when he first arrived at The U as a freshman.

“You kind of have to hit that reset button a little bit like I’m a rookie now, technically,” McMahon said. “It’s my rookie professional baseball year so obviously I don’t know everything about professional baseball and how it works. I’ve got to kind of adjust as I go and try to just make those adjustments as quickly as I can and it’s been a good three weeks of that so far.”

Cecconi got to reconnect with some players who he knew since high school and now they were back together as Diamondbacks.

“There were some people that I had known from high school like [outfielder] Alek Thomas and then when Chris got out there I saw him a couple times because we played each other and that was great,” Cecconi said. “It was just kind of maintaining your own sort of bubble and just being conscious of where you go and who you surround yourself with and trying to stay within boundaries with guys on the team when you’re out of the field and stuff like that.”

With Cecconi back in Florida after reaching his innings limit and the end of instructs approaching quickly, all of Miami’s newest ProCanes are motivated to build off this first taste of pro ball.

“It’s been amazing. I think the people in the Brewers organization are all great. They welcomed me with open arms and they’ve all been super nice,” Zamora said. “If I ever need anything, I can ask any of them for it and the players are all supportive as well. They’re always asking how I’m doing and when I’m going to get cleared. It just shows that they care so it’s been awesome getting drafted into the Brewers organization. I feel like everything happens for a reason and I’m extremely happy with where I’m at right now.”

McMahon added, “It’s a good feeling getting back in the live games, seeing live hitters and just getting that competitive feeling back again, that adrenaline rush again, that routine again week-by-week and each and every single day. It’s good to be back and just trying to learn a lot, learn as much as I can and ask questions so I can be even more prepared when we come back in the spring.”

While Van Belle is working on his craft and cultivating relationships, he also believes he will spend some time after instructs picking up a new hobby that will help him connect with some of his new Red Sox teammates.

“I think the main thing here is just kind of get to know as many people as you can,” Van Belle said. “There have been guys I’ve been hanging out with at the field. We’re not really allowed to hang out outside unless we’re in an outdoor environment. The only thing we’re pretty much allowed to do in an outdoor environment is go golfing and that’s something that I’ve never even done before. So, that’s something I’m definitely going to get into in the future to have more team bonding type of things outside of the baseball field.”

After experiencing the alternate training site and instructional league, Cecconi has his sights set on next year and making an impression every chance he gets to step on the mound.

“They told me that they envision spring training coming up obviously if everything goes smooth, hopefully,” Cecconi said. “For now, they’re just trying to keep me working out. I’m not throwing right now, just staying on a program and then once instructs finishes then they’ll start developing the plan for throwing programs, spring training schedule and so forth. I’m just excited to get my first full season under my belt next year, wherever it may be, and just showcase my abilities.”