By Joe Mock
All Rights Reserved on text and photos. A version of this article also appeared in USA TODAY Sports Weekly. Used by permission.
While spring-training exhibition games don’t count in the regular-season standings, don’t tell the fans who flock to Arizona and Florida every spring that they aren’t important.
This is the time they get to bask in weather that’s invariably better than back home, while getting to meet their favorite stars and up-and-coming prospects.
But the early start of spring training is catching fans by surprise.
“Before 2018, with the exception of the World Baseball Classic years, few exhibitions were played before March 1,” says Graham Knight, operator of the Spring Training Connection website. “Now that the regular season annually starts well before the end of March, the new normal is February 21.”
Fans need to plan carefully if they intend to spend their mornings on the back fields of their favorite team’s complex and their afternoons and evenings at exhibition games. To help you decide when to travel and what games to target, here is our summary of highlights for each team from this year’s Cactus League and Grapefruit League schedules.
Keep in mind that Daylight Savings Time (DST) starts in Florida on Sunday, March 8, but the Phoenix area doesn’t recognize DST. The game times listed are local and are subject to change.
St. Patrick’s doubleheader
Fans of the Arizona Diamondbacks can celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by attending two games on Tuesday, March 17 at the team’s spring home at Salt River Fields near Scottsdale. At 1:10, the D-backs will host a split squad of the Chicago White Sox and at 6:10 they’ll play the Grand Canyon University baseball team. Tickets start at $15 for the evening game.
This will be the first year the Atlanta Braves will spend the entire spring at their new complex in North Port, after playing only a single exhibition there last year. Tuesday, March 10 will be a fun day, when the Braves’ split squad will host last year’s World Series runner-up the Astros at 1:05 at CoolToday Park (see photo), then that evening they’ll face the Orioles in Sarasota at 6:05.
Sarasota’s Ed Smith Stadium, spring home of the Baltimore Orioles, was named the best facility for exhibitions in a 2018 study of online reviews. In an interesting change of pace, all fans 60 and over are invited to run the bases following the 6:05 O’s-Braves game in Sarasota on Tuesday, March 10.
A pair of Sox games
The Boston Red Sox sold out all their home exhibitions last year, so if you’re heading to Fort Myers to see them, buy your tickets early. A good chance to catch them twice in the same day will occur Friday, March 20. Their split squads play the Twins at Hammond Stadium on the other side of Fort Myers at 1:05 and against the Orioles in Sarasota at 6:05.
The Chicago Cubs are the perennial attendance leaders in spring training because their fans pour into Mesa from all around the Midwest. Those fans can see their team play twice on Monday, March 2 without leaving Mesa, when the Cubs split their squad to host the Angels at Sloan Park at 1:05 and play the A’s in nearby HoHoKam Stadium at 7:05.
The two biggest draws in the Cactus League visit the Chicago White Sox in Glendale on consecutive days. The Cubs come on Friday, March 13 and the Dodgers, who share the Camelback Ranch complex with the White Sox, on the following day. Both start at 1:05.
Fans of the Cincinnati Reds can head to the bright lights of Las Vegas to see their team face divisional rival the Cubs on Saturday, March 7 and Sunday, March 8. Both games are at 1:05. If those fans like to avoid the desert heat, the Reds play evening games at home in Goodyear on consecutive days, Friday, March 13 against the Rockies and Saturday, March 14 versus the Giants. Both contests start at 6:05.
The Reds and Cubs aren’t the only two teams heading to Las Vegas this spring. The Cleveland Indians will face the A’s at one-year-old Las Vegas Ballpark (see photo) on Saturday, February 29 and Sunday, March 1. Both games are at 1:05.
Twin twinbills for the Rockies
The Colorado Rockies’ schedule features two dates with day-night doubleheaders. One is Friday, March 13 when their split squads host the Padres at Salt River Fields at 1:10 and travel to Goodyear to face off against the Reds at 6:05. Then on Saturday, March 21, they again split their squad to play the Padres in Peoria at 1:10 and host the Brewers at 6:10.
Highlights of the Detroit Tigers’ exhibition schedule include back-to-back days against the Yankees on Saturday, February 29 in Tampa and Sunday, March 1 in Lakeland (both games are at 1:05), and facing the 2019 World Series combatants on consecutive afternoons in West Palm Beach. The Tigers face the Nationals at 1:05 on Sunday, March 8 and the Astros at the same time the following day.
Since coming up short in the World Series, it’s been a rough offseason for the Houston Astros. Twice the Astros face their Fall Classic foe the Nationals on consecutive days in West Palm Beach, where the opponents share a complex. The first two-day event occurs at 6:05 on Saturday, February 22 and at 1:05 the following afternoon.
Fans of the Kansas City Royals had better buy tickets early for the team’s home exhibitions on March 17 and 18, since the opponents are the two biggest draws in Arizona. On St. Patrick’s Day, the Dodgers come to Surprise for a 6:05 contest and the next afternoon, the Royals will host the Cubs at 1:05.
Rendon on display
The Los Angeles Angels, winners of the Anthony Rendon sweepstakes this offseason, have only one evening game during the Arizona part of their spring schedule, when they will host the Giants in Tempe on Friday, March 13 at 6:10. They wind up their exhibition season with three tilts against the Dodgers back in Southern California March 22-24.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have no day-night doubleheaders on their spring schedule, but they do provide their fans a preview of their first regular-season opponent when they host longtime rival the Giants in Glendale on Wednesday, March 4 at 6:05.
The opening weekend of the Miami Marlins’ exhibition season features a visit to the Mets’ upgraded complex in Port St. Lucie at 1:10 on Saturday, February 22. The next day, the defending World Series champs come to Jupiter when the Marlins host the Nationals at 1:05.
The players and fans of the Milwaukee Brewers are enjoying last year’s $60 million in improvements made to the spring-training complex and ballpark (see photo) in the Maryvale area of Phoenix. The team’s split squads host the Dodgers at 1:05 on Thursday, March 19 and play in Peoria against the Mariners at 6:40 that same day. Also, evening games in Maryvale have been extremely rare over the years, but there’s one on Monday, March 9 against the Mariners at 7:05.
Half-price exhibitions
Twice this spring, the Minnesota Twins will offer fans half-priced parking and tickets. The first is at 6:05 on Friday, February 21 when they host the University of Minnesota baseball team in Fort Myers. Monday, March 23 will also be a bargain day when they face their Triple-A team at 12:05.
Fans who visit the Port St. Lucie complex of the New York Mets this spring will discover the old facilities have received a $57 million overhaul. The stadium, now called Clover Park, has upgraded entries, souvenir store, concourses and many of the seats have been replaced. The renovations make their debut on Saturday, February 22 at 1:10 against the Marlins.
No doubt, the New York Yankees will be preparing prized free agent Gerrit Cole for prime time by pitching him in some of their five evening home games, the most of any team this spring. They face the Pirates February 24, the Phillies March 4, the Orioles March 6, the Tigers March 13 and the Pirates again on March 18, all in Tampa. Evening games start at 6:35.
In addition to the team’s two-game stint against the Indians in Las Vegas February 29 and March 1, the schedule for the Oakland A’s features back-to-back evening games on the eastern side of the Valley of the Sun: Wednesday, March 18 against the Rockies at Salt River Fields at 6:40 and the following evening at 7:05 in Scottsdale against the Giants.
New manager Joe Girardi will preside over the Philadelphia Phillies’ spring training for the first time. Fans can see the team play two split-squad contests on the same day when the Phillies host the Pirates in Clearwater at 1:05 on Wednesday, March 4 and that evening in nearby Tampa when they take on the Yankees at 6:35.
Stick around the Sunshine State
Die-hard fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates can take in both spring-training exhibitions and regular-season games on the same trip if they wait until late March to visit Florida. The team closes the exhibition schedule with two games against the Tigers, at home in Bradenton (see photo) at 1:05 on Monday, March 23 and in Lakeland the following day at 12:35. The Bucs then open the regular season in nearby St. Petersburg against the Rays at 4:10 on Thursday, March 26.
An early highlight of the San Diego Padres’ exhibition season happens when they host the Cubs at 6:40 on Friday, February 28 in Peoria. Fans can catch two Padres games in one day on Wednesday, March 18 when their split squads travel to nearby Glendale to face the Dodgers at 1:05 and host the Reds at 6:40.
After 13 springs with Bruce Boche at the helm, the San Francisco Giants will not only have a new manager (Gabe Kapler) but also the first woman on a Major League coaching staff, Alyssa Nakken. A big date on the team’s spring schedule is Tuesday, March 10, when they host the Cubs at 1:05 in Scottsdale.
If fans of the Seattle Mariners prefer to avoid the afternoon sun, they’ll enjoy three straight evening games, the first two of which are on their home turf in Peoria: Thursday, March 19 versus the Brewers’ split squad at 6:40; at the same time the following night against the Diamondbacks; and Saturday, March 21 at 6:05 at Goodyear versus the Indians.
The St. Louis Cardinals have a large following in Florida each spring, and those fans will enjoy Thursday, March 5 when the Cards split their squad to host the Mets in Jupiter at 1:05 and then travel 12 miles to West Palm Beach to play the Nationals at 6:05. Roger Dean Stadium (see photo) in Jupiter, by the way, is scheduled to receive over $100 million in upgrades over the next two years.
There are only two evening games on the spring schedule of the Tampa Bay Rays, both of which are at home in Port Charlotte. The first is on Saturday, February 29 at 6:05 against the Braves and the other is a big contest against the Red Sox on Wednesday, March 11 at 6:35.
New grass
The first 13 home exhibitions for the Texas Rangers will be at their familiar confines in Surprise. On March 23, they come home to Arlington, TX to face the Cardinals at 7:05 at the brand-new $1.1 billion Globe Life Field. “Like our fans, our players and staff will also be getting used to a new facility. Everything including synthetic grass will be brand new,” says the Rangers’ Executive VP of Business Operations Rob Matwick. “Our players have seen portions of the space while under construction, but not in game conditions.”
The Toronto Blue Jays will also be surrounded by nicer facilities when they play their first home exhibition of the spring at 1:07 Monday, February 24 against the Braves. The Jays’ training complex and TD Ballpark in Dunedin received $102 million in upgrades over the past year. The park now has a boardwalk around the outfield and an increased capacity of 8,500.
The Washington Nationals will be conducting their first spring training as World Series champions. They’ll waste no time in facing off against their Fall Classic opponent, when the Nats and Astros kick off the exhibition schedule at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches at 6:05 on Saturday, February 22. The October foes share the complex in West Palm Beach.