Time to repair, recharge, refocus

Here's what I can tell you about the offseason: If you had a good season, you'll have a good offseason. If you didn't, you'll feel like you have unfinished business. You're glad the season is done, but the angst builds over what went wrong. Most guys I've played with can't separate who they are as a person from who they are as a player. So if you had a bad season, it hurts.

Players begin offseasons in different ways. A young guy who hasn't played a full season in the majors likely will be asked to play winter ball or in one of the fall leagues. The dub believes the player needs some improvement to secure a spot on next year's team. This is a player's first real decision as a major leaguer. Clubs never try to force guys to go to winter ball, but it's understood that declining an invitation is not a good idea.

Other guys are sent to winter ball for a different reason: They were in the big leagues the whole season but didn't get enough at-bats, and the organization believes they need extra work.

Some guys use the offseason to rest or recover. Players who get injured try to wait until the offseason to have surgery. Their first week is spent in the doctor's office--MRIs, X-rays, whatever can be used to diagnose what's wrong.

Most players view winter as a time to unplug. During the season, they're consumed by baseball. Some guys haven't been to their permanent residences since February. Players travel all season, so the last thing they want to do is go somewhere. They use winter to reconnect with the real world.

Husbands and fathers reacquaint themselves with their families. It's not as if they're not involved during the season, but that next game is always on their minds. They have trouble focusing on the fact that it's trash day. In the offseason, there are no excuses.

The first few weeks of the offseason, you're convinced you don't know how you made it through the year and don't know what you possibly could do to make it through another one.

Then you flip on the World Series and see your buddies out there playing for something you had planned for since February.

You get energized seeing your buddies experiencing something without you. So you climb back on the treadmill, get back to the weight room and start thinking about what you can do to help your team win the whole thing.

Because surely next year is your year.

Todd Jones is a reliever for the Marlins. E-mail him at tjones@sportingnews.com

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