February 20, 2025 – “This may not be a Major League town yet, but during the offseason, Music City transforms into a big league training ground.”
Last week, MLB.com contributor Ben Weinrib pointed to Nashville’s appeal for yet another aspect of Major League Baseball: offseason training. From prospect to veteran, American League to National League, first-time visitor to Vanderbilt alumnus to homegrown Nashville native,the message is the same: Nashville is the place to be for baseball.
The offseason program began with (pictured, left to right) Jake Burger (Texas Rangers Baseball Club), Vinnie Pasquantino (Kansas City Royals), Brandon Lowe (Tampa Bay Rays) and Brent Rooker (Athletics), friends who have worked out together for years.
Throughout the winter, more leaguemates joined them: veterans Brendan Donovan (St. Louis Cardinals) and Trevor Larnach (Minnesota Twins), early-career players like Curtis Mead (Rays) and Justin Foscue (Rangers) and even shortstop Colson Montgomery (Chicago White Sox, MLB Pipeline’s No. 39-ranked prospect).
The camaraderie and clubhouse-style environment are what resonate most with the players, who learn from one another and support one another throughout the winter … until their Major League Baseball (MLB) teams square off during the season.
“It’s cool to see the transformation that the guys here have taken”, Rooker told Weinrib. “We’ve all been at kind of similar points in our careers together moving up, and it’s been fun to develop and become the caliber of players that we have. It drives competition, it drives development and I think it’s one of the reasons I think a lot of us have had success.”
In addition, development has come from batting practice against an iPitch machine, which can be programmed to deliver pitches with the precise velocity and spin rate of any MLB pitcher and is then set atop a mound to pitch from the pitcher’s exact release point. Pick the pitcher and the pitch, and in just a few minutes, these hitters can now face pitches that they would not have otherwise seen until Spring Training.
“The iPitch is, I feel like, throwing the 100% best pitch every single time, so you’re always seeing that best pitch”, Lowe said. “It’s very nice to be able to simulate stuff like this, so you’re not just seeing 50 mph all offseason. You’re testing yourself, you’re doing whatever you can to kind of improve in any way.”
Nashville continues to thrive among residents and visitors for all types of experiences, including those working out in Music City in preparation for their upcoming MLB season. After welcoming these players during the winter, the Nashville Stars look forward to welcoming them back – not just for offseason training, but for the regular season, with Nashville Stars Baseball Club fans filling the seats.