Instructional league or “instructs” is an unofficial title for an annual period, following the conclusion of the minor league baseball season, dedicated to the development of minor league players.
Each organization organizes instructional league differently. Usually, teams will host a group of minor league players and staff in late September, October, and sometimes November at their spring training complex sites. Teams located in close proximity, Arizona or Florida, will play games against each other a few days per week over the period of instructional league.
Players
Clubs choose to invite players to instructional league for a wide range of reasons. Players drafted earlier that season will often go to instructional league to further assimilate to life as a professional baseball player and ensure they understand expectations before the start of their first full professional season.
International players who are deemed developed/mature/ready to make the jump from the DSL to domestic minor leagues in the US will be invited for similar reasoning, helping them prepare for life as a professional baseball player in the United States.
Older players can be invited to instructional league as well. Some will come to continue their development if they missed a large portion of the minor league season due to suspension or injury. Others may come to hone a specific skill or craft, such as learning to throw a new pitch for pitchers.
In some cases, older players will be selected for instructional league to learn a new position (former position player to pitcher, infielder to outfield, etc.) or attempt a drastic change to their playing style (traditional pitcher to sidearm or submariner, hitter to learn switch hitting).
Goals
Despite the differences in structure, schedule, length, and so on between each organization, instructional league aims to improve individual players. Development is the overarching goal for each organization. Players will have individual instruction from their positional coordinators each day.
Another goal of instructional league is to provide a low-stress environment for player development. Many players and coaches have just concluded a 140+ game season and have been playing games nearly every day since the beginning of April, for the newly drafted college players they might have started their respective seasons as early as January.
Bottom line, there is a level of fatigue involved in professional baseball season and teams do not want to burn out or risk injuring players with an intense off-season training camp.
Structure
Most organizations will have similar components for their instructional league schedules. Workouts, including games, individual fielding and hitting sessions, and strength and conditioning training will occur six days a week, with Sundays as a day of rest.
Some clubs will hold instructional league in two or more phases. Usually, one phase will be baseball focused/heavy, with on-field development baseball and traditional baseball games.
Other phases can focus on a variety of individual goals such as weight training, physical conditioning, or mechanical improvements to a player’s biomechanics, to name a few. The on-field baseball-focused phase can last between two and eight weeks, while other phases can be as short as just one week.
Summary
Instructional league is a very important phase of the off-season for players, coaches, and MLB clubs. It provides a condensed period for individual coaching and development of players. Younger players will continue to assimilate into life in professional baseball, older players will tighten up their games with the hope of landing a call to the major leagues in the near future, and clubs get to evaluate players in a much more personal setting.
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