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TEMPE, Ariz. — Tim Anderson pulled an extra-large glove off the top shelf of his locker in the Angels clubhouse, slipped it on his left hand and began pounding his right fist into the massive pocket.
“It feels weird,” he admitted.
Anderson has started 946 regular-season games in the major leagues, all but two at shortstop. But six seasons after leading the American League in hitting and three seasons after his last all-star appearance, Anderson, 31, is fighting this spring to make the Angels roster.
To increase those odds, he’s learning to play the outfield. That explains the oversized glove, which for Anderson felt like a jai alai cesta compared with the modest mitts infielders use.
Ron Washington, a baseball lifer, is still perpetually upbeat despite having spent 55 of his 72 years in the game. And in that time he’s seen a lot.
“EY put that in my locker so I’m going to mess with it a bit,” Anderson said, referencing Angels coach Eric Young Sr., who played the infield and outfield during his all-star career.
“Why limit yourself? Being able to play multiple positions, it’s pretty cool.”
It’s also becoming pretty necessary. With many teams now carrying 12 or 13 pitchers, two catchers and a designated hitter on their 26-man rosters, you don’t have to be a math wizard to know that versatility is now a must for bench players.
“Say your first baseman gets a base hit in a tie game leading off the ninth inning,” said Perry Hill, who coached Seattle’s Dylan Moore to a Gold Glove as a utility player last season. “Well, the guy that goes in to pinch run for him, he needs to know how to play first base so the manager doesn’t have to use a pinch runner and another player.
“It just gives the manager some versatility. He’s got some freedom to manage.”
In recognition of the importance of that versatility, Major League Baseball began awarding Gold Gloves for utility players three years ago. But that trophy should probably feature multiple gloves because playing multiple positions means lugging around extra mitts.
First basemen need to scoop balls out of the dirt so their mitts are large and rounded, more like baskets than gloves. Middle infielders, who must dig the ball out of their gloves quickly on double plays, typically use smaller mitts with shallow pockets while third basemen use larger, meatier gloves to deal with hot shots at the hot corner.
Left-hander Jack Dreyer, who was added to the 40-man roster last November, has made an impression with his pitching and his mastery of Rubik’s Cubes.
In the outfield, meanwhile, where a fraction of an inch can make the difference when attempting a diving catch in the alley or reaching over the wall to bring back a home run, gloves commonly push the major league limits of 13 inches in length and 7¾ inches in width.
Scott Kingery, who played every position but catcher and first base during five seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies before being traded to the Angels in November, has used three different gloves in a season. Moore, the Mariners’ Gold Glove utility man, who has played every position but catcher, uses four: two infield gloves, a first baseman’s mitt and another for the outfield.
“When you were a kid, you just went out there with whatever glove your parents got you and you used that thing until it broke. Then you start using different ones going to different positions and you have to really figure out which one works for you,” Moore said.
“It’s much more technical now.”
But it doesn’t have to be. Hill, the Mariners’ infield coach who has helped eight different players win Gold Gloves in a 27-year career, said comfort should be the most important factor.
“Use a glove that your hand can control,” said Hill, who used the same glove for six minor league seasons, mostly in Mexico. “You can’t be a small-hand guy like me and use a big glove. It’s just not practical. So I would have to use a small glove no matter where I play.”
For many utility players, their gloves are like their children: each is special in its own way and they are all loved equally. But they aren’t always treated equally.
Kingery said he uses the same 12-inch infield glove for at least two seasons before trying to break in a new one while Moore likes his gloves, which are slightly smaller and custom made by Rawlings, to be stiff. So he’ll switch them out in the middle of the season.
Then there are the players who have been with gloves longer than they’ve been with their wives. Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil has used the same mitt since being drafted in 2013, five years before he was married. He still has a ways to go to catch Cookie Rojas, a five-time all-star, who played every position with the same glove during his 16-year career, donating the battered and broken leather mitt to the Hall of Fame when he retired.
Breaking in a new glove can take time, so Hill said many players will take a new glove out for drills and batting practice, softening it up to make it game ready. If they’re in a hurry, Hill said, they’ll go into a batting cage and catch hundreds of balls thrown by a pitching machine.
But there’s more to playing multiple positions than just changing gloves. Anderson played 18 innings at second base for the White Sox in 2023 — making one error in six chances — and found it far less stressful than shortstop.
“At short I feel like you’ve always got something to do,” he said. “It’s like the quarterback, you’ve got to run the field. Second, it’s a lot more chill.”
There are other nuances as well, such as responsibilities on bunts, double plays and relays. Then there’s the way the ball comes off the bat. A right-handed batter can hook the ball to the left side of the diamond and slice it to the right side. That means fielders have to change the way they read a swing and which way they move on their first step.
That’s why Anderson has been taking additional reps at second base and learning to track the ball off the bat in center field.
“There’s different ways to field positionally,” said Moore, who has played most often at second base and in the outfield. “On the left side of the diamond you’re moving from right to left to go to first base and then at second base, you could be moving from left to right to make a play at second base. So there’s different mechanics.”
Anticipating the play before the pitch is thrown can help with that. But even with that, Moore said, a utility player can get caught out of position.
“You get used to where you’re at on the field and what your assignments are and you know most of the time where you should be,” he said. “But every once in a while ... it happens at first base. There’s some weird spots the first baseman has to be.”
But Angels manager Ron Washington, who played all four infield positions during a 10-year playing career, said the biggest hurdle many players face in adapting to a utility role has nothing to do with their tools or their athletic talents.
Much like Lee Smith mentored Troy Percival decades ago, the Angels hope Kenley Jansen can teach hard-throwing reliever Ben Joyce a thing or two.
The biggest challenge, he said, is often mental.
“If you don’t buy in, it’s hard. Because you’re just making an excuse to not do something,” he said. “It’s not hard if you’re the athlete that these kids are. Think about it. They are real good athletes, so why wouldn’t they buy in?
“It only becomes hard if you don’t want to buy in.”
Look at the Dodgers, for example. They had four players play four or more positions on their way to a World Series title last season. Even Mookie Betts, an eight-time All-Star and former MVP, played three positions.
For Betts, that versatility was a plus, not a requirement. Yet for players like Moore, who appeared in a career-high 135 games last season despite hitting .201, being able to play anywhere on the field is a necessity.
“It’s something that’s kept me in the big leagues,” he said. “To be able to be an asset and valuable in ways that our manager can put me out there in any position, it gets you more at-bats.”
It also got him a Gold Glove. Fittingly, the gold lamé-tanned leather mitt mounted on the trophy is different in size from three of the four gloves Moore carries with him to the dugout each game.
