Need to know where the team is staying in Toronto? Wondering what the lineup might look like in an upcoming series? Searching for a scouting report? Check the group chat.<\/p>\n
The answers can usually be found there. And so can sources of inspiration, information and occasional irritation. The chat can supply humor or sartorial guidance. When New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge wanted his teammates to wear suits to the ballpark for the home opener, he did not deliver the message in the clubhouse. He texted the group chat.<\/p>\n
And like the baseball season, when the calendar turns to spring, a fresh chat must bloom. Otherwise, teammates turned rivals can become privy to proprietary intel. So a veteran like New York Mets infielder Marcus Semien can search his phone for evidence of travels across the sport: the 2020 Athletics chat, the 2021 Toronto Blue Jays chat, the chats spread across four seasons with the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to have a group chat, it has to be [a new one] for each year,\u201d Semien said.<\/p>\n
The app of choice depends on the team. Some clubs build iPhone message chains. Others use WhatsApp to stay linked with international players. Some teams pay for bespoke services. In pursuit of consistent contact, at least one big-league team has begun communicating with its players through Slack, nudging the life of a big-league player slightly in the direction of those with laptop jobs.<\/p>\n
These rivers of text can break into wandering tributaries. One day in February, before he left camp to captain Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic, Kansas City Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino chuckled when asked about group-chat etiquette. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m in 27 different group chats of different things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
There was a team-wide chat and a chat for the hitters. There was a text chain for infielders. Earlier in the spring, he had forgotten to bring his helmet to a sliding drill, because he missed the message in the base-running chain. The players, coaches and staff of Team Italy had a chat, but Pasquantino wanted to create a separate chat just for the Azzurri players.<\/p>\n
He shook his head as he outlined the multi-convo pileup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize how confusing our s\u2014 was,\u201d Pasquantino said.<\/p>\n
For many players, the confusion may not arise until switching clubs. The door to a new team can open quickly. About five minutes after his trade from the Philadelphia Phillies was finalized this winter, Royals reliever Matt Strahm received an invitation to the group chat from vice president of major-league team operations Jeff Davenport.<\/p>\n
Other doors can slam shut. After the Baltimore Orioles dealt Ryan O\u2019Hearn to the San Diego Padres last summer, O\u2019Hearn attempted to access Baltimore\u2019s video database to scout an opponent. \u201cAs soon as I tried to log on, my log-in didn\u2019t work anymore,\u201d O\u2019Hearn said. \u201cSo you pretty much get X\u2019d out of everything with the old team really quick, and then (get) added to the new team.\u201d<\/p>\n
And sometimes navigating the new door requires a new app. When the Texas Rangers acquired Merrill Kelly at last season\u2019s deadline, he needed to download Slack, which the Rangers use for scheduling. The mere mention of the platform, the b\u00eate noire of the professional managerial class, can elicit outsized reactions from other players.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo Slack here,\u201d Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick said. \u201cThat\u2019s crazy, that people are on Slack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Traded by the Rangers this past offseason, Semien sounded more sanguine. \u201cI mean, once you get on there, you get notifications, and it\u2019s pretty easy,\u201d Semien said.<\/p>\n
The importance of communication between teams and players is a relatively new phenomenon. Arenado debuted with Colorado in 2013. In those days, he learned if he was playing by checking the lineup posted on the wall. Eventually he became a star, the sort of player who received notice about upcoming days off. It wasn\u2019t until St. Louis acquired him in 2021 that he heard about a scheduling app.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018App, what? OK,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWhen that first happened, I was like, mind-blown, how crazy that was. But it\u2019s so normal now. I text the wrong people all the time now, because I\u2019m in so many group texts.\u201d<\/p>\n
To reduce clutter, clubs such as the Diamondbacks, Boston Red Sox and Washington Nationals use Teamworks, a system designed for sports. (The Rockies have also begun using the service.) Within the platform, players can message each other, while the team can store schedules, scouting reports and H.R. forms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s times where I\u2019ll get something that says \u2018Pitcher\u2019s Meeting,\u2019 and I\u2019ll disregard it, because they must have blasted it out to everybody,\u201d Frelick said.<\/p>\n
The venue can change as the season progresses. In the offseason, Semien explained, the Mets chatted over WhatsApp. In the early going of the regular season, the conversations shifted to the team\u2019s in-house video service. The Houston Astros executed that maneuver in reverse. During spring training, first baseman Christian Walker said, the Astros connect through \u201ca regular, iPhone blue group message.\u201d (What if a player used an Android? \u201cGo get an iPhone,\u201d Walker said.) Once the season starts, the chat moves to WhatsApp.<\/p>\n
\u201cOccasionally, somebody will talk some s\u2014,\u201d Walker said. \u201cLike, we\u2019ll (be) on the runway after landing, sitting on the bus, and somebody will fire off a message about waiting on the coaches\u2019 bags. And the next thing you know, it\u2019s just a waterfall of people talking crap.\u201d<\/p>\n
The staff can facilitate the discourse. The Athletics maintain a WhatsApp chat that includes the players, coaches and team officials. A member of the Athletics communications department will also build separate group chats for the players. The responsibility for removing members from the player-only chat when they get traded or demoted falls upon a veteran like Brent Rooker.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt sucks sometimes,\u201d he said. \u201cIt depends on the situation. If it\u2019s a guy who gets optioned, and we\u2019re expecting him back at some point, you just leave him in. But not a fun thing to have to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2261500936-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Mets starter Kodai Senga checking his phone during spring training. (Rich Storry \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
For some teams, coaches assist with the dialogue.<\/p>\n
Before the season began, Royals director of hitting performance Alec Zumwalt manually built a group text for the expanded roster of hitters at camp. \u201cFor spring training, I had to add everybody, so that\u2019s a ginormous list, 30-some players,\u201d he said. \u201cWhich, half the time, none of them read anyway.\u201d Zumwalt likes to hype up his group, many of whom have spent their entire careers with Kansas City. He prefers the immediacy of a text to a more impersonal platform.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is us communicating,\u201d Zumwalt said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not being overseen by some other entity. Because there\u2019s always that skepticism of \u2018Is something I say here going to be used against me?\u2019 And I think in a text message, for me, personally, I feel like guys drop their guard a little bit more, versus on Slack.\u201d<\/p>\n
That morning at Royals camp, Pasquantino called over pitching coach Brian Sweeney.<\/p>\n
\u201cSweeney,\u201d he said, \u201cyou\u2019re on Slack, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am on Slack,\u201d Sweeney said. But the life of a coach is a bit more convoluted than those of the players. \u201cSo there\u2019s group chats upon group chats,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s so many Slack channels, to coordinate the minor-league side with the major-league side. And then all the information that you might need \u2014 it could be in Dropbox. It could be in OneDrive. It could be in one of your emails.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sweeney was laughing. The job of the coaches, of the front office, of the support staff \u2014 of everything except the guys playing in the games, really \u2014 was to synthesize all those channels.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to consolidate that is really a major-league organization\u2019s biggest issue,\u201d Sweeney said. \u201cBecause you have the information and data to set the players up for the best experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then,\u201d Pasquantino said, \u201cwe\u2019re still going to complain, no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of his final acts as a St. Louis Cardinal, Nolan Arenado picked up his iPhone. Soon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":583441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2317,4818,2111,371,374,479,2318,2319,2320,1230,690,372,373,2321,2322,2323,2324,2325,2326,363,1189,369,480,2240,2328,2329,481,99,1794,1231,974,2330,364,2331],"class_list":{"0":"post-583440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-arizona-diamondbacks","9":"tag-athletics","10":"tag-atlanta-braves","11":"tag-baltimore-orioles","12":"tag-boston-red-sox","13":"tag-chicago-cubs","14":"tag-chicago-white-sox","15":"tag-cincinnati-reds","16":"tag-cleveland-guardians","17":"tag-colorado-rockies","18":"tag-culture","19":"tag-detroit-tigers","20":"tag-houston-astros","21":"tag-kansas-city-royals","22":"tag-los-angeles-angels","23":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","24":"tag-miami-marlins","25":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","26":"tag-minnesota-twins","27":"tag-mlb","28":"tag-new-york-mets","29":"tag-new-york-yankees","30":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","31":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","32":"tag-san-diego-padres","33":"tag-san-francisco-giants","34":"tag-seattle-mariners","35":"tag-sports","36":"tag-sports-business","37":"tag-st-louis-cardinals","38":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","39":"tag-texas-rangers","40":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","41":"tag-washington-nationals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=583440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/583440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/583441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=583440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=583440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=583440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}