The Arizona Complex League is where many minor league players get their first taste of professional baseball. It’s a circuit built for development and injury rehab that rarely gets national attention.
I visited the Athletics’ ACL complex to sit down with players and coaches. Here’s what I learned.
What Is the Arizona Complex League?
The ACL is a rookie-level circuit of the minor leagues that has operated in Arizona since 1988. It mainly serves as an entry-level league for recently drafted players and international free agents. However, seasoned minor leaguers can also use it to their advantage.
For the A’s, injured prospects always go to the ACL to rehab.
“We have all the guys in our minor league system come here when they’re hurt,” Athletics minor league pitching rehab coordinator Bryan Corey said. “And it’s our job to get them back to health and back out to the affiliates and get on with their careers.”
Corey was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 12th round of the 1993 MLB Draft and played baseball professionally for almost two decades as a pitcher.
The ACL not only is a way for minor leaguers to get in-game action, but also functions as a health and wellness space. Corey helps oversee this.
“The healthy guys try to make sure they stay healthy and stay on top of those treatments and self-care,” Corey said. “And we have tons of stuff here for them to use to help keep their shoulders loose, to help keep their arms loose, and their backs and everything that’s connected with it. So it’s just a chain. And if one thing’s out in the chain, then it kind of throws everything else off sooner or later.”
But for pitchers especially, it’s not just about learning how to stay healthy or even game action. It’s about having the maturity necessary to play this game for a sustained period.
“Pound the zone, learn how to be a professional, and act accordingly,” Athletics ACL pitching coach John Foster said.
What the Athletics Teach
It may seem meticulous to some how much the coaches will nitpick at the lower levels. But it’s all for the player’s development.
“We focus on everything, and it depends on where they are,” Corey said. “If they’ve had a long layoff, then we get them back just into basic throwing, mechanical stuff, get them through drill work and just getting their mechanics back, get their arm built back up, get their bodies built back up.
“And they work with the trainers in the training room to have that aspect of it taken care of by the trainers. Then in the weight room with our strength coaches, it’s a group effort. We handle the part out on the field with the throwing programs and the hitting progressions and the defensive work. We do a lot of the stuff with all the mound work and video, just getting them to try to improve what they’ve been doing.”
What They Learn
A’s prospect Gustavo Rodriguez was in Triple-A before being sent down to rehab at their ACL affiliate. For him, it’s not just about rehabbing; it’s about learning more skills to get to the next level.
“I feel that the approach that I have now and that I have learned while I am here in rehab is that I should better control my pitching,” Rodriguez said. “That is an approach that I should take right now to get to the next level. By controlling my pitching and doing what I did last year, I can take it into this year. That would work for me to get to the next level.”
Rodriguez certainly has the ability. He can throw upper 90s with ease and has a wipeout slider. If he can improve on his control, he could be a dangerous weapon as a reliever in the majors.
But there aren’t as many players from Triple-A coming to the ACL in baseball as a whole. That’s why it’s so important to learn from the wisdom of coaches like Corey and Foster.
“I think having a short memory, especially here in the lower levels of just trying to learn from the bad [is the most important lesson],” Foster said. “So you’ve got to forget about it and move on and carry on. The professional mind, especially as a pitcher, you’ve got to learn your lesson and then take that with you. But you don’t take the bad with you. You take the lesson and then carry on. And hopefully you make fewer mistakes.”
That’s the gritty work of the ACL. It’s not the box scores, but the small, somewhat tedious corrections that get made. For many prospects who crack a big league roster at some point, this is where the foundation starts.
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This article was originally published on HEAVY
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