Winter Baseball: What to Do Between the Last Game and the First Practice

The last game gets played and the bag goes in the closet. Four months later somebody opens it the night before the first practice.

Winter is the quiet part of the baseball year, and it is the part with the most room in it. Nothing is urgent. The decisions you make between November and February are the ones you get to make carefully, with time to ask questions first.

Bats Plus is an independently owned baseball and softball equipment retailer shipping from Essington, Pennsylvania, and an authorized dealer for every brand we carry. We ship to all 50 states and to overseas US military bases. This is what the off season is good for.

Rest Comes First, and the Governing Bodies Are Specific

Pitch Smart is a joint program from Major League Baseball and USA Baseball. Its guidelines are published by age group, and the off season instruction is direct.

For ages 9 through 12, Pitch Smart advises taking at least four months off from throwing every year, with at least two to three of those months continuous. The guidance for ages 13 and 14 says the same thing. Both age groups also carry annual inning limits, and both recommend playing other sports during the year.

That is the single most useful thing a parent can know about winter. The off season is not wasted time. It is part of the program.

Winter Is When Gear Problems Get Found

A bat that no longer matches the division, a glove the player has outgrown, a certification mark nobody checked. None of those are problems in December. All of them are problems in March.

Pull the bag out now. Read the stamp on the barrel. Put the glove on the player’s hand and see whether it still fits. Ask the league which certification they will require next spring, because divisions differ and requirements change.

Measure the player too. A kid who grew three inches since June is not swinging the same bat, even though nothing about the bat changed. Height, weight, and strength all move over a winter, and manufacturers publish sizing charts by those measurements for their own models.

Write down what you find. A short list in November turns into a calm decision in January.

Bats Plus carries baseball bats from Louisville Slugger, DeMarini, Easton, Rawlings, Marucci, and Combat. Across the category the catalog covers BBCOR, USSSA, and USA stamps, though not every brand carries every stamp. Our baseball gloves come from Rawlings and Wilson.

Cold Weather Changes What You Can Swing

Winter workouts happen. Cages, gyms, garages, and the occasional warm Saturday.

Manufacturers publish temperature guidance for their bats, and it is stricter than most families expect. Rawlings and Combat both warn against using a bat in cold weather. Both name a specific temperature in their published guidance.

That matters for winter. A cage session in an unheated building is exactly the situation the warning describes, and so is an early March game in the northeast. Our guide to cold weather and your baseball bat covers what those manufacturers publish and why.

Leather Needs Attention Before Spring

A glove left in a bag all winter comes out stiff, dry, and sometimes cracked. A glove stored properly comes out ready.

Rawlings and Wilson both publish care and break in guidance for their own gloves. Both are clear that some popular shortcuts cause damage. Winter is also the right time to break in a new glove, because the process takes patience and the season is not waiting.

Our winter glove care guide walks through what the makers recommend and what they warn against.

Frequently Asked Questions About Winter Baseball