While we typically have to wait for at least part of the regular season to play out in order to truly understand what, if any, impact a new face will actually have on his new team, the work begins in earnest during spring training.
It matters not if it’s a coach, a manager or a player, for the groundwork that’s laid during the exhibition season goes a long way toward dictating whether that impact will ultimately be felt (and viewed) as a positive or negative one.
Among the multitudes of people who changed uniforms this winter, five stand out above the rest as those who will have the biggest spring impacts. Let’s meet them, shall we?