Your Regularly Updated Depository Of Red Sox Spring Training Goodness

With respect to weather in Boston, this has been the winter that never was. Maybe you love that! After all, shoveling gets annoying, cleaning salt stains off your shoes and pants gets annoying, and reading the same story over and over again about how people in Southie save the parking spaces they’ve shoveled out — as if Southie is some magically unique realm and the exact same thing doesn’t happen in cities all over the world — gets really annoying.

But bleak, blustery winter days that are so cold that you strain your back doing that weird back-tensing thing we all do to keep warm while walking down the block serve a vital purpose: they make us realize just how freaking wonderful the world is when they slip away. It’s the darkness of winter that makes the light of spring so majestic.

The light of Spring hasn’t quite returned to New England yet, but it’s coming. I know this because my Twitter feed is suddenly filled with pictures and videos of baseball players — and not baseball players holding up jerseys in front of sponsored step-and-repeat backdrops, but doing actual baseball things.

I would argue that the next two weeks, when the trickle of pictures from Fort Myers slowly builds into a flood, make up the best part of Spring Training — better even than the games themselves, which become unbearable slogs just a few innings in.

So, to get you excited for baseball and the Spring to come, we’ll try to collect as many of these images here, updating this post regularly as Jet Blue Park comes back to life. Happy Spring; go Sox.

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February 20

Pedroia! Damn, I don’t think I realized how much I missed him until seeing him back with the boys:

Kenley Jansen’s new pitch clock-compliant motion:

Bobby Bombs with some batting practice swagger:

Visual evidence that Brayan Bello’s arm has not exploded after all (phew!):

And finally: Pedro, just standing there, looking all Pedro-ey:

February 16

James Paxton throwing on a mound. This sight is so rare they could sell this Tweet on Antiques Roadshow:

Who says Yoshida is a defensive liability?!?!?

More Yoshida, this time taking things the other way:

And would you look at that, he’s not too big to help clean up after a workout:

Ryan Brasier, a nation’s punching bag:

February 15

Chris Sale has progressed from flat ground to the mound:

And here he is getting real about the direction his career has taken:

We have our first Rafael Devers sighting. Here he is making sure his hands stay as soft as his cheeks:

And yet another Yoshida sighting. All hail our short king:

Jarren Duran has made some offseason swing adjustments, which, needless to say, was probably a good idea:

God, I hope Kiké wears these glasses during the season:

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February 14

It doesn’t get any more exciting than players casually walking into a building, which must be why this video is paired with a Dropkicks score:

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you proof that James Paxton can throw a baseball without his arm disintegrating into sawdust:

Ryan Brasier throwing batting practice, but this time, during actual batting practice:

John Schreiber popping the mitt:

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February 13

Alex Verdugo shuffling between some cones, while onlookers cheer him on like he’s Secretariat:

February 10

Chris Sale getting that side-winding crow-hop on.

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February 9

Well, if any opposing pitcher attempts to try something radical by attacking the Red Sox lineup with, uh, soft toss, Masataka Yoshida will be ready.

54 seconds of Marcelo Mayer taking cuts at what I assume is his old high school field back in San Diego. He will not be the best Red Sox player ever from San Diego. . . but, theoretically, he could end up being the second-best, while simultaneously being one of the top 10 players of all time, so that’s pretty cool.

Tanner Houck throwing off of flat ground, the second-best type of ground to throw off of.

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February 8

Chris Sale lightly jogging, touching the ground, and turning, all without fracturing three different bones in his lower extremities. Cy Young watch is back on!

WooSox ifielder/outfielder Enmanual Valdez hitting, presumably in the Dominican.

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February 1

Here’s the guy who will unquestionably the most interesting player in Spring Training, Masataka Yoshida, blasting some majestic shots into right-center. Sure, every Major League Baseball player is capable of hitting a ball like that . . . but can they do so while standing on top of the two redwoods Yoshi apparently has for legs??