The Best Baseball Offseason Workouts for Strength & Agility

Critical to the development of any baseball player is their offseason workouts. Two areas that should be targeted are your strength and agility. Baseball has evolved into a sport where hitting for power is a fundamental component of a player’s progression. To hit for power, you need to focus on your core muscles. That includes your legs, chest, shoulders, and back. Agile players could be better base runners as well as fielders. This article will identify important offseason exercises and drills that will help build your strength and agility.

Benefits of Offseason Workouts

The best time to get stronger and more agile for baseball players is during the offseason, which runs from October through March for most professionals. Many advanced high school and college players have a different time frame for working out. Some play on and off all year. The best time to work on your development is when you aren’t playing. During the season, players conserve their strength and stamina to make it through a long schedule of games. Pushing your limits, which is how you gain strength, is more effective when you can focus only on strength, conditioning, and agility drills. Every athlete in every sport has an offseason workout plan. Baseball players are no different.

Key Components of Offseason Workouts

Years ago, baseball players rested during the offseason. Sometimes, professional players took regular jobs, like selling clothes, to fill their time. The prevailing belief was that getting too muscular and bulky would make them less flexible and hinder their performance. Many players also wanted to supplement their incomes with offseason jobs. Professionals are paid well enough now that they don’t have to work when the season ends. The objective now for offseason workouts is to improve your performance and develop areas of your body that could help reduce injuries. The 3 areas players need to focus on are strength, agility, and baseball-specific skills. Below is a workout plan for the offseason. Remember to always consult with your physician before starting a new exercise program.

The glossary for each of your speed, agility and plyometric drills is as follows:

• Ball Drop: A coach drops a baseball, and the player must spring up from their fielding crouch, run to the ball, and pick it up on the first or second bounce, depending on what the coach instructs them to do. This drill helps them with their reaction time.
• Shuffle Ball React: The coach bounces a baseball onto either side of a player, who’s in a fielding position. The player has to shuffle either to their left or right to field the ball. This drill helps infielders get to balls that are hit to either side of them.
• Acceleration Runs: Start by standing tall and then sprint 90 feet. Work on your form, getting your knees, heels, and toes up with your weight leaning forward. This drill helps batters get out of the batter’s box and start their sprint toward first base after they hit a baseball and put it in play.
• Get Up and Gos: Starting flat on your stomach, get up and run toward your coach after they say, “Go.” The coach will throw the ball to you at around knee level as you run toward them. This drill helps outfielders catch low line drives.
• Ice Skaters: Bend over with both arms dangling in front of you. Hop from one foot to the other foot. When you are hopping from your left foot to your right foot, swing your arm behind your back. Do the opposite when you are hopping from your right foot. This drill helps with your lower body agility.
• Box Jumps: Place a box that’s18 inches high in front of you. Using both feet, jump up to the box platform. For a more challenging experience, use a 24-inch box. This drill helps increase your leg power. 
• Jump Rope: Swing a rope around your body and under your feet. A double jump is when you pass the rope through your feet twice after you jump but before your feet hit the ground. This drill helps improve your cardio fitness and your agility. 

                                             Offseason Baseball Workout Plan

Each strength workout should take about 1 hour. For the weight selection, start with 60% of the maximum amount you can do on your first set, increase it to 70% on your second set, 80% on the third set, and 50% on your final set. For the last set, you should lift until you can’t complete a repetition. For a change, you can alternate a heavy and light workout for each muscle group. You’d increase the repetitions on the light workout days and decrease them on heavy workout days. For instance, you could perform 3 sets of 15 for the leg and chest day on the light days using 50% of your maximum and then finishing doing as many as you can on your 4th set. On heavy days, you could do 4 sets of 6 at 80% of your maximum. The non-strength workouts last around 30 minutes.

Offseason Hitting Drills

Because the regular season is so intense, it’s best to make major changes to your hitting approach in the offseason. For instance, you might want to stand closer to the plate if you’re struggling hitting outside pitches. Bigger adjustments, like changing the plane of your swing or trying to increase your bat speed, should be worked on in the winter months. Below are some drills you can try during the offseason to help your hitting. These drills can be done on the weekend during the offseason.

• Walk Throw: Get into the batter's box with a baseball bat, starting several steps behind the plate. Have the pitcher lob a baseball to the plate. If you’re right-handed, step forward with your left foot and then with your right foot. You should square up as you're moving. Swing at the ball. This drill helps with your rhythm and rotation.  
• Band Turn: Wrap 2 resistance bands around a sturdy pole or piece of equipment and pull the bands down with both hands. You should be facing forward so the bands are behind you.
• High Tee: Put the baseball on a tee at chest height. Swing at the ball on a flat line, hitting the ball to the back of the batting cage. Try not to hit the tee. This drill can help improve your mechanics and help eliminate an uppercut.
• Around the World: Hitting into a net off a tee, hit a ball to left field, right field, and center field. This helps make you a multidimensional hitter. You can also use a pitching machine for this drill.

The offseason is one of the most critical times for improvements for baseball players. There are dozens of drills and exercises you can do to make yourself into a more complete baseball player. Find a routine that works for you and commit to doing it. That’ll help your development and put you in a position to compete with the best baseball players.