Marlins players jump at the chance to use new goggles in effort to hone defensive skills

Miami Marlins’ first baseman Eric Wagaman is always eager to try out new technology.

So when the Senaptec strobe goggles arrived and were made available to Miami Marlins’ players last Saturday, Wagaman didn’t hesitate to slip on a pair for pregame glove work.

The strobe goggles—equipped with multiple flash patterns and modes—are meant to challenge players during drills and sharpen their focus, the latest tool of what infield defense coach Tyler Smarslok calls a “buffet of options” available to Marlins’ players.

During the six-game homestand that ended Wednesday with a 3-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies, infielders regularly trained with them pregame, alternating between reps with the goggles on and off.

“I’m excited to use them more,” Wagaman said. “Hopefully, maybe even out on the field on full-speed ground balls.”

“I had seen them before but never put them on,” said second baseman Jack Winkler. “I thought it was really cool.”

“I kind of like them,” third baseman Connor Norby said. “It’s just one of the hundreds of ways we’re trying to make training harder. That way the game’s a little bit easier.”

Utility man Javier Sanoja is a fan of them — even after taking a ball off the forehead the other day when the flashing light threw him off. Shortstop Otto Lopez wasn’t quite sold. Smarslok said the feedback has been positive overall.

“They’re challenged by it,” Smarslok said. “They feel it’s locking them in a little bit more during some of the monotony of the routine and then when they take it off, things feel like they’re happening in slow motion, which is kind of what we want.”

The goggles are designed for athletes across multiple sports and help with visual processing and reaction time. Smarslok explained the different settings: side-to-side and up-and-down flashes, one eye or the other closed, and adjustable speed.

“We’re trying to make simple a little more challenging,” Smarslok said. “Without saying ‘Hey, lock it in,’ We’re just locked in a little bit more.”

Wagaman recalled his initial experience.

“I threw them on the first time, and he hit the first ball to me, and I got kind of scared because I didn’t know what to expect — It disrupts your vision and really forces you to lock in,” he said. “Sometimes when it flashes, you can’t even see [the ball] actually going into your glove.”

“It makes you trust that first read with your eyes because you can’t see every hop,” Winkler said. “The huge difference is when you take them off.”

“When I take the glasses off and I do the same drill after, I feel like everything kind of slows down for me,” Norby said.

“It makes a world of difference,” Wagaman noted.

The Marlins are currently limiting use of the goggles to a short-hop glove drill that emphasizes hand-eye coordination, soft hands, and quick reactions. Eventually, they may expand their use to fungo drills — where players field grounders at varying speeds, hops, and directions.

“I can tell you I’ve tested it out already on myself,” Smarslok said. “It’s really, really hard. We’re a ways away from that.”

The idea to bring in the goggles came from Bryson Nakamura, the Marlins’ performance and data integration strategist. Nakamura was director and head sports scientist at Stanford Baseball Science Core for the past three seasons and spent six years with the Milwaukee Brewers. At those stops, he said, the goggles were primarily used for hitting and pitching.

“For me, as a sports scientist, I want to start with the question. The question is the most important,” Nakamura said. “And in this case it was: How do we help our guys with some of our defensive work?”

Marlins’ manager Clayton McCullough said he’s fully behind the new tool.

“Any way we can enhance their training and heighten the focus on drill work, there’s no downside I’m sure to doing that and giving it a shot to see if that helps with some focus and a different level of concentration,” McCullough said. “We’re all up for anything that’s worth trying to see if it helps guys get better.”

“We’re always trying new stuff,” Norby said. “I’ve gotten way better at third base this year and I’m going to continue to get better. It’s just stuff like that, that just helps push that along. It makes it a little bit fun, too. The hard stuff is good, but it can’t always be the boring, tedious stuff. You can make it fun every now and then.”