New York Mets

Travis d'Arnaud road tripped from coast to coast for spring training

Published Jan. 18, 2016 12:19 a.m. ET

share

facebookxredditlink

foxsports

Last winter, then-Blue Jays pitcher Daniel Norris made the headlines for essentially living out of his van for the offseason, driving it from Tennessee to Florida for spring training.

This year, New York Mets catcher Travis d'Arnaud did almost the same thing -- except he lived in a 30-foot RV, went coast to coast and had some company.

“We took an RV across the country,” d’Arnaud said in a telephone interview with the New York Daily News. “My last little mini-vacation before things get serious. Just trying something new and it was a cool experience."

D'Arnaud, a native of southern California, was accompanied by his girlfriend, his brother Chase (who recently signed with the Braves) and his girlfriend and lifelong friend Johnathan Johnson (an infielder in the Mets system) and his wife.

During the trip, one stop that stood out to d'Arnaud was early on in Arizona: “I thought waking up in the Grand Canyon on New Year’s Day and going out to see the sunrise on the Canyon was pretty great.”

It's a bit early to get to spring training, as pitchers and catchers report in about a month, but it's a strategy by d'Arnaud to help prevent injuries.

“This is definitely for pre-habbing my body, making sure my alignment is perfect and my imbalances are gone – that’s great for lowering injury risk,” d’Arnaud said. “That’s definitely my goal this year, to do whatever I can to stay on the field as long as I can.”

D'Arnaud slashed .269/.340/.485 with 12 homers in 67 games in 2015.

share

Get more from New York Mets Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

in this topic

New York Mets

Major League Baseball