Fall Instructs, 2024: Day 3.

The players get a break. The coaches get a glimpse.

The Friday plan had been generously laid out for me, even if it wasn’t for the 55 players finishing their 2024 baseball season, for some their first as a pro, with a three-week camp in Surprise. Nearing the end of Week One of the Fall Instructs program, there would be a Competition Day of some undefined sort, pitting four teams — each helmed by a minor-league coach and captained by a Rangers catcher, charged with drafting a roster of teammates, some they shared a uniform with this summer and some they just met Sunday on Report Day — against each other in a few baseball-centric contests of skill, and even more that had nothing to do with baseball at all.

“On the surface, it’s to give these guys a break from the baseball-every-day grind,” says Rangers Director of Player Development Josh Bonifay. “With a little active recovery mixed in, as they get ready to head into their offseasons.”

But there’s more to it. A lot more, actually. There’s a hint of a glint in the eye, a heartbeat in the voice, if you pay close enough attention when you ask the men and women in charge to talk a little bit about the potential imprints that Competition Day can offer up. Even if the players don’t realize it.