Cubs ready for spacious new Wrigley clubhouse

While the Cubs are preparing for the upcoming season in Arizona, work is being done to get the new clubhouse ready at Wrigley Field in time for the home opener on April 11 against the Reds.

This new 30,000 square-foot clubhouse will be the second biggest in baseball, just under the clubhouse at Yankee Stadium -- which includes amenities like touch-screen ThinkPad computers installed in players' lockers.

Former Yankees pitcher Adam Warren is used to spacious surroundings, while many of the Cubs have only known their own clubhouse, which is almost three times smaller than their new one.

“I know with the Yankees you can get lost walking around in that clubhouse it’s so big,” Warren said. “I think it just allows the players to relax a little bit when you have a lot of room to spread out. It feels so cramped in one area. If a guy needs to go get away and be quiet for a little bit or sit in the cafeteria and talk to a bunch of guys, it gives you options. It’s nice that ownership is putting the money in to give us that opportunity.”

Players will also be able to hide more with the new clubhouse, as they often do in New York, so it'll be interesting to see if they'll be as available to talk with the media before games.

Golden Days

Now that he’s going to playing shortstop full-time, Addison Russell can dream about the possibility of winning a Gold Glove.

“That’d be pretty nice,” he said. “I just want to make the plays. I’ll let them judge who wins the Gold Glove. I just do the best I can to help out my pitchers.”

The Giants’ Brandon Crawford won the NL award for shortstops last year and figures to be his strongest competitor, while Andrelton Simmons, who won in 2013 and ’14 with the Braves, was traded to the Angels in the offseason.

Russell said he’s excited to know he’ll be at short full-time, but admitted “there’s a little bit of me saying I want to go over to second base so I can play a little bit over there so I don’t get too dusty over there. Just having something like that in my back pocket I think is more beneficial to me.”

Manager Joe Maddon likes to move his players around, but Ben Zobrist will be the regular second baseman, with Javier Baez and Tommy La Stella also available.

All eyes on Mesa

The media presence at Sloan Park this spring has been far and away the biggest the Cubs have seen since Sammy Sosa was in his prime back at Fitch Park on the other side of town.

But the players know that all the attention on the Cubs can’t distract from their goal of getting ready to play.

“We don’t want it to go too fast this spring,” Anthony Rizzo said. “We’ve got to get ready. We are excited, but we’ve got to be tame too. This is the time of year everyone in every organization is excited. The belief here is a lot higher, but we’ve got a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be when the first game starts. There’s a lot of work to be done.”