Will Robertson was about to experience his first full season as a professional baseball player.
The 2016 Fatima High School graduate had a busy 2019 season. First, he played 54 games as a junior at Creighton, helping the Bluejays to a 41-13 record and an appearance in the NCAA Regionals. Then he was selected in the fourth round of the 2019 MLB Draft by the Toronto Blue Jays and played 61 games that summer with their Single-A affiliate, the Vancouver Canadians.
He was attending his first spring training last month in Dunedin, Fla., when the coronavirus outbreak brought the 2020 preseason to a screeching halt.
"We had about a week and a couple of days under our belt with spring training, doing individual work," Robertson said. "We had started to do live hitting off pitchers. We were getting into a little routine, and it kind of went downhill pretty fast."
Robertson was to report to the Blue Jays' spring training facility March 3, but he arrived a few days early. He was working with the other minor league players who were not on the Blue Jays' 40-man roster for the major league club.
Robertson had been at spring training for about two weeks when the coronavirus pandemic brought about a change of plans, suspending the baseball season.
"There was talk about all the college basketball tournaments starting to get suspended, and teams were backing out of tournaments," Robertson said. "We were obviously following along with that. By Friday, the college baseball season, the NCAA Tournament, was all canceled. Then we started to feel like it was real.
"By Saturday, we weren't even going to the complex, and by Sunday, we were heading home. It was a very quick turnaround, it crept up on us very quickly."
Robertson has been at his parents' home in Loose Creek since March 15. Since then, he has been busy staying in shape, waiting for the announcement of the baseball season to resume.
"I'm lucky enough to have a little workout facility that's down at my grandma's shed," Robertson said. "It has a bunch of weights in it, so I can do all my workouts there."
He also has a 70-foot batting cage in a shed in his parents' backyard, so he can take some swings without having to leave home with the help of his father, Jon, and his younger brother, Ben.
"My dad and my brother have taken turns pitching to me back and forth with doing front toss," Robertson said. "We have a machine that's able to get cranked up pretty high."
Robertson, an outfielder, plays catch and long toss with his father and brother as well.
"I was telling my dad it goes back to the days of high school and growing up, when he was my main coach and main supporter helping you get better," Robertson said. " It's been fun to work out with him and my brother, like the good old days."
Robertson spent plenty of time in the Pacific Northwest last season. Creighton's NCAA Regional was at Oregon State in Corvallis, Ore. As he was flying back to Omaha, Neb., after the season ended, he was drafted by the Blue Jays, and was then assigned to play for their Single-A short-season team in Vancouver.
"It was just so fun and so much emotion built into it," Robertson said. "Then you get to come home and see the family and friends for a couple of days, and then all of a sudden, you're shipped off and playing baseball again."
The Canadians were the only Canada-based team in the Northwest League. Away from the team's home stadium, Robertson played minor league games in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.
"I got to enjoy the road and I got to enjoy the scenery from a bus seat instead of a plane," Robertson said.
He was able to report immediately to Vancouver because he already had a passport. If he hadn't already had one, he would have been assigned to Bluefield, W.Va., home of Toronto's advanced rookie league team, until his passport had been processed to allow him to play for the Canadians.
"I was definitely lucky enough to have a passport so I could get up there and play," he said.
After compiling a .311 batting average with 15 home runs in the spring at Creighton, Robertson got off to a slow start with Vancouver. He collected hits in five of his first seven games, but by July 4, his batting average had dipped to .127.
Robertson said there was an adjustment from college ball to minor league ball.
"I'm the type of player that, if there's something wrong with my swing or if I'm not feeling right, I'm always trying to critique things and trying to adjust," he said. "Sometimes that's the hard part with the professional game. You're always playing every day, so you're not always going to have your best game or be your best that day. You just have to be able to wash it off your back and not take it too much to heart.
"You have to focus on the process of getting better, rather than looking for the results that you're wanting."
Robertson's average began to pick up in July. He hit his first professional home run July 11, a two-run blast to center field. Before long, his average was back above .200, and still climbing.
"Once July hit, I just took deep breaths and let the first month go," he said. "I think with getting drafted and it being such a new thing, the newness of it wore off a little bit and I realized that it's a game, that I'm good enough to be here, and I just let it go."
Following a 10-game hitting streak from July 21-Aug. 2, Robertson had pushed his batting average to .252. He collected three or more hits in three of his final four games of the season to finish with a .268 average, which was second-best on the Canadians. He also led the team with six home runs and 33 RBI.
"I was just glad to be able to finish on a high note," Robertson said. "A lot of people say, 'It's not how you start, it's how you finish.' And I'm glad I got to finish on a pretty good note.
"I was telling my dad when I got home, I wished I could have played for another month, to see how much more I could have done."
With no baseball on the horizon, many minor leaguers are left without work in a sport that offers little pay until a player makes the big leagues. In late March, Major League Baseball agreed to pay its minor leaguers through May 31 during the coronavirus pandemic.
There isn't as much of a burden on a player like Robertson, who received a six-figure signing bonus, but it could take its toll on the players who were selected late in the draft.
"Sometimes you only get signed for $1,000," Robertson said. "It meant a lot to me that those guys got their money's worth, that they got taken care of.
"For me, it's not as big of an issue because I'm still living with mom and dad. I don't have to pay for a place to stay. If I need work, I can work on my grandpa's farm. But a lot of guys that I play with aren't as lucky, and they have to pay for housing. Some of them have fiancées and they're trying to support a family."
Robertson was hopeful he would be promoted this season to either the Blue Jays' Single-A affiliate in Lansing, Mich., or to the team's advanced Single-A team in Dunedin.
"My goal this year, before I left home, was to try to finish the year in Dunedin," he said.
According to mlb.com, Robertson is the 26th-ranked prospect in the Blue Jays' farm system.
"It shows something, but more than anything, it just gives me more drive to keep going," he said.
Had Robertson not been drafted, or had he chosen to return to Creighton for his senior season, it would have been interrupted after the team's first 15 games. He said he talks regularly with some of the seniors who were in his recruiting class, and how the coronavirus affected their season.
"I think the NCAA is doing the right thing with giving them an extra year of eligibility," Robertson said. "I'm happy they at least get the chance to close their careers on the note that they want to."
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