SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Mike and Paige Yastrzemski walk out of their rented Scottsdale house at 6:34 a.m. and step into their Jeep.



“Curt said he’d be out in a second,” Mike tells me.



The cycle of the baseball season starts early in February. It’s a nighttime pursuit for most of the year, with games starting around 7 p.m. But the workday is usually done by early afternoon during spring training. That means an early start.



Yastrzemski is up early and his roommate and former teammate, Curt Casali, is just about to leave to drive across the Phoenix metro area to Goodyear and begin his day as a catcher with the Cincinnati Reds.



Casali allowed The Athletic to tag along for a day of spring training on Thursday, to see exactly what it’s like to live the big-league life as he prepares for the 2020 season.



Casali starts his GMC Yukon remotely, letting the car warm up from the 45-degree Arizona pre-dawn morning.