Adams spent a crucial offseason focusing elsewhere. He toned his 6-foot-3, 260-pound physique and feels “looser” in the field. He polished his defense. He pleased Matheny by buying in on the bunt as an option to exploit the defensive shifts he often faces. And he put his swing, the factor that will ultimately determine if he wins the starting job, under the knife as he worked to stop lunging and resume slugging.

What Adams didn’t know during his self-improvement plan — if he did, he hides it well — was that the race between him and fellow lefty Brandon Moss would welcome another challenger. Spring training has shown that lifetime left fielder Matt Holliday is an increasingly realistic option at first, that his shift to the infield is less about a career extension down the line and more about right now.

Clearly, this is a less than ideal development for Adams. He’s trying to prove he’s the best first baseman, not the best lefthanded option. But the only member of the competition who doesn’t play another position is applying the same offseason mentality that rejuvenated him after a quadriceps injury limited him to 60 games (and five home runs) in 2015 to the challenge that is Holliday’s emergence in 2016.

Adams is attacking his own weaknesses and not worrying about anything else.