GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- On the first official workout of spring training Friday, strength and conditioning coach Joe Kessler broke out a new drill for pitchers.

The official name is performance testing, but what it came down to was a series of sprints that kept going until there was only one man left running. In this case it was lefty Nick Hagadone, who outlasted Zach McAllister to win the competition.

The final four sprinters were Hagadone, McAllister, Cy Young winner Corey Kluber and prospect Ryan Merritt. Manager Terry Francona was backing Merritt.

"I told him he better not quit or he was going to get sent down," said Francona, kiddingly. "I figured he'd give me a pretty good effort."

On Hagadone's last sprint, veteran Scott Atchison raced back onto the field to sprint with him.

"You looked like you had another 10 sprints in you," said Atchison.

Some of the position players, whose first official practice isn't until Tuesday, watched the pitchers run. One was Jason Kipnis.

"I was yelling nothing but encouragement," Kipnis told Atchison.

The position players will go through the same drill.

"Joe and I discussed it in the winter," Francona said. "He wanted to implement some different types of testing with a competitive nature behind it. After he explained it to me, and we walked through it with Millsie (bench coach Brad Mills, who organizes spring training), I really liked it."

Francona thought it was a good exercise because the pitchers were working hard, but laughing and enjoying themselves.

"I didn't see it coming down to Hags and Zach," said Francona. "Everyone else had Hags. He wasn't even tired. He could have kept going.

"And I knew Kluber would be there. I thought he might win."