FORT MYERS, FLA. – The Twins play split-squad games Monday, which means half the team will remain at Hammond Stadium to face the Atlanta Braves and half the team will travel to Sarasota to battle the Baltimore Orioles. Separate rosters were posted in the Twins clubhouse Sunday to let everyone know which game they will play.

Like his teammates, José Miranda checked those rosters. But he knew it wasn't really necessary.

"I've only been in the league a year and a half," Miranda said. "Of course I'm on the road."

Travel is a central part of any ballplayer's life, but Grapefruit League games are in a category of their own — and the Twins' reality, given that Fort Myers is the southernmost spring training outpost in Florida, is among the most extreme. Minnesota will play 16 road games this spring, chartering buses from Hammond Stadium to each opponent's park on the morning of each game, departing as early as 7:30 a.m. for the longest trips.

By the time the 2024 season begins, those buses will have logged 2,612 miles round trip, or about 1,000 more miles than it would take to drive to Target Field. And all those dozens of hours spent slogging up and down Florida's busy freeways won't be shared equally. Far from it.

"Veterans get to stay home, but you know that coming in," said outfielder Matt Wallner, who has spent only 111 days in the major leagues — and has watched more than 2,000 miles of Florida scenery roll by, just in the last two springs alone. "I don't have a problem with that. I feel like it's part of getting ready for the season."

Yes, but players like Carlos Correa, Byron Buxton and Max Kepler get ready almost exclusively in Fort Myers. Except for the Twins' spring finale in Bradenton last year, after which the entire team flew to Kansas City from Tampa, Correa hasn't appeared in a spring road game since 2022 and hasn't had to travel more than an hour from camp since he was with the Houston Astros in 2020.

Kepler hasn't left Fort Myers since 2022, and Buxton's last game that required a ride of more than an hour was in 2019.

Miranda and rookie Austin Martin, on the other hand, have traveled 912 miles already this spring and will log another 176 on Monday — with the longest trip of the spring, 143 miles each way to the St. Louis Cardinals' camp on the Atlantic Coast side of the state, looming Tuesday.

"We take it into account as the spring goes on. A guy who's been on every trip, we'll look for ways to get him into a home game when possible," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "We understand there's a fatigue factor."

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This isn't a problem in Arizona, where all 15 Cactus League teams train in greater Phoenix and the longest trip possible is 45 miles each way, or shorter than every Twins spring trip except games against the Boston Red Sox. But fatigue is a big enough factor that the Twins will send a pitcher whose turn to pitch falls on a road game to that city the night before, to avoid getting stiff on a long bus ride. Bailey Ober, for instance, spent Friday in a Clearwater hotel before facing the Philadelphia Phillies the next day.

The bus rides are predictably quiet, players say, with several trying to sleep, and some reading or watching TV on iPads. "It might be far-fetched, but I'm going to guess a few of them are on their phones a little bit," Baldelli said with a laugh, but he insists that there not be a baseball component to the drive. "It's time for them to clear their heads, to have a little quiet."

And if you've got enough seniority, you can even drive yourself to the road games, and head home as soon as you're out of the game.

"That's what I do. I put on some music and just drive," Miranda said. "The early hours can be tough. I look forward to playing more home games, but I'm happy to play wherever they want me to."