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MLB WINTER MEETINGSDecember 10, 2018Chris WoodwardLas Vegas, Nevada Q. Besides the pitching, what other things are you looking at? CHRIS WOODWARD: I think it's just an overall philosophy, an overall vision for the team. The way we're going to play the game I think is important. The culture in the clubhouse, outside of the things we need to address from the players' standpoint. Our ability to make adjustments. Like I've said it many times, our growth, our learning, our players. We have a very young team. That's a big one for me. Obviously we need to win today but also not at the expense of what we're going to do a year from now. My biggest focus for the team is to get them to have a style of play that's going to be successful today and five years from now. Q. J.D. yesterday said this is not a tank situation. How do you reconcile that? CHRIS WOODWARD: Our team, and if you ask every player on our team, which I've had the luxury of, a lot of them are in Dallas, had many conversations with our guys already. They have a little chip on their shoulder. I don't like to put expectations on how many wins, per se, we're going to have. I want our guys to compete. And I want our guys to obviously understand how they're successful, how they're going to be successful, and adjust the flaws that they've had in the past, and we're going to address all those things. When you talk about winning games, there's a way we're going to have to play the game to be competitive. It doesn't matter who we're playing or when we're playing. Our guys are going to go out there with hopefully a conviction about themselves that it doesn't matter. And that's obviously our recipe for success now. It's going to be our recipe for success when we have all the pieces in place to put a championship team together. So I've said it before, but installing that championship belief now is really important. And I've been very, very -- I wouldn't say surprised, very optimistic after learning who our guys are and what they're about and how much desire and how much care they have for one another, it's been really inspiring for me to hear that in turn. These guys want to win. They're not happy with the fact that a lot of people don't expect us to win, which I think is great. Q. How do you view the challenge your team faces in putting together a Major League pitching staff next year? CHRIS WOODWARD: Yeah, it is a challenge. I know J.D. has mentioned it many times: We have to be creative. Obviously we're not done yet. We've got some work, we might do some things here, we might not. Moving forward we're going to have to obviously deal with who we have, and hopefully we have some depth. We're going to rely on some young arms. We're going to have to get them along, wherever they're at right now, we're going to have to push them forward. As long as we push the needle forward they'll be in better shape. They might be put in situations where on other teams they might not be in that situation. Q. When you went in to interview for this job, you saw the challenges ahead of you. Now that you've had time dealing with the organization, is the challenge greater than you thought? CHRIS WOODWARD: I don't think it's greater than I thought. I think we're in a lot better shape than I thought, because I didn't know. Obviously I had a lot of other things going on with the World Series and stuff. I loved what this team is about internally, not only from J.D.'s standpoint, the front office standpoint. But the players, there is a care there that it's really hard to create that. And that's the one thing I believe in probably more than anything is that culture, that care about one another, and they have it. It's going to get us through a lot of difficult times. There's going to be a lot of adversity, and I've told our players that, no matter what team you play on. I played on a World Series team last year, and we had more adversity than I've ever seen in a season. To say we're not going to have adversity, we'd be kidding ourselves. I think these guys are ready for that. I think that's the biggest thing as manager of this team, we're going to have to deal with things we're not comfortable with; whether it's on the field, whether it's off the field, young players struggling, never having gone through the struggle they're going to go through. That's our job as staff and my job as manager to push them through that and make sure they come out better in the end. Q. Cash talked a little bit about the idea that he had no concerns about it one time through or two times through, but whether the philosophy came, we're going to do this long-term, it was a big concern is how we'll keep all these guys fresh. If you approach being creative, do you have any concerns about any of that? What's your perspective on what you're willing to do? CHRIS WOODWARD: I think we've obviously looked at our pitching staff that we have now and the pitching staff that we might have Opening Day. And we can't really -- I couldn't tell you today, because I don't know what our pitching staff is going to be. But we won't have five starters that we can rely on to go 120 pitches. I don't think anybody in baseball has that. We're going to have to do is decide certain days, whether it's the piggyback situation, whether it's an opener, our best way forward is to try to get a W that day. To maximize every guy that we have. To say that we're going to send a guy out there for 80 pitches when he's only good one time through, maybe we can develop him being good two times or three times through. Maybe. That's where we are right now. And we can't ignore the fact that some of these numbers and things make sense. And I don't want our pitchers to think that they have to do something that they're not capable of. I want them to maximize what they're capable of right now. And maybe push them forward to maybe be more than that later on, maybe in a month, two months, they can develop into a two time through the lineup. Q. But in terms of concerns based on what traditional roles are, those are gone? CHRIS WOODWARD: I wouldn't say they're gone. I would ideally like that. I want to develop a guy into a 100-pitch, 7-inning guy. I want to be able to rely on a guy to go out there for that many. I'm not going to ignore what some of the numbers are saying. And I think the important thing is for our players to understand it, too. I think that's the thing that a lot of players get frustrated with nowadays, because they're not informed. I don't mind informing our guys, If you struggle the second time through, let's figure out why. Let's dig into why. Does the velocity drop? Does the spin rate drop? There are a lot of factors. Are you in shape? Can your arm handle it? There are a lot of things we can address with them to help them get through that second time. Q. (Question regarding Japanese player.) CHRIS WOODWARD: Yeah, I think we've obviously looked into him. Had a lot of people to look into him. I think J.D. would know him more than I would. It's obviously an avenue we're looking at right now. And I guess we'll see. I'm not sure where we stand on it at the moment. But it sounds like from everything that I've read he'd be a pretty good asset to have. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS WOODWARD: He's a pretty dynamic player. Ohtani is pretty dynamic. Obviously we're not going to face him this year from a pitching standpoint, we'll have to get him out. To see what he did last year was pretty impressive. I wasn't convinced from the start of the year, from a hitting standpoint, I didn't know how he would hit. The pitching thing, it takes a toll on your body. I didn't think the timing would be there. He proved me and a lot of other people wrong. Hats off to him, because he had a pretty spectacular year that last year. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS WOODWARD: I've talked to a lot of people about this over the last little while. I wouldn't say I'm a heavy proponent of all analytics, all data. But I guess my best analogy would be to say, when you have information available, why not use it? If I was going to gamble and I was going to put millions of dollars at stake, why wouldn't I use every bit of information that allows me to have an advantage. And I think the thing that I want to kind of dispel with our players is that our front office and players are separate. I know that I've played for and coached for organizations where a lot of players had that belief; that everything was kind of designed to go against them as opposed to help them. I want our players to know that everything we do is designed to help them. Every number we crunch, we're going to use it to our advantage and they're going to use it to their advantage, whether it's from analytical data, biomechanical data, everything to make them more efficient and better players. They're going to adopt that. I want them to learn about this stuff because it's important. I would love it if I was a player right now. I would be all in to understanding it. Not only understanding your weaknesses, but also your strengths. What do I do that's better than everybody else in the league? And why am I having so much success? That way we can have sustained success and not just in the short-term. Q. Coaches that have very little Major League playing experience. The fact that your coaching staff has played so little in the Major Leagues, does that cross your mind at all? CHRIS WOODWARD: We addressed it, it came up in conversation. It doesn't bother me. I know as a Major League player for a long time, the best coaches I had, most of them, never played in the Big Leagues or maybe played in the Big Leagues for a short amount of time. So I think the ability to connect, the ability to -- the quality of the person, the character of the person, the kind of coaching that we're trying to create and the knowledge base, these are some of the finest people I've ever been around. When we interviewed them, they blew me away, all of them. Some of them I had prior experience with, some of them I didn't know at all. So when you hear these guys speak and you hear how they communicate, and I know as a player, former player, that this is going to resonate. These guys are going to buy into this. And sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes the best players arguably make some of the -- not the best coaches, just because they have a hard time explaining. They have a hard time understanding that guys can't do what they used to do. And when you're a lesser player or maybe a Minor Leaguer or kind of myself where you're a below-average Big League player, you have to grind so hard, you have to learn about everything. And so your knowledge base is a lot greater than some of the greater players because you have to look outside of your own world. And that honestly has been my -- I've had a lot of success in relating to almost every type of player, pitcher, catcher, infielder, outfielder, from wherever they are in the world. I've always had that ability to relate with that because I've had to look outside myself so much to try to be successful in my own way. So I think that our staff is obviously a very diverse staff, very knowledgeable staff. And tremendous, tremendous human beings, and I think our players are really going to enjoy the time that they spend with them and learn a lot from them. Q. Cash said you guys spent a couple of winters as workout partners. Going into the managerial job, you both have kind of similar backgrounds. You were around for a long time in the Big Leagues, never managed in the Minor Leagues, never managed anywhere. I wonder if there were any conversations you had as players about what the future might hold and whether or not you've reached out to him for pick your brain a little bit on what adjustments need to be made? CHRIS WOODWARD: Yeah, we've talked ever since we stopped playing. He got the bullpen coach job in Cleveland and I was in Seattle. We kept in touch. And very, very similar, I guess, personalities. I picked his brain. He was obviously on the pitching side. He was a catcher. We had many conversations. He was one of the first guys I reached out to. And I will talk to him at some point, obviously. I haven't had a chance to yet. But I will pick his brain on just the things he's had to go through as a young manager, a first-year manager, and now he's however many years. I feel like it's been almost five already, it's crazy. And he's younger than me. There's been a lot of other players that have played for him that have come through -- that I have been in contact with. I've heard their comments about him. I'm not surprised by his success, let's put it that way. He's always kind of pushing the needle forward, very open-minded, very respectful, loves the information. Is just a great person to be around. I knew his culture would be great. When I first played against him in Tampa, we played against that team and that team, I feel like we beat them, but the style that they played with, I knew that they were going to be successful. Q. Go back to what David was asking you about sort of the unconventional hires in baseball. Your former teammate was one. Just generally speaking, teams have become so good at aligning their defenses, pitchers stuff is just so good in general. I wonder if you think there may be some room for growth to catch up for the run prevention? Is there room for teams to look at that differently, think a little bit differently? CHRIS WOODWARD: Absolutely. That's the thing. We need to explore everything to make ourselves successful. So I talk to all of our offensive guys. Every guy is different. My discussion with Delino DeShields is different than Joey Gallo. I guess the reason is the same; we need to score runs. We need to find a way to understand why Justin Verlander is getting us out, how he's getting us out, where he's getting us out, and if we have the option with two strikes or runners in scoring position to expose the defense, we should obviously look into that. Not only mentally look into that, but physically understand how we're going to accomplish that. I can tell Joey Gallo all day to hit a ground ball to left field, but he's got to have a physical way of doing it. It's something that he actually has to practice. Now I'm not asking him to hit a ground ball to left field unless the situation calls for it. And he understands that. His biggest asset is to hit the ball in the seats. So let's figure out a way to be more successful, more efficient in the zone to do that. Whereas Delino DeShields, I don't want him to hit 80 percent ground balls, because the way teams defend now, they're going to figure out where he's hitting it and he will be out. So we still need him to drive the baseball and know how to do that, from a physical standpoint, from a planned standpoint. We've got to try to stay a step ahead of everybody. And it's somewhat easier nowadays because guys are so specific with the way they pitch. If a guy as a TrackMan pitch, he's going to use it, and that's the beautiful thing. If we face Lance McCullers, we know he's going to throw curveballs. Our guys need to know that, understand how we're going to look for it to start, what pitch are we going to look for and where. There's a lot of information we're going to dig into, and I feel like our staff, our two hitting guys are the best I've ever been around, especially Luis. He is on another planet for me, just in his mental ability to reason and get messages through to players, it's phenomenal. Q. That information has been there for years, one of the big obstacles is to simplify it. CHRIS WOODWARD: Of course. And having the ability to physically do it. And that's where like our assistant guy, he's very, very talented, biomechanical, mechanical type hitting coach, we'll get our players to have a plan in how to do it and how to execute it. It's one thing to think about it and say, I'm going to do it, but if you can't physically do it, you're going to get physically exposed, and I think that's where a lot of our guys were last season. Q. How significant has it been in being able to physically show guys, whether it's charts or more complex video? CHRIS WOODWARD: We talked, Luis and I talked at length about this, and Julio on the pitching side, specifically designing game plans for guys, understanding -- it's not just about, Okay, we're facing this guy, this is how he's going to pitch us, and we move on with our day. Every single guy has to have an individual plan on how to attack Justin Verlander or whoever. They need to know how they match up with his strengths and maybe some guys are visual. Maybe some guys want more analytical data. We need to personalize it for them. But I also wanted to challenge them. I don't want them to say, I'm a visual guy, and not ever learn the analytical side. My job is always to keep pushing them. They might be uncomfortable with some of these things at first, but maybe they don't realize in the end, I am an analytical guy. This is going to help me more than the visual. Even though I might think visual is my strength. I want to make them exposed to it. I want them to learn. I want our guys to study it and understand it and believe in it, so when they step out on the field, the last thing they worry about is competing. We still have to compete. All the numbers are numbers. We still have to go out and compete. I think that's the most important thing when we step on the field. Q. Have you had a chance to look at the batting order? CHRIS WOODWARD: Really, I have, just for -- I mean, just for fun exercises, I guess. But I haven't really dug into it as far as what makes the most sense. Obviously I really use some numbers to kind of back up some of those things. I don't necessarily believe in like a set lineup every day, but I do think there's some consistency there that helps. I think players tend to be more successful when there's a little more consistency. Not to say that I won't change the batting order or they shouldn't be ready to change the batting order, but I don't know that I'm going to go nine different guys every day in a different order. I don't think I'm going to do that. I think being a former player, I appreciated it when I knew kind of where I was going to stand. But at the same time I was always ready for anything, and they've got to be ready. Q. (Inaudible.) CHRIS WOODWARD: Yeah, I would think so. It would make sense, even Delino with some speed, if he gets on base more, that obviously makes sense. I think it's pressure. The one thing I've addressed to our team, everything we do, from a hitting standpoint, from a base-running standpoint, from a pitching standpoint, is all pressure. I want to apply the most pressure possible in the most efficient way on the other team, and they should know that. And our guys -- it takes the results out of it. Like I said, you can't look at things as win-loss. We've got to go out and compete, and when we execute we're going to give ourselves a chance to win. When they're defined by their process, they're not going to get caught up in big moments, they're going to look forward to big moments, they're going to be able to start that belief now, whether we win 70, 80, 90, they're going to obviously have a plan for when we do turn the corner and we do become a championship team, that we can handle those big moments and big at-bats. Q. On the run production side, you guys have had several of the players that have been most heavily shifted. Shifting is a real issue of discussion right now. What's your stance on that or what's the stance of the players about what happens? CHRIS WOODWARD: The whole shifting, that's never going to go away. I've heard talks about that, I don't see how they can do it. Maybe they do it and then we have to adjust. I think it's up to each of our players to -- that kind of goes along with how they're pitching you is how they're defending you. I guess Joey is kind of -- we did it in LA, we put four outfielders out there at one at-bat. We looked at all the information and felt it made the most sense. If he hits a ground ball to left field we're doing our job. I've talked to him about it a little bit. It's not that I want him to hit a ground ball to left field. When the situation calls for it, runner on second, two outs and there's nobody on the left side of the field, if he hits a ball off his left index finger, it's not a bad move, because he's going to get a base hit and we're going to score runs. He understood that. I don't want to define him as a, Hey, you've got to beat the shift every time. If you're doing your job, you're going to be more efficient in the zone to hitting the ball in the air. Maybe not as high a trajectory, maybe we're going to lower that to make him have more opportunity to drive the baseball out of the ballpark. But everybody else is -- along those lines, Nomar gets shifted, Odor gets shifted. We've got a ton of lefties, Choo gets shifted at times. When it's there and it's available, sometimes with two strikes, I think that's going to be a big one to maybe have that option available. But like I said, they physically have to know how they're going to accomplish that. It's one thing to say it but it's another to actually know how to do it, especially on high fastballs, high spin fastballs, it's really hard to get on top of those pitches, they have to have a physical way of doing it. And that's something we will address, for sure. Q. Are you putting together your pitching staff with the idea (inaudible)? CHRIS WOODWARD: I don't want to say he's our best -- he's one of our best pitchers, let's put it that way. I would love to have the staff where everything lines up where he's just our closer every day. But he might be too valuable to pitch more than one inning. We don't want to just limit him to however many outings is our closer, where we could maybe pitch him two or three days, if he's capable of that. So I think to limit him just to say he's our closer, I don't think it's fair to him. He's going to be our best pitcher in the biggest situations, the highest leverage situations he might be pitching, whether it's the seventh inning or the ninth inning. I think that's kind of where we're at now. It depends when the season starts, Opening Day, and that's how it lines up, and he's just our closer, great. Because that means we have a pretty significant staff. But to be creative, he might be more a two- or three-inning guy, that can pitch some significant innings for us that gives us more a chance to win more games. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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