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MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 11, 2018

Torey Lovullo

Las Vegas, Nevada

Q. Can you tell us from your perspective what that conversation was like with Paul at your house?
TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, it was different than anything I've been associated with in this game. And inside of my baseball life, it was probably one of the hardest days I ever had.

I knew it was a possibility. I got the phone call that morning that it was going to happen. And Mike wanted to tell him face to face, which I thought was a pretty honorable thing. Sometimes in those situations you'll tell somebody over the phone or somebody else may deliver a message.

He said, I want to tell him face to face, we were trying to figure out the best spot. So sat him down. Mike informed him that the trade had been made, and Paul took it in stride, as good as you possibly could have. I know your mind starts racing at that point.

And he was -- in typical Paul form, he was already pushing forward and thinking about the future rather than dwelling on some of the things that did or didn't happen the way that they were supposed to.

And it was a sad moment for me. I didn't talk a lot because I probably couldn't. And I had a little bit of a conversation with him once Mike left that I'd like to keep private, but it meant a lot to me, and I got a little more color to the picture.

One of the things I did share is that he felt like there was so much unfinished business in Arizona. He felt bad about that. So I had to reassure him that he left everything he had on the field. The culture that he helped us and me create will be carried on, and one day, when we do win a world championship, he's going to be a part of that, even though he won't be there physically.

Q. Great impact of that loss as it goes forward?
TOREY LOVULLO: The great impact of the loss. I think you fight to get over those things, you have a once-in-a-generation type of player in front of you. For a lot of reasons, physically and fundamentally, he's off the charts. He's just such a special human being.

When that steps out of your environment, it's a hard thing to get used to. But we know that it's post Paul now and we've got to start pressing on for 2019, which is what we're doing right now.

The last things we were talking about was wishing each other luck. And he's going to win a World Series, no doubt in my mind, because he's very forward thinking and that's what he wants to do.

And it's unfortunate what happened in a Diamondback uniform and hopefully won't happen in my baseball lifetime, hopefully we win them more -- win them before he does.

Q. As a manager, when you have a player like him, GM is considered trading him, obviously the GM has to consider a longer term picture than you do. You obviously know Mike real well. Is part of it going, Please don't? Like, I want him at first base?
TOREY LOVULLO: Right. I'm probably a little more emotionally attached to Paul and this decision as I am with every player. So when something like that is taking place, it's hard for me to see it the way Mike does. But that's his job. He's flying 30,000 feet above it, and he knows what the overall perspective is.

And I trust him. I trust where this organization is going. And it's his vision. I believe in that. So when he's informing me about some of the thoughts that he's having, I support him.

I will give him my thoughts. And I know that he takes them and uses them to make his decision. He's going to make the final decision on the personnel, and that's how it should be.

But, yes, I had spoken to Mike about reconsidering several times. But as I was getting informed through the process, I know why Mike did that, and I trust the reason why he did that.

Q. When you guys talked, did you sense any sort of he had a sense of an inevitability that something was going to happen, being in this situation?
TOREY LOVULLO: I felt he had that vision and he knew what he had to get done for the good of this organization moving forward to sustain winning.

Q. Paul.
TOREY LOVULLO: I'm sorry, can you rephrase the question? I was thinking totally Mike.

Q. Did he have a sense of that inevitability from his perspective, from the sense that he knew something?
TOREY LOVULLO: Without going into a lot of detail, yes. Yes, I felt like at a certain point he felt like something was going to happen, yes.

Q. With A.J. Pollock, his injury history, how did you approach that from a short-term or immediate-term perspective from maybe pure extra days off and both the bigger picture, season planning, how much you can count on him over 162?
TOREY LOVULLO: A.J. is a very dynamic player. And for the first month and a half of the season, before he got injured -- right? Was it mid-May? -- he was the best player in the National League. I saw it hands down every single night.

I knew there was a history of injuries. Several times it was not his fault. The injury that occurred this past year, it was him trying to make a play, and he broke his wrist. That's just part of his personality.

So I felt like it was my responsibility as it is for every athlete that I have to protect them. I believe in the medical team's research that they're doing behind the scenes to give players the rest they need and then go full throttle at some point during the year.

With A.J. I was doing my best, as I would with any player, to make sure that they were on the field for the most important time of the year. It just didn't work out this past year because it was a normal injury with him diving for a baseball.

Like I said, A.J. is a very dynamic player. He's a very special player. He can do a lot of things on both sides of the ball. When he was gone, we missed him drastically.

Q. What are the Nationals getting in Patrick Corbin, and why, year over year, did he have such a strikeout spike, in particular, during the last two years?
TOREY LOVULLO: Well, I feel like, first of all, Patrick deserves so much the credit for believing in himself after a tough '16, I think he was sent to the bullpen. In '17 he started to develop a lot of confidence in a couple different pitches that he was landing at any time. And that's all that hard work that he's putting in behind the scenes to make good things happen.

He believed in scouting reports. He believed in pitching plans that we put in place. And he was starting to have a lot of success that he carried over into 2018.

When I first met Patrick, he had a lot on his mind. He was frustrated by a lot of things and maybe being a little bit misunderstood. I encouraged him to be himself and trust those around him. He did that.

He had a couple of pitching coaches and really good catching corps that he developed a strong relationship with. And you could see it yielded very, very good results.

So Washington is getting a very special player. We're going to miss him in Arizona. We knew that was a strong possibility that was going to happen.

I know he's ready to anchor a very, very good pitching staff. Nothing against Max Scherzer, but I think they've got two very complete pitchers right now.

Q. Did he buy into analytics further? Did you have to get him to go in that direction? Is that what you're referring to?
TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I think at the beginning when we were bringing some new normals into the organization, the start of the '17 -- more specifically, in Spring Training '17, he was kind of resisting it and he was going to rely on some of the things that he was good at that worked prior to that point in his career.

But the more he trusted and began to develop relationships with very important people inside of that, inside of that pitching room, he started to see some really good results.

So I know that, like I said, he delivered the pitches. He made all good things happen by him going on the mound and dialling it up. But he went out there with a lot of confidence, had a great plan in follow-up. Took some time for him to develop that relationship, and it became very powerful.

Q. Because pitching analytics and hitting analytics have become a big part of the game, because of that we've had some nontraditional coaching staff hires in baseball recently. Like what does that mean going forward? Is it really going to impact the game that much?
TOREY LOVULLO: I think what it means you're trying to put the best people in the best positions no matter what their backgrounds are. If they're going to have the ability to teach and get in front of people, whether they played the game or not, it's not going to matter.

So I think it's a special place where baseball is heading. And it doesn't matter. You could have landed on Mars and lived there for 25 years, if you're going to help us score runs or prevent us from scoring runs, we're going to consider hiring you. If you're going to fit the position that we need.

So I might be kind of like a transitional guy. I played a long time ago where there was more of the cowboy mentality. And I've transitioned into today's game. And I know that if you get as much information as possible to make the best decision moving forward or give yourself the best teaching tool possible to relay to a player, it's going to give you a distinct advantage.

Q. Is this something that could have occurred a few years ago, or are we turning a corner where players are responding to nontraditional hires?
TOREY LOVULLO: I think we have a traditional process. I don't know who the pioneers were. I know Bill James obviously was someone at the forefront of it, and he gets a lot of credit. But I'm sure there were a lot of people way back in the day that were doing things behind the scenes that nobody knew about. But today you're seeing it play out in work and pay dividends quickly.

So I feel like it could have happened at any time, but now it's right there in front of us and it's very public. But it's been happening in baseball in different ways and different circles at different times.

Q. You guys have obviously, in terms of your coaching staff, had wholesale changes in terms of the hitting coaches.
TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah.

Q. How do you think things are going to be different just in terms of the instruction and how guys are being worked with and what they're being kind of coached on and that kind of thing?
TOREY LOVULLO: We're looking at two things in that area: We're looking at run production and run prevention. So we're going to try to build the best team we can on each side of that. And last year was a little bit of a learning experience for me because we had a team of -- example, a team of three hitting coaches. In '17 we had a team of four pitching coaches that were instructing and moving forward.

So I feel like we're going to try to build the best unit possible to deliver the best messages the best way we know how to enhance both sides of that equation.

I'm always looking for the best teachers possible, which means to me the ones -- you know the things that are important to me, the ones who can communicate, the ones who listen, the ones that know how to articulate and get points across at the right time, the right way.

We have a really good team of guys right now. Darnell Coles we're really excited about. Eric Hinske has also jumped on board as the assistant hitting coach. Those were two very careful hires. We spent a lot of time with those guys.

And I know that I've said it. I connected immediately with Darnell. And he had a great way of getting his point across to me, and he sounded like he had a great process.

We'll watch it play out right now. We're looking forward to a very healthy 2019 spring.

Q. What role do you see for Carson Kelly and Luke Weaver?
TOREY LOVULLO: They're going to both step in have immediate impacts at the Big League level. What level, we're not sure. And that's what we're looking for. And it's up to them to come out and perform and be ready.

And I think they will. I know they're super excited to be here, be in this organization with the opportunity that they're getting, the opportunity that we're talking about. Specifically with Weaver, there's a lot of upside. I know it wasn't a tremendous year for them.

Everybody says the change of scenery will do him good. He would have had a great season if he was in St. Louis as well. A lot of horsepower. There's two extra pitches he can throw and control. We're really super excited about his ability to come in and be a part of the staff.

With Carson, I know a lot of people publicly felt he was blocked by Yadi. It will be a way for him to get out from underneath one of the best catchers of all time and do his own thing his own way.

That's what I encourage both guys -- well, specifically Carson -- to do, is go out and let his personality express itself and be himself as quickly as possible.

So we're super excited to have those guys, as well as the others that we've acquired. But I think specifically those two guys are going to find themselves in a big mix this year for us.

Q. Do you see a possibility of pressure for them to perform because of where they came from? And as a manager, how do you address that, if so?
TOREY LOVULLO: I've already talked to both players about that very particular point. They know who they're traded for. It's obvious. One of the best players in the National League. And they gotta block that out and just be themselves as quickly as they possibly can. Not try to validate things. You try to validate things in this game, you get into the have-tos in this game, you'll back up.

I told them to be themselves quick as possible, become part of the special family we have in Arizona, and let their talents play out the way they know how.

We've targeted these guys. We know a lot about these guys. We've asked a lot of questions about these guys. We know what they're about. We know who they are. We know what they're capable of doing. They don't need to be anything better than what they already are.

Q. Among the Japanese players, most of the people are talking about Yoshi Hirano this year, but Ohtani is also pretty good. Could you talk about him and why he's had success?
TOREY LOVULLO: Unfortunately, we didn't see Ohtani a lot. He was in the other league. I know he had a tremendous year. You're right, we feel Yoshi was a special former for us this year.

He was a very important part of the back end of our bullpen that carried us got us to where we were toward the end of the season. Offensively we had a challenged year, and we put a lot of pressure on those guys, and they responded extremely well.

In particular with Yoshi, it's hard to come over from another culture and integrate yourself to be a good teammate. But he had a tremendous personality; he fit right into this group of guys. And I know that was important to him.

Then his talents on the field played out as well. He went out with an aggressive fastball mentality and a second great secondary pitch and trusted the process we're talking about with our analytics team and made pitches, made big pitches, and got big outs all year long. We wouldn't have been as good as we were without Yoshi.

Q. Is there anything you can share on Mike Bell's candidacy with the Orioles and what he might bring to a Major League dugout?
TOREY LOVULLO: You know, I'm a huge fan of Mike Bell. I'm a huge fan of anybody with the last name Bell. How can you not be?

I know he's had a lot of history in this game, he's learned from some very important people in this game. And he's got a great baseball mind that could work in any situation in any environment.

And wherever he lands, if he becomes Big League manager sooner than later, he'll be a tremendous asset to the organization.

Q. You mentioned the pressure talking to Carson Kelly about the pressure. What about the other side of that equation? Paul's going to an organization you obviously know well, to a team that hasn't been in the playoffs in three years; he's going to be asked to deliver that team to the playoffs. How do you think he'll respond to those kinds of expectations?
TOREY LOVULLO: Without a doubt he's going to check every box and ace the exam. I'm a huge Paul Goldschmidt fan, not because of his ability to hit a ball out of the ballpark at any time, in any situation; it's his ability to be accountable and step up in any environment and slow things down and follow the process that he believes in that he knows is going to be successful.

He's not going to get too high or too low. He's going to be the professional that he is every single day and has been up to this point in his career that's going to be a great example of those around him, and he's going to uplift that entire organization. He's going to make every player around him better.

Q. You've had playoff races. Have you seen him rise to that occasion?
TOREY LOVULLO: I have. I've seen him have some big moments. But that same big moment he's practiced for on the backfields I've seen him do it the same way there as he does in the game. And the best part about it is I've seen the same result. He'll hit a home run in batting practice, it will look exactly the same as him hitting a home run in the Wild Card Game. Nothing changes his demeanor, and that's pretty special.

Q. After your first season at Arizona, was there any adjustments that you made that you felt made you a better manager this past year?
TOREY LOVULLO: I learned a few things this past year that I was probably a little late to the party every once in a while with making some changes. I believe in the player's ability to perform, and I would let things linger maybe a little bit longer than they should have.

And I'll key in on that. I feel like that's something that I learned from '17 to '18 that's going to help me be a better manager.

But I'm just myself every single day. I try to make good baseball decisions based on the information I'm getting in front of me, based on the instincts I believe in, baseball instincts I believe in and gather the staff around me to make the best decision possible.

There's no secret formula to what managers do. That's what I do every single day, but there's subtle adjustments that I'll probably pay attention to this coming year.

Q. Getting back to Mike Bell, what has he brought specifically on the player development side? He gets that job, he's going to be embarking on a pretty heavy --
TOREY LOVULLO: Well, I know that he has a very thorough process that he believes in. He has a tremendous vision of what he wants his staff members to do to teach the players. And he feel like once our players get into player development, they're in very good hands about what it's going to take to be an Arizona Diamondback.

He doesn't come off of that. He's a very organized leader that communicates extremely well. I feel like the baseball part of it will speak for itself. I know he hasn't been in the dugout as a manager, but that's something you can learn rather quickly. It's those other things, those other intangibles that you bring to the table that make you special.

He's got a great personality. He's got a special way to deliver messages and a special way to communicate with guys.

Q. With relievers, generally, and their year-to-year volatility, why do you think that happens, and what challenge does that present in trying to build a ballclub?
TOREY LOVULLO: Well, I think the teams go with the hot hand. If you feel good that day and you can verbalize that, you're going to go. You're ready to go. That can be dangerous, we try to limit guys working more than three days in a way. After two days we pay attention to it. We pay attention to warm-up routines, and we calculate everything to eliminate the idea of pitchers wearing down short term, which would be in August and September, the important months of the season; and long term, that they're going to last more than three or four years.

We believe in treating players the best way we know how to let them form at a maximum capacity for as long as possible.

So I just know that and the older generations of baseball, you would take a couple of Advil and say I'm good and you could never ever talk about not wanting the baseball.

I ask players to be honest with me from day one of me getting the job. So my relationships with them lead me to get their best answer on a certain day. And when they're gray, they're gray; and if they can't go, I make the decision there.

Q. Do you think it boils down to overuse?
TOREY LOVULLO: Yes, definitely overuse is what's going to shorten the life expectancy of a relief pitcher, no doubt in my mind.

Q. After the trading, Paul, did you reach out to the players left on the roster to -- I imagine some of them wondering kind of what's the plan, what's the expectation for next year, which direction are we going. Did you talk to any of the players and get a sense of what they were thinking?
TOREY LOVULLO: A couple, I did. But I had a couple of conversations about potential, not lineup changes, position changes.

And my vision is perfectly clear. I don't want to -- I'm not going to mix it up. I want to go out and win and expect to win every single night. And I think the players feel the same way. It's something that I've rehearsed saying it publicly, that I want these guys to know that there's a special group left there.

There's a lot of offensive production and proven lineup inside this lineup already. Not that we're going to replace Paul, but we have some horsepower, we have some people that are ready to step up and they need to step up. They've played meaningful games. They've had meaning at-bats and meaningful situations, and they're ready to step up, take it to the next level.

Q. In this situation, do you expect any more subtractions or additions to this roster?
TOREY LOVULLO: I don't know all those answers, to be honest. There's a lot of talk and speculation. I see the same thing that everybody else does of what's happening here at the Winter Meetings. But I can tell you that our group is upstairs right now trying to do the best things they possibly can to make our team better for 2019. And whether that's additions or subtractions, I couldn't tell you.

To be honest with you, Mike does loop me in in a lot of situations, and the Paul Goldschmidt example, instead of giving it to me where it was probably up and down, he would give me the facts that was happening with maybe a phone call that morning around 7:30, 8:00, this is what's going to happen today, and that's probably what's going to be happening.

I haven't gotten any of those phone conversations. I've seen them a lot, but I don't know what's going to happen.

Q. [Inaudible]?
TOREY LOVULLO: The back end of the bullpen? Yeah, I do. Personally, I think if you were going to come up here and arm wrestle me and force me to give you a decision, I'll probably start with Archie Bradley as the extreme back end of the equation.

We have to have those conversations. I haven't had them with Archie. I know he's capable of doing it. He's got that personality that wants to step into that situation. So I don't know. I don't know where it's going to take me right now, but those are conversations that Mike and I will have. But to answer your question, that's where I would start right now on this day, today.

Q. The situation you're in now with the organization, was that even a possibility when you interviewed for the job? Did that come up, any of the questioning?
TOREY LOVULLO: I think when you're interviewing, both sides are asking questions. And I want to know what Mike's vision was. And it was in line with mine, he wants to win. I think as we started to develop a little bit of a relationship with our roster and understand where we were headed, that this could have been a possibility where we lost Paul. But I don't think we're in a rebuild or reload. I think we still have some capable players that are going to help us win some baseball games. Where that lands, I'm not sure.

But, yes, we have an open dialogue, a special relationship that allows us to have those conversations. And it's not uncommon for us to talk about these types of things. But in the interview process, it was clear that we felt like we could win. And we did win, but where it takes us from this point forward, we're not sure.

Q. You asked him to reconsider? Can you elaborate, reconsidering?
TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, I was just probably playing devil's advocate. Sometimes I would step in as a friend and at times being a colleague. I was attached to Paul, and it's a once-in-a-generation player, are you sure this is something that needs to be done. He would walk me through the steps and educate me and teach me as to why this had to happen for the organization. As I got more educated, I saw his point of view.

Q. There's a Japanese [inaudible] in the market. How much do you know about him?
TOREY LOVULLO: Very little. A little bit of what I know about him is what Yoshi talked to me about and conversations during the course of the year, just small talk with Yoshi. According to Yoshi, a lot of talented players ready to come over to America. Who they are and where they land, what happens, we'll keep an eye on it for sure.

Q. What's the expectation to Yoshi next year?
TOREY LOVULLO: Much the same. We loved what Yoshi did. This past year we wouldn't have been as successful as we were. I want it to continue. I want to sit down with Yoshi when he returns to America -- it will be shortly after the New Year -- to make sure he's doing okay physically and fundamentally and not to have him do any more, but to embrace what he did last year and pick it up right where he left off last year. So the expectations will be exactly the same.

Q. [Inaudible]?
TOREY LOVULLO: I don't know. I just mentioned if you had a gun to my head, I would probably look at Archie as a closer. Yoshi will be in the conversation as well. He had a tremendous year. I probably got a little ahead of myself, but we have some very capable backend guys. Who lands in that closer spot, we've yet to determine. But we'll have those conversations.

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