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MLB WINTER MEETINGSDecember 11, 2018Ned YostLas Vegas, Nevada Q. I don't know if you've heard, you're the No. 23 most handsome manager. NED YOST: It's going fast. They need to handicap it. Getting all these young managers, and they're all in their 40s and they're fit. And I'm 64. So you've got to handicap it. It's like playing golf, if you've got the right handicap you can beat anybody. It's not fair. It's tilted in the wrong direction. Q. Billy Hamilton, what does he bring? NED YOST: Speed, athleticism, defensive ability. He brings a sense of trepidation when he steps on the field, not only as a defender but as an offensive player, too. Q. Have you started to tinker with lineup possibilities? NED YOST: No. Q. You know the center fielder? NED YOST: Yeah, he plays -- I've talked to a lot of Cincinnati people about him and they absolutely loved him. But we've been spoiled for years with Lorenzo Cain in center field, a tremendous defender in a big ballpark. And having Billy roaming that ground from gap to gap out there, we've got Alex Gordon, and plenty of great candidates this right field with Goodwin, with Soler, with Boni, with Phillips, we'll have a lot of opportunities to kind of mix and match and see what fits and what's beneficial for us as a team. Q. Especially in the park? NED YOST: Huge. The game has evolved to the shift on everybody and then guys that are trying to hit homers, so the result is strikeouts, doubles or homers, and it's taken away the strategy for the ballgame for me, because it's virtually eliminated the single or decreased the single tremendously. So that takes away the bunt, the steal, the hit and run, a lot of the strategy of the game. And the lean back and try to hit it out of the ballpark is not beneficial for us. We've got a huge park. We like it, Dayton likes it, I like it, I like the speed aspect and the athletic aspect. I like to play the game. I like to steal. I like to hit and run. I like the action part of the game. And not only does it -- if you test defenses, put them on their toes, and puts them on guard, you make a lot of mistakes when you have that type of speed defensively. And defensively us as a group with that type of speed, it helps our pitching, makes us better all the way around. So I'm really pleased with where we're at right now. I like that action type game. We just don't have a team that's ever reared back and just tried to do launch angle and hit home runs. Q. With Merrifield, Monde, and now Hamilton, just that type of speed in the batting order, do you bunch those guys together or spread them out? NED YOST: Where are we? We're in Las Vegas, I'm at the poker table, my cards aren't dealt yet. Let me see where we are. Here you go again, you want answers, it's December 11th, can we wait until January 30th and we get to Fan Fest? Let's wait and see. I like the fact -- when I sit back and look at it, Owings has speed, he's going to be able to do things. Hunter Dozier has really deceiving type speed. I think Hunter will be able to steal 15 to 20 bases. And so we're going to have a lot of athleticism, a lot of speed. But in terms of looking at the lineup, you've got Whit who is a huge on-base percentage guy, led baseball in hits, in stolen bases. Monde coming into his own this year. Gordy really flourished in the three hole. Soler coming back, who was really starting to take off before he broke his foot. And we're going to have a lot of options, and we'll sit down when we get to Spring Training and experiment with the lineup and see what is best, not necessarily what works best, because it's hard to tell in Spring Training, but what feels best, and go from there. Q. You talked during the first part of the season about how you guys sort of needed to get back to the speed just being a major factor. NED YOST: We just didn't have it last year, really. We had Whit, but Monde was in the Minor Leagues. We just didn't have that speed when we had Cain and Dyson and Gore, and those type of little weapons that we had off our bench. So we definitely have them now, and that's exactly what we wanted to get back to. At the end of the year when Dayton and I were talking, we've got to find a way to get those athletic speed type players back in our organization. And Dayton has done a great job of doing it. Q. (Inaudible.) NED YOST: He's going to play all over the place. Again, like Whit, Whit plays everywhere. Chris can play third. He can play short on days Monde needs a break, he can play second if Whit is playing the outfield. We're going to mix and match a lot. We've got so much versatility now. There's a lot of things we can do. Dozier can play first, third, and the outfield. Even though we didn't see it last year, O'Hearn can play left field really well, according to the reports that we had in Triple-A, and continues to work -- they say that he's been really, really good defensively at first base in winter ball, which is one thing that we sent him off to focus on. So we're going to have a lot of versatility. We're going to be able to move pieces around. I don't think we're going to be set in really one spot with the exception of Gordy in the left, Hamilton, and Monde at short and Whit is going to move, and we'll switch the platoon and mix and match guys at first. And of course Salvy behind the plate. Q. (Inaudible.) NED YOST: Whit is going to play wherever. Most days he'll probably play second, yeah. But to have the ability to move Whit all over the place is great. Just like Chris, we can move him wherever we want to move him and feel good about it. I feel every bit as good as putting Whit in center, in right, at first, as I do at second base. Q. Willy had such a nice couple of months. NED YOST: Again, my cards haven't been dealt, you know what I'm saying? And I've sat back and really tried to analyze what we saw in the playoffs. It was like we'd use a closer in the fifth inning one day and pitch him in the eighth and ninth the next and back in the sixth the next day. And just really sat and trying to figure all that out. What were they doing? What were they trying to do? What were they trying to accomplish? And again, yeah, Willy is going to have the opportunity to close out games. But I think we'll just wait and see what we've got and kind of mix and match and go from there. Q. (Inaudible.) NED YOST: Are you from Baltimore? He's going to make a tremendous Major League manager. Hopefully it's for you guys, but if not he's going to make a phenomenal Major League manager. I think one of his -- he's got many attributes and many positives, bilingual is one of them. Two, he's a phenomenal communicator. He's worked all aspects of the game from scout to player development, farm director. He is my quality control coach, which means I told Pedro, look, whatever you want to set up for the next day for us to work on, set it up. If you see something that we're lacking, set it up. And the reason we struggled early was because we had young players. The reason, and I firmly believe this, that we played so well in September and our last six weeks was mainly because Pedro set up programs for our guys to work every single day. And we had extra defensive work, extra base running, extra bunting, extra outfield work. And Pedro had it set up perfectly, had the players out there every single day that needed the work. And all of a sudden, you know, the last six weeks we go. Hunter Dozier takes off, Monde takes off. And I just think it was from Pedro's ability to continue to keep these guys with energy working hard early. He's a tremendous communicator. Him and Salvy had a tremendous relationship. And he can communicate one-on-one. With the Latin players, a lot of times if we have issues I'll talk to Pedro about it, and he handles it. And he does it in a way where he can chew your rear end out and the players respect him strongly from that. He's never, ever had a situation where he's needed to confront a player and not gotten positive results from it, as long as I've been manager. He is my assistant hitting coach. He works with Terry Bradshaw. So he's the guy that has probably more jobs on my staff than anybody. Dale is my bench coach and we work on game stuff. Pedro is into everything and does a phenomenal job. I just think one day he's going to be a phenomenal Major League manager, as I think Dale Sveum and Vance Wilson. Q. The Commissioner talked about the idea of eliminating shifts. NED YOST: Eliminate them. Do it now. Crazy. You've got my vote. I don't like them. I don't like the shift. I just think that -- for me, if they would just say, okay, two players have to be -- I really like the idea two players on each side of the field, you have to keep one foot in the dirt. The shift for me has eliminated the single. You would think that players would try to make an adjustment. I've seen one player that has really focused on making an adjustment, and that's Mike Moustakas. He said that's it, I've got to do something different. He started driving the ball the opposite way. But the majority of the hitters, I'd say 90 to 95 percent, say to heck with it, I'm going to try to hit a homer and a double. Our number for singles as a baseball League last year dropped way down. And you just lose strategy, you lose the ability to steal bases. You lose the ability to hit and run or bunt if you want to. A lot of people don't like the bunts. I like bunts. I like that different kind of game. And I just think that shift, it makes the game much, much more boring in my opinion. Q. Are you surprised more hitters haven't taken the approach, the adjustment that Mike did? NED YOST: A little bit. Look, when I was a player, I was a dead pool hitter like Mike was. At the end of my career I tried to learn how to hit the ball the other way; I couldn't do it. So for somebody to sit here and say they're not doing it, that's not true. Some players just have a hard time. And I was one of them. I couldn't do it. So a lot of players just say, the heck with it, I'm going to try to get a pitch and drive it. Q. You wouldn't even let the second baseman play 15 feet out in the outfield grass? NED YOST: I wouldn't. One foot on the dirt and leave it at that. If I had my druthers I would say two guys on each side of the field, everybody has to have one foot on the grass and you get another haircut. Q. Do you see the division opening up, maybe, with Cleveland making some moves? NED YOST: You know, we look at -- this time of year you're looking a lot of numbers, and surprisingly enough you'd think -- and I don't fully trust these numbers, but our people got Cleveland winning 97 games. Even though they've made some changes, the analytics people still hold them in very high regard. I think that Chicago is getting better. I think that Minnesota has made really big strides this winter. And I think we're going to be better. I think it's going to be an interesting division. I don't think it's going to be the powerhouse of the American League like it was a couple of years ago. But I think it's going to continue to trend forward and continue to get better. Q. What sort of cards, you say you haven't got all the cards yet? NED YOST: We need to continue to focus on trying to find bullpen pieces. I think when I sit down and I've talk to Dayton about our team, I'm really pleased with where we are at defensively with our group and with our position players. I think if we can continue to stay focused on trying to upgrade the pen a little bit, even though I think that we're going to have some really nice candidates to come in and pitch in the Big Leagues this year, just continue to stay focused on that. Q. Do you foresee having a lot of guys almost in Spring Training start trying to impact your bullpen? NED YOST: We always bring guys in and try them as starters. And they filter themselves out and could end up in the pen, they very well could, yeah. We'll take the best arms. Q. Has this been one of your better offseasons with what happened last year? NED YOST: It's been a great offseason for me, yeah. I've really enjoyed it. And it's been really busy. We moved into the new house last year right at the end of the winter. We've been there all year this year. I told Deb the other day, I don't think we've had two days at the house by ourselves. We've had a lot of family there. Grandkids are there all the time. There's a lot of hustle and bustle. And it's been a lot of fun, it really has. It's been a lot of fun. I've thoroughly -- and I don't know why, but I've really, really enjoyed this winter to this point. And again, I feel good about our team. I feel good about the progress that we made as an organization last year with the work that the kids put in and the progress that they made. And I'm excited to start it up and pick up where we left off last year. Q. Anything you got a chance to do this offseason, like last year, like hunting, being outside? NED YOST: Oh, yeah, generally what we do when we get home the first of September, it's so hot, the deer season, but it's still 95 degrees. We do a lot of work then, a lot of cutting hay, a lot of checking out the deer stands and making sure they are ready, planting food plots. We don't really hunt a lot during the month of September. And get into October and start November is when we really start, it starts to cool off a little bit and the rut hits. And nowadays we're hunting just about every day. So having a good time. Haven't been quite successful, I may add. Q. There's a possibility this could be Bruce Bochy's last year as a manager in baseball, and you obviously have the epic World Series against him. Would you share the impact he's had on the game. NED YOST: I've just always had a tremendous amount of respect for him. And I think the 2014 World Series was nice, but that doesn't even count into it, what he's been able to accomplish. The example that he's set I think for all managers has been really, really neat. And I hope that that's not the case, that it's going to be his last year, unless he absolutely wants it to. I've just always looked up to him and always admired him and always thought that -- you look at certain guys like Boch and quite frankly Mike Scioscia and Showalter, and those guys are always kind of in my mind a little bit ahead of all the rest of us. I've always admired him. Q. Dayton mentioned that the staff just always kind of takes it year by year, because you just focus so much on the now. Do you personally think about the long-term? NED YOST: For me? Not really. Again, we talked about being able to do -- to do my job it takes a lot of energy and a lot of passion and a lot of commitment, and I still have all that. I'm still very enthused. I still have a lot of energy. I'm still very excited to go to Spring Training and watch these young players continue to develop. As long as I have that we're going to be all right. But it's going to get to a point sooner or later it will be time to turn it over to somebody else. And we just go kind of year by year, and just determine when that's going to be, when we're all comfortable with it. Q. You can see a scenario where you're managing next year? NED YOST: I can, yes. I definitely can see that scenario. But, again, we'll get down the road and see what happens. We'll just see. But things are going to be conversations between me and Dayton. What's my comfort level, what's his comfort level. As long as your players continue to still respond to your message, you're in good shape. And the minute they stop responding to your message it's time to change the messenger. But our guys, they continue to work hard. They continue to respect the game. They continue to play hard and they respond to the message. Those are all good things. Q. A much bigger picture question, but where you're trying to get everybody to understand all these different personalities, how important is that to you? NED YOST: I wouldn't call it empathy more than I would just call it -- I wouldn't even know what you call it. But it's always been, our organization has always done a great job of caring for our players and understanding each -- or trying to understand each individual player, knowing that everybody's different. Everybody comes from a different background. Everybody comes from different experiences. Some of our players grew up without a floor. They've got dirt floors and a shack over there. You've got to understand that. You've got to understand how hard it was for them to get here. And you can't cookie cut personalities. And I think that's what our coaches do so well and what Dayton does so well and our player development does so well. We care about our players. We want them to do good. We want to work hard for them and have them have success. And then what makes us so proud is not what we accomplish as an organization but that these guys are being successful and they are getting an opportunity to be successful and they're taking advantage of it. I learned that lesson from Bobby Cox, if a player feels like you're in his corner and he feels like you are invested in his life he's going to run through a wall for you. And I found that to be true. Q. Pedro Grifol, he's a candidate for the managerial opening in Baltimore. He's worn a lot of hats for you guys. What kind of an asset has he been to your coaching staff? NED YOST: Good thing that you asked that, Sam, because I'd say Sam, I already answered that question about ten minutes ago. I think that he has worn, he continues to wear many hats for us. He's or assistant hitting coach, he's our quality coach, he's our catching -- him and Salvy have a phenomenal relationship. He's very close with our Latin players. He's bilingual. I just think -- I was really, really pleased when I heard that he was getting the opportunity to interview. I think he's going to be a phenomenal Major League manager, not only a minority candidate, which there are very few of, I think Alex showed everybody that, you know, Latin managers can do a really, really good job. And I think Pedro is going to do a phenomenal job if he gets the opportunity. But he has more responsibilities than anybody in my staff. He's in the cage working with Terry. He's been our hitting coach. And now he's the assistant hitting coach. What he's done so well is he's taken players like Monde and he's taken Soler and all of our young Latin players and showed them how to do their homework on the computer. Every day he has meetings with Monde, with Soler, they sit down and go over the opposing pitcher, they show the -- these kids have taken into that, and this is all from Pedro's tutelage. His ability to communicate has been fantastic. He can communicate not only with Latin players, but all of our players trust him and have the ability to communicate with him. He's not afraid of confrontation. And not in a bad way. If he addresses you, it's always with a good way. And I've always been amazed because a lot of times I have yet to master that technique, you know? If I get upset and I have to really get on a player, a player will walk away with his feelings hurt, and it takes a week or so for them to get over it. And there's been times where I've had to call guys and say sorry, I was a little too hard on you guys. But Pedro chews them out, but walk away with respect and understanding that he's doing it for their best interests and they appreciate it. I think he's a phenomenal candidate. I really do. Honestly, you think I'm sitting there trying to build him up, but I can't think of one negative. I can't think of a negative where I could say, maybe he needs to do this a little better, in terms of if he's a Major League manager. I think he'd been a phenomenal candidate and do really, really well for your guys. Q. Is that talent or whatever you might call it to be able to be constructive with somebody -- NED YOST: It is a talent. It's a talent that I haven't mastered. And that's why I rely now, unless it's a real serious issue, I'll let my coaches handle. I'll bring Pedro in and say, look, can you handle this for me. And he'll do it. Or Rusty Kuntz or Dale Sveum, unless it's really something egregious, I'll snatch them in my office and shut the door. Most of the time the coaches handle that stuff for me and can do it in a much more positive fashion than I can. Q. How close do you think you are to cycling back up to the top? NED YOST: We're getting closer. It's hard, I think last year we were a pair of 5's, here being in Las Vegas. Here I think we're three jacks. I think we're getting better. The straights and full houses are still going to beat us. But we're getting better. Q. What steps have you taken? NED YOST: The last six weeks, I think, our young starting pitchers really started turning the corner. Our bullpen guys started doing better. Our young players, O'Hearn and Dozier really started kind of really gaining confidence and feeling like they belonged in the Big Leagues. It showed. They just played really, really good baseball. And made me really excited about coming into Spring Training, what they're going to be able to -- if they continue to progress like they did at the end of last year, we're going to be okay. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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