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AL DIVISION SERIES: RAYS VS ASTROS

October 5, 2019

Will Harris

Houston, Texas - pregame 1

Q. A year ago you got left off the playoff roster. Did that serve as motivation? Was that difficult to take, going into this year, to make sure you weren't in that position again where A.J. and the coaching staff would have no doubt that you would be one of the guys?
WILL HARRIS: Yeah, I'd say I was motivated. I'm always pretty motivated, trying to pitch as well as I can. I wasn't really surprised. Nowadays a lot of playoff teams stack their lineups pretty well. They make deadline acquisitions and things like that.

So we had a really competitive bullpen last year. Add Ryan and Roberto at the deadline. So it was crowded and, you know, I was disappointed, but, I mean, I understood it. So just kind of the way it goes.

Q. Just kind of a follow-up to that, when guys like Peacock and Devenski, who played key roles in 2017, get left off, do you talk to them about that at all and just kind of -- because you were there last year, give them any advice on how to keep fresh and keep ready in case you're called upon?
WILL HARRIS: Yeah. It's not set in stone. This is a round-by-round thing that we're doing here. They look at the matchups and dissect it a thousand different ways and then come out with who they think gives us the best chance to win. If we're fortunate enough to move on to the next round, they'll do that whole process over again. So we had guys that got left off last year in the first round that were on it and pitched against Boston in the second round.

As for me, I was on it and then came off for the second round. If we would have won that series and gone on to play the Dodgers, I may have been put back on. It's kind of the way that it's done now I think probably throughout baseball. We have an organization that has as many good players as we have, it just kind of is the nature of the beast.

So yeah, I mean, those guys are obviously really talented and are going to be asked to do some things eventually, I'm sure.

Q. Will, you've been here for the whole run, since, I guess, late '14 when they claimed you on waivers, right. What was your perception of the Astros when you first got here and what's been the most impressive thing to you about the way they've built this up?
WILL HARRIS: I honestly didn't know a lot about them, being in the National League my whole career. They were in the American League during my time in the big leagues.

So I didn't know much about them. Never really played them. Didn't really know too many of the players. Coming over here was lucky enough to have a couple guys I knew that were in the organization so spoke to them a lot in spring training and got a crash course of how analytical they were and different tools they were using and stuff like that.

But other than that, it's been very similar to everywhere else I've been. We have a great group of guys that really get along and really enjoy one another. Lucky for me, we've all stayed together the last five years for the most part.

So it's been a fun little ride for us, and hopefully we can do something special again this year.

Q. Those roster questions, kind of the follow-up here, what's the thrill level of getting out there and getting the ball in the high-leverage situations in a playoff game, knowing they've got faith in you to take care of business?
WILL HARRIS: I've told my friends this in the off-seasons and family, it's like I'm not sure what I'm more proud of, like, making a postseason roster for the Astros or an All-Star team. Like, I don't know what's harder these days.

With the amount of players that we have and when you talk about just the numbers game and starters going to the bullpen and all those kind of things, it's really competitive throughout baseball.

So yeah, I enjoy pitching, enjoy putting on the uniform, enjoy the guys in the clubhouse. So I just want to do my job as well as I can, as often as I can do it.

Q. When Charlie Morton came through here in the regular season and faced you guys, it was a bit of a lovefest, a lot of hugs and laughs. How does that dynamic change with him on the mound in game 3?
WILL HARRIS: I know we all love Charlie and we put it to him a little bit that day. So I think we probably want to do it again. We still love him just as much.

Charlie is obviously a great guy, great teammate. I'm sure nobody has a bad thing to say about him in the other clubhouse. This is playoffs. It's a tournament-style thing here, and I don't think any of us want to see him walking away with a win whenever he starts against us.

So the hugs and stuff, we'll do it after it's all over.

Q. Do you have a favorite Charlie Morton story from your time with him as a teammate?
WILL HARRIS: No. I mean, I used to always mess with Charlie. He actually randomly will text me this. Charlie is a pretty thin guy. He's a big guy, but he's in, like, really good shape. He's my age, he's 35.

His plates of food that this man prepares every day are, like, a mountain. It's like have you ever seen the movie "Elf" when he puts everything on the plate? It looks like that, but it's all really healthy stuff. It's like vegetables, you know. So he'll get it and he'll crack a little pepper over the top of it and I'll look at it in amazement. I'm like, You're going to eat all that and you're still going to look this thin tomorrow?

So during the year, he'll send me pictures sometimes of his plates of food with a thumbs-up emoji or something like that. I'm like, Man, I haven't had a piece of bread in like two years.

Q. Will, it was mentioned earlier, four or five years ago, you were on waivers and the Astros claim you kind of out of nowhere. How often do you allow yourself to reflect on the journey you've taken here as you approach free agency, how your career has kind of resurrected here?
WILL HARRIS: I get asked questions a lot whenever I do an appearance somewhere or do a radio show or do something like that, a lot of people ask me those kind of questions.

That's kind of when I will reflect on it is when I answer the questions and have to go into detail. Yeah, they gave me a shot. I thought I had pitched pretty well in Arizona. I didn't think my career was over when I was on waivers or anything like that.

So right place, right time. I tell guys all the time in our clubhouse that maybe go on waivers, it's like, Dude, I've been on it three times. It's been the best thing that's ever happened to me all three times.

You just kind of never know. Luckily, for me, it landed me here really close to home. My friends and family get to watch me on TV every night. It's just been an absolute blessing for me and my family and everybody involved, obviously, with all the success we've had for the last five years and experiences I've been able to have here.

Q. Will, how much have the Astros analytics, the way they do business, how much has that helped you with what you've been doing here?
WILL HARRIS: Yeah, you know, it's just -- people ask me all the time about analytics and stuff. The only way I can think of it is it's just an information, like, recording, right? It's like how much information can we possibly record about the game of baseball and then give it to you to use it how you want.

And so it's just kind of like how the shift was implemented. 100 years ago, they didn't record where guys hit the ball every time. Once they started recording it down, they're like, This guy, every time he hits the ball on the ground, it's in the four-hole. Put a guy over there.

So, for me, it's kind of explaining what made you good, kind of helping me understand why I had success when I had success, helping me understand, okay, when you struggled you maybe got away from doing these things. Just trying to kind of stay in that pocket as much as I can, as far as pitch selection, pitch location, things like that.

You know, it's helped me out. It's helped a lot of guys out in that room. I think in the end, though, it's up to the ball players to do it, you know. These guys are out there putting their sweat and their effort into what they do and their craft, and I think that's what we have is a room full of a lot of guys that really take pride in that.

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