NL WILD CARD SERIES: PADRES VS METS

October 9, 2022

Buck Showalter

Citi Field

New York Mets

Pregame Press Conference

Q. I know you talk about arteries of decisions a lot. Have you had to touch base at any point this weekend with James McCann with him not starting at all?

BUCK SHOWALTER: Sure.

Q. How did that go with him?

BUCK SHOWALTER: He's got a lot of pride. You watch him -- I was thinking -- I actually brought it up to the team. He gets pinch-hit for in Atlanta, and because the guy that pinch-hit for him was a catcher, he was out catching the pitcher between innings. Those are the little things.

He was talking to Glenn and I yesterday about once we have the lineup and everything, that he wanted to go down and catch some sides to be ready. James is a professional. I know that people can make their sarcastic remarks, but he's been a pro through thick and thin.

He wants to win, and he wants to do what he can. So I'm proud of the way he's handled the injuries he's had this year and the back and forth, I think we've used, what, five catchers this year. Kind of tells you how demanding that position is. We might need him, and he'll be ready if we do.

Q. Buck, this kind of got lost yesterday, but were you surprised by Marte's throw to third, and just what was your assessment of that play?

BUCK SHOWALTER: I don't know about surprised. The effort, he's going to let it go. I still would be careful testing him. I don't think any of us can say for sure what he's feeling. He's kind of guarded about it.

Everybody has some degree of something they're playing through this time of year, but where Starling is concerned, I think it's so well-documented it's out there, his ability to post-up for us and endure whatever discomfort or pain he might be feeling -- you know, he's not going to use it as an excuse.

I'm sure you see his face. I'm watching for it, and I'm sure you all are, if he's having a lot of it. I know him a little better than everybody else, and there's some little tell tale signs of things.

I know a couple times there were pitches that he felt he should have hit. It wasn't finger related, it was more mad at himself. He's a splendid athlete. He's been a good teammate and a guy that I've really grown to trust.

When he tells you something -- it took me a while. It was important to me to gain his trust, so when he tells you something, you take it as gospel, about himself and how he feels and where he is, and you get a return for it. It's one thing to have some trust in a player, but if you don't get a return for it, you kind of wonder. It hasn't been the case with him.

Q. Just to follow up, you do think that play was finger related?

BUCK SHOWALTER: Could be. How many throws has he made high this year? I kind of dwelled on the fact that Jake and Mark Canha were right where they're supposed to be. When some of your best players, veteran guys, play the game right, it really sets such a great example and has all year.

Tyler Megill and Peterson, how can they now say I should be tardy backing up a base when guys like that are there? Those are things that -- we amass a tape through the year. I'll just turn to Glenn and go put it on the tape, put it on the tape. Those are things that you let the Minor Leaguers see. You see how the game should be played up here, and it's not just in the Minor Leagues.

The expectations of Mets players as they come up here. There's a lot of rain delays in Syracuse and Binghamton and Brooklyn, and those are the things that you want them to see. And our guys next spring, we'll be reminding them how we want to play.

Q. Buck, you seem to protect an even keel approach with these guys from the jump for the most part.

BUCK SHOWALTER: I fooled you. (Laughter). No.

Q. Throughout the year, the longest losing streak you guys have had has been three games, which is pretty good over the course of a long season. Is it a testament to the preparation of these guys? Is it a mindset? Why do you think you guys have been so good at just kind of --

BUCK SHOWALTER: It's tough, David. We always say it's New York, but there's pressure in Kansas City. There's pressure of expectations just on a professional athlete and what you have to do.

They've done a great job of staying in reality. There's so many things that can take you out of it because, you may not read or hear something, but by the time you get home, whether it affects your wife or sister or mother or father, at some point -- I keep telling them stay together, stay together, stay together.

It's not a reflection on everybody else. It's just like I haven't walked in your shoes, and people that are sometimes critiquing you haven't. It doesn't mean they're wrong either. When you've got to worry is when people don't think what you do is important.

It's like autographs. When they quit asking is when you've got to worry, I tell them, so just go sign them.

A friend of mine was on a plane with Dolly Parton, and she was in First Class. Kept coming up and asking her and finally she said, doesn't that bug the heck out of you, these autographs? She said, no, honey, this is why I'm in First Class. They are why I'm in First Class. It's always kind of stuck with me.

I think our guys get -- you know, it's part of the gig. It can be cruel and biting and hurtful. You got to keep pushing. I think that's why they kind of rally around each other. We'll see.

I've been real proud of them. It's been a testament to their consistency because they just don't let something take them down a path they don't want to go, and it requires a lot of peer support in order to do it.

Q. Buck, have you spoken to Edwin at all today to get a sense of how he's feeling?

BUCK SHOWALTER: I saw him down the hall right then. Jeremy has a session, we've done it all year, where he takes everybody out and we get an assessment where everybody is, not only physically but verbally. We sit down after this, and I get it.

But I know he was in the hall with those shorts on and was asking me -- I've been kidding him about them the last month or two, wanted to know if I wanted a pair of them. Unfortunately, I think I'm going to get a pair now, not by my choosing.

No, that's all I talked to him. He seems to be in a good frame of mind. I know how he left here last night, but I can't be sure until I talk to Jeremy. If there's a conversation to be had with Edwin, I'll have it.

Q. You've been a part of decisive games before in the playoffs. Is there anything in the past that's separated or been a common denominator that you've learned that's allowed a team to advance that you can maybe share with your team this evening?

BUCK SHOWALTER: Nothing they haven't heard already. You try hard not be to Captain Obvious. You want to give them that respect. You want to lose some guys, say something like -- there's an expression, no, starts with an S and ends with a T. They go, does he really think we don't know that? So you've got to be careful about it.

Every once in a while, there's something that needs to be said that's out there and they go yeah, or they finally get it there.

Biggest challenge we're going to have is Musgrove and their pitching staff. And trying to contain their hitters. You try to stay in the reality of something that we expect to happen tonight won't happen. The game will get off script. The teleprompter will break. What our players do and what we do is important.

I love when these guys try to script games. It's like you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans. You want to make the baseball gods laugh, tell them about your plans.

Q. Buck, just following up on the previous question. Do you find in the hours before an elimination game that you would interact with your players more, whether formally or informally, or is it important for you to just go about your business like it's any other game, to set that tone?

BUCK SHOWALTER: I think both. I try to get out of my office as much as I can. One, I enjoy it. It's one of the things we really wanted to do when we got here was make the locker room the locker room. Whether it's a batting practice, pitcher, bullpen catcher, somebody from another department, we try to make that 26 players in there. That's their locker room, their place.

We've done so much -- let's face it. A lot of times it becomes an interview room, and rightfully so, but when the doors are closed, they've got to feel comfortable to let their hair down.

I like going in there, but I try not to tread on too much. There's times when you do. It's kind of like managing. Sometimes the best managing you do is the managing you don't do because, if you start doing a lot of things differently, they sense that.

Believe me, they know what's going on. We had this game last night. They know. What do you want me to do, walk around and go, hey, you know what tonight means? They'll go, really? They knew that in Atlanta. They knew it in Philadelphia. They knew it -- we've had a lot of similar things in some people's minds, but nothing with finality.

Q. Buck, tonight Bassitt's personality, you're looking for something to shine through that he shows everybody, hey, I deserve to be in this role?

BUCK SHOWALTER: Regardless of what happens tonight, he -- through thick and thin, he's been there for us. I think there's a lot of guys -- I don't know if it's 30, 34 of our 162 were started by Max and Jake. The rest of them came from him and McGill and Peterson and Trevor Williams and Tai and Carrasco. It's not just one thing.

The one constant we've had has been the post-upness of Chris. He's been a great teammate and a guy -- he's a baseball player that happens to be a pitcher. And every pitch on the days he's not pitching, you hope he gets what he's put into this season, into our team from a teammate standpoint.

Sometimes -- they've got to too. What did the priest say? Other guys are praying too. You've got to listen to all of them, right?

Q. Two things. First of all, how comfortable are you using Taijuan Walker out of the bullpen?

BUCK SHOWALTER: Just that he hasn't done a lot is your initial, but he's physically ready to go. If the situation dictates that he's our best option, then he'll be in the game.

This is about tonight and these nine innings or however many innings, and he'll pitch. It's one of those things where you worry about tomorrow tomorrow.

Q. There's usually different philosophies in terms of how much you feel as opposed to analytics when making certain decisions. Does that change at all? Does your perspective or how you manage change at all in an elimination game, in terms of weighing one thing more than the other?

BUCK SHOWALTER: Everybody is looking at the same stuff, there hasn't been much invented that everyone doesn't have privy to. So what changes with different organizations is what you choose to weight, whether it's wOBA or on base percentage or slugging percentage.

Years ago in New York, we were really weighting on base percentage and the ability to walk. That was back in the '90s, early '90s.

You don't become a prisoner to it, but you're aware of everything. That's why I left here so late last night. You're trying to weight everything and make a good decision knowing that it could change at the drop of a hat and the script breaks or the teleprompter breaks.

The ability to think and to react and say what if, I think players feed off that too when something happens and a guy gets hit with a line drive the first pitch. Not once -- Billy in the front office has done a great job. Not once did we play a game this year where we couldn't answer the question, if a guy gets hit by a line drive on the first pitch or has an arm injury, we didn't know who could pitch long innings.

That's a challenge, especially with options and everything. So as far as -- you take in everything. And you want to make people feel comfortable to bring what they bring and nobody gets -- whether it's someone from the analytical department, whether it's somebody -- that's the challenge is to make everybody feel like they have an ear from not only me, but everybody.

The coaching staff, they knew that was part of the job requirement. That would be crazy to think somebody might bring something to give you one inch of edge, say no, not you. Bring it on. Heck, I get advice at home a lot. She's pretty good. She's been around a lot more games than some people.

Q. First you mentioned, how late did you leave last night?

BUCK SHOWALTER: Let's see. I got home about 2:00, 1:45, 2:00. Traffic was good, though.

Q. If you think back to when you were hired last winter, what do you think were the biggest imprints you've left on that room and the organization?

BUCK SHOWALTER: That would be for somebody else. I don't live in that world.

Q. You know what goals you have.

BUCK SHOWALTER: You take each day, and you grind it. You do. You try to -- the biggest thing is that golden rule works real good. Treat people like you like to be treated, and you don't do it to get a return. You don't. The game's not and the world's not fair. Does that mean you don't try to treat people well.

We ain't getting out of this alive. Just take it and -- some people choose not to read or listen. It doesn't help me do the job. I want to be able to interact with everybody, including this room.

Q. But you knew going in, to accomplish what you wanted to, you had to do A, B, C, D?

BUCK SHOWALTER: Win. We had two semi mottos, whatever you want to call them. Play better. I don't want to hear it. Eliminate sympathetic ears. You want somebody to walk up -- hey, this is -- he doesn't want to hear it. She doesn't want to hear it. After a while, you've got to go look in a mirror.

That's New York in a nutshell. Play better. I don't want to hear it. Win games. Play better. It's real simple. There's a crude statement about it that I won't make in here, especially -- well, I'll stop. I've learned to stop over the years.