AL DIVISION SERIES: GUARDIANS VS YANKEES

October 12, 2022

Terry Francona

Yankee Stadium

Cleveland Guardians

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Naylor had a tough time against lefties. Is there anything you're seeing with his approach or that you would like to see with his approach?

TERRY FRANCONA: When he stays through the middle and like kind of sets his sight on left-center, that's actually one of the things I thought as we got to know him, that he could -- he certainly didn't back down from lefties. And I know statistically, it wasn't as good this year.

I think it's probably approach. Like even last night off a righty, when he gets in that pull mode and then they spin him a little bit, when he stays -- like he hit that line drive up the middle, it was an out, but that's where I think he becomes more dangerous.

Q. You've seen Cortes twice during the regular season. What are your thoughts on him?

TERRY FRANCONA: He's really, really good. The three guys that they named -- four, actually, if you count Taillon -- you look at their hits-to-innings, and that's a big indicator. It's like 50 short of his innings. He's got that fastball that he can throw at the top of the zone that kind of disappears on you and gets past your barrel. Gives you different -- looks that are different, and there's some deception but along with the deception, there's good stuff.

Q. The success your batters have had this year with contact and cutting down strikeouts, how much of that is by the philosophy you're trying to teach them and how much is results just of the personnel they have?

TERRY FRANCONA: The personnel. I mean, if we had nine guys that were capable of hitting 40 home runs, our philosophy would be a little different, because you just try to put your players in the best position to succeed. You don't try to ask them to do things they can't, and you try to do the things they do well more often. That's kind of Coaching 101.

Q. In these postseason games where you're facing tough starters every day, is there anything you have to do to keep their confidence high? There's no four or five starters they are facing.

TERRY FRANCONA: No. I'm not worried about that. If you got to this point in the season and they need a pep talk every game, we're probably in trouble. You know, I mean, shoot, we had a 15-inning game against Tampa where nobody was getting hits. I didn't see anybody dragging around. They are just trying like desperately to find a way to score a run.

Q. You talked about Stephan yesterday and the value he's brought to your bullpen. You guys have done such a good job of finding different relief pieces from different sources. How valuable is that, and is that something that's become more important in recent years? And how much of that involves communication between you guys and the front office?

TERRY FRANCONA: Well, I think we all agree -- and again, everybody has their own perception or belief. But we feel like we need to build our bullpen mostly from within. And because bullpens are so volatile, even if you have the same names, year-in and year-out, a lot of times the numbers can vary in a vastly different way.

So we've tried to build from within the most we can, and we've had some even Minor League free agents or things like that that have really helped us throughout the years. Just try to -- we don't bring in a million guys in spring training and then the waters get muddied. We just try to get a few so we can get a better read.

Like this year, Enyel De Los Santos was one of those guys, and in longer spring training, he probably makes our club. It was just such an abbreviated, you know, three weeks that it was kind of hard to put a non-roster guy on.

Q. How valuable is it with that group then to get different looks and present hitters with, you know, a little bit of unpredictability as far as arm angles?

TERRY FRANCONA: I think Tampa does that probably better than anybody I've ever seen. They give you not just left, right, but different looks for different styles of hitters.

But when you have guys that are -- you can trust and you can count on, that's a good feeling. And they have to earn it, but it's a good feeling.

Q. What planning do you do with the staff for the possibility of rain and having four straight days making it much more akin to regular season than postseason in bullpen usage?

TERRY FRANCONA: Four straight days? Did I -- did I miss?

Q. Well, if tomorrow's rained out, and then you're playing Friday, Saturday, Sunday.

TERRY FRANCONA: Oh, four in a row?

Q. Yeah.

TERRY FRANCONA: I think we played 27 in a row during the year.

Q. But it's not that familiar in the postseason where you try and have your bullpen --

TERRY FRANCONA: It's still baseball. It's still baseball. We'll be okay. Our game is a game of adjustments. If we can't handle -- we'll be fine.