WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - GREAT BRITAIN VS UNITED STATES

March 11, 2023

Trea Turner

Chase Field

Team United States

Pregame Press Conference

Q. What's Mark DeRosa been like as a manager? I'm sure you've seen him on the network. But what has it been like to play for him?

TREA TURNER: It's been cool. He's got that player in him still, which is nice, because as a player you respect those guys that come before you. He's got a little bit of that in him. He understands a lot. He understands how we feel, how to prepare, what he expects of us. Communicates it well.

So it's been really nice. Pretty refreshing just to have a staff, really, everybody's been like that. It's been really cool. But it's been a lot of fun, and we're just getting started. Hopefully we can obviously make a deep run and win this whole thing because his message from the start has been really good.

Q. Going back to the old rules now for the tournament. Do you still try to want to get in the box eight seconds to go or something like that? Are you cognizant of it or not really?

TREA TURNER: I don't really take too much time in between pitches. So I don't care one way or the other. But I think it's nice from a standpoint of we're just playing baseball type deal and we don't have to worry -- one less thing we have to worry about. Especially games are so intense, such a tournament style, not a long season where you can make adjustments, it's do or die from the start. It's nice not to have to think about it. But for me, I'm not too worried about it.

Q. The structure of this tournament is so different than anything you guys deal with in regular season, postseason. You don't get to see teams multiple times and build familiarity. Once you get out of this round, it's one game, do or die. How does that change the atmosphere, the vibe, how the team has to approach a game?

TREA TURNER: I don't think there's a right answer. It's unique. You don't want to try too hard but you don't want to just let things pass you by. You've got to have a fine line of being intense but staying in the moment type deal.

So we were talking about it -- I forget who it was -- but somebody said, man, I haven't played tournament in a long time. It's a funny concept because we're not used to it. But I've heard one game, wild card, each and every game, I guess that's about as close as it gets.

But there's no right answer. It's just win. Whatever it takes. Whatever that looks like, win each and every game and be the last team standing. That's all we care about. I know a lot of teams are here for that reason, to win it.

Q. Sort of along those lines, do you see any eagerness out of guys that haven't played a lot of October baseball, pitchers like Freeland or Cedric Mullins, it's not easy to get to October and here's their chance?

TREA TURNER: I don't view it that way. I guess that might be a question for them. I think it's just pressure or no pressure, do they feel pressure, do they not, that type of deal. I don't think it's the same, personally. The energy is higher, I guess, is the only similarity to me. But it's totally different.

You play six, seven months to play in a postseason game. Now it's just a sprint. You're in there and you're wearing a different jersey and you have guys from different teams. You're trying to come together. There's such a unique experience. That's why it makes it so fun and so appealing to fans and to us as well. It's just the structure of it.

But I think the pressure is more we just want to help the team win. When your name is called, you want to do whatever you can to make a play, to have a good at-bat, to make a pitch, whatever it is. And I think that's more the pressure of just wanting to help out more than anything and wanting to be a part of something kind of bigger than yourself.

Q. I wanted to ask about Freddie Freeman. You were a teammate with him, decides to play for Canada. Did you guys have conversations back last season about it?

TREA TURNER: Yeah, I remember him saying he plays for team Canada every year. Takes a lot of pride in it. So I know it's something he's been doing for a long time. I want to say this is his third. But no we'd love to have him over here, but I know he's done that and he sticks with it. He's a good player. I enjoyed playing with him a lot. It's going to be weird being across the dugouts from him again like early in my career.

But he's a stud and we've got to watch out for him. He'll be a tough at-bat for us.

Q. Similarly, with Trayce Thompson, have you had much interaction with him what this tournament means to him?

TREA TURNER: Not at all. I talk to Trayce quite a bit last year but I didn't even know he was going to be on Great Britain. So I think that's kind of the cool thing about this tournament.

You see guys that you didn't know have different heritages and play for different teams. And I think that's another really cool part about this tournament is a lot of guys come from a lot of different parts of the world, a lot of different backgrounds.

And they're excited to represent that. So I did not have that conversation with him, but excited to see him.