AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS VS ASTROS

October 6, 2023

Rocco Baldelli

Minute Maid Park

Minnesota Twins

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. Rocco, what were some of the factors that led to going with Bailey over Joe or Kenta or anybody else?

ROCCO BALDELLI: He's had a great year, so I think that's one thing. We have five starters that have done a real nice job for us all the way around.

I can't tell you it was an easy decision picking amongst them, but Bailey is a guy that he offers a pretty unique look. He's pitched real well lately. He came off of the little break that he had later on in the year really strong.

Overall, we just really like what we've seen. They haven't seen him lately. I think it's been a couple of years since they faced him. And that's all kind of woven into it.

Again, we picked the best possible guy that we could opt for for Game 1, and we're going to roll with Bailey, and we feel good about it.

Q. How have you seen Bailey evolve as a pitcher over these past three years?

ROCCO BALDELLI: It's kind of like a question that's not -- it's not a very straightforward answer because the day he showed up in the Big Leagues to pitch for us, he was already like a somewhat similar version of what he is right now. He's a very unique guy, obviously, because of his size and his delivery, where the ball comes out of, that's not typical. He's a strike thrower. He doesn't get it done with pure velocity, but there are times when he gets it up, 93, 94, at times.

But his ability to actually pitch is a huge strength of his. He does a lot of different things to get guys out. He can change speeds. The change-up has become a good pitch for him, a pitch that he's used a little more than he did originally. And he threw his breaking ball when he first came up a little softer, and he's found a way to tighten that up too.

He's made some good pitching adjustments to make himself even better than when he arrived, but when he arrived, he was already good.

Q. Rocco, you've had two tough conversations with Bailey this year, once in March to send him to the Minors, again in September to send him down again. What kind of context does that add to this moment and the meaning of the moment for you -- for him to you?

ROCCO BALDELLI: He's a guy that he's the epitome of the tough mindedness and a guy that he doesn't dwell on things. He's very much a guy that's just looking for the things that what can he do? What can he control? What can he take advantage of to help himself in his career and not ever get brought down by anything. The things that he had to deal with this year -- like this goes all the way back into the off-season for him, when I had a conversation in the off-season when I called him and kind of explained to him what the rotation looked like going into the year.

He didn't necessarily take that as a huge negative of any kind. He actually took it, built off of it, had something to kind of look towards and point towards. When we called upon him, he was throwing great. He was ready to go. He pitched great all year long. Every single time he pitches, we have a chance to win. I mean, that's what you want.

He goes out there. He's a very competitive guy. He makes adjustments very well. He makes them on the fly. And if something's working for him, he'll take advantage of that, and if something's not, he has other weapons. So there's a lot of things he can do.

Q. He mentioned that he only found out he was going to be the opening starter like 30, 45 minutes ago. I was wondering if there was a reasoning behind that to leave him all the way to this point? Is that strategically just to throw off your opponent or because really you didn't know which way to go until 30 to 45 minutes ago?

ROCCO BALDELLI: Yeah, I wanted to talk to them in person. So we had a travel day yesterday, and instead of trying to get everything done then and having every deliberation and conversation yesterday, we just discussed a little bit, got on the plane, flew here, spent some time last night and even this morning talking about the decision we were going to make.

I didn't come to the decision until probably ten minutes before I called him into my office.

Q. Everybody talks about the pitcher you're facing, Verlander, and what say you. How about you facing a future Hall of Fame manager Dusty Baker? Does it mean something special to you to have a Hall of Fame opponent in front of you?

ROCCO BALDELLI: I have an incredible amount of respect for Dusty as a manager and as a person. Not just the things he's accomplished, but who he is and the way he makes you feel when you're around him. That's not just for his players. He does that for everybody in the game that he's been around, even just having a conversation with him, you get the feeling that he's a very special guy. You can see how he's had a lot of the success that he's had.

So he's a guy I've always watched on the other side of the field and tried to pay attention to and see just how he approaches different things and manages his team. Everyone's going to manage differently and every team operates differently, but he's done a lot of things right over the years, that's for sure.

Q. I know it's the playoffs. Every player, I'm assuming, understands that, but is it a tough conversation with Joe Ryan set to pitch Game 3 the last round and not getting the call yet?

ROCCO BALDELLI: It was not a very challenging conversation. I was pretty straightforward, and he was very open to basically anything that I had for him. Like basically, the feeling I got when he left the room was anything we need, he'll be ready.

Every series is different. So this isn't just like we line five guys up towards the end of September, and that's the way we're going to roll as long as we play. No, we're going to move some things around if we think it's the right thing to do.

Joe is lined up to pitch for us. He has something -- he has a plan in front of him, and he'll be fine. He said, thumbs up. I'm ready to go.

Q. Rocco, Bailey wasn't on the roster, so obviously there's a move. Can you tell us what that is? And do you expect any other roster moves before this series?

ROCCO BALDELLI: This is easy, Phil. No, no. We'll know soon enough, and we're still talking about it. We're still discussing.

Q. What do you think the national audience is about to learn about Jhoan Duran, watching him blow guys away in the ninth?

ROCCO BALDELLI: There's nobody else in the world that does what he does. I've said that before. For the people that have been around us, he's like a one man -- he's like an explosion. He goes out on the mound, and he goes at hitters with things they probably don't know exactly what they're looking at either because they haven't seen it before either, and he usually comes out on top.

When he does, he doesn't just get the outs. He kind of looks the part, too. The ball's moving.

He can take over a game, both with the results and the feel of the game when he arrives in the ballgame. I look forward to watching him throw several times in this series.

Q. Did you learn anything about his ability to rise up to that moment in the playoff environment particularly?

ROCCO BALDELLI: I never really had any doubts about him. This is a guy that arrived in the Big Leagues on the scene and immediately kind of took over a late inning role for us. I think he loved it from the beginning.

He came in. He did it. He did it better than almost anybody in baseball. He's doing it again just like that. Biggest moment of his career, he goes out there, and he gets it done. He cuts his finger. He's bleeding. The trainers are on the field fixing his hand. Throws a couple warmup pitches -- it took a couple of pitches to kind of find it and settle back in, but when he did -- again, the feel of the game when he's in the game is different than most pitchers.

Q. I had a couple things. To follow up on his roster question, is there any chance that Buxton will be included in this series' roster?

ROCCO BALDELLI: We'll see. I'm not going to answer the roster questions right now, but Bux is going to go out. I think he's going to hit a live BP today. We're going to have a live BP session set up right after our BP and ground balls and our pitchers throw and everything today. That will be 3:00 to 5:00. I think Bux is going to take part in that today. But as far as the decisions that we end up making on our roster, we'll finalize those tomorrow.

Q. Have you decided on a starter for Game 2 yet?

ROCCO BALDELLI: I don't mind talking about that. That's pretty straightforward. Pablo and Sonny are going to pitch Game 2 and Game 3.

Q. From a strategy standpoint, you guys haven't had to do this yet, but how much does the makeup of the bullpen with having Maeda, Paddack available to you and fresh? Does that gave you flexibility to go to a quick hook if you have to and be aggressive as far as managing?

ROCCO BALDELLI: The Wild Card series, they're short, and you can use your high leverage guys basically every game or pretty close to it. So the guys that give you the two and three and even more inning stints, like the guys you mentioned, it's harder to find the right spots for them in winning games in the Wild Card series.

But as these series stretch out, I think those guys, they claim their role, and they're going to find their way into these ball games, both of them. I think you're going to see that more in a five-game series and certainly in a seven-game series, where you can use those guys to go out there and not just cover innings, but to win ball games.