AL DIVISION SERIES: TWINS VS ASTROS

October 10, 2023

Rocco Baldelli

Target Field

Minnesota Twins

Pregame 3 Press Conference

Q. What have you seen and heard from Royce over the past couple days that gave you confidence putting him back out there at third?

ROCCO BALDELLI: He's been making steady improvements for a while. I'd say his hamstring is in a good place to play third base. You never make statements about, oh, this guy's a hundred percent or not a hundred percent. He's significantly better. We think he can make all the plays. He says, I'm good to play third if you want me to play third.

It allows us to do other things in our infield too. We're putting him back over there because we think he's prepared.

Q. Going with Willi over Michael in center field, just looking for left-handed bat?

ROCCO BALDELLI: Yeah, we're getting another left-handed bat in there. Both have been very good for us this year, as we know, both Michael and Willi. I've been looking for ways to get Willi in there, get Willi involved. He makes things, exciting things happen, things that win games for you all year long.

I think this is one of his opportunities to get him out there. Michael's defense is a game changer for us in a lot of ways, and we know that. Trust me, in a lot of ball games he finds his way into the ballgame one way or the other, and Willi ends up playing in a different spot on the field.

So for today, Javier, he's a tough customer regardless, but finding ways to get an extra left-handed batter too in the lineup, I think can be helpful for us.

Q. Byron didn't take live BP yesterday, but is he running? What's sort of going on with him right now?

ROCCO BALDELLI: I'm not going to give day-to-day updates on Buck and everything that he's doing. You're right. He did not hit in the live BP yesterday. We had a few things going on. I didn't talk to him about not hitting in the live BP. So I don't really have a ton to add on it even if I was going to get into the details.

We're just going to continue to treat him day to day internally, and then probably we're planning on winning the series, and then after the series we can discuss.

Q. Could Royce clearing the DH spot affect the Buck conversation in any way moving forward?

ROCCO BALDELLI: I'm not going to talk about future roster -- we're worried about today's game. That's clearly our focus today. Trying to find a way and maneuver and play well to win the game today.

I think focusing and looking at roster moves and players that -- you know, as important as Buck is to our team and our organization, getting into all of the different directions that his availability could mean for us, at the moment, I think it takes away from what's going on at the moment.

Q. You have Joe Ryan lined up for tomorrow. What do you like just kind of about his matchup starting for some side it's going to be an elimination game tomorrow?

ROCCO BALDELLI: Yeah, you're right. I think there's different directions we could take Joe's start. Joe -- especially when facing a lineup of more righties than lefties, it's a guy that he can miss bats against almost anybody. He throws a lot of strikes. At least he doesn't walk a lot of people, misses a ton of bats.

So if you're looking for a good place to start, especially against a team that doesn't strike out a lot, I think that combination of things kind of works well.

He'll be motivated. He'll be ready to perform. I think he's been waiting for his opportunity to go out there, and we know when it's going to be now.

I think there are a lot of different directions that these playoff games can go. There are scenarios where Joe's probably going out there and pitching deep into the game. There are scenarios, even good scenarios for us where he's not, but I don't want to complicate things for him in any way. I just want him to go out there and focus on making good pitches.

Q. During the season, you guys stood a 50-50 catcher split. What concerns do you have about keeping Ryan fresh as you play him? Obviously that was a big concern during the year. Because it's such a shorter part of the season, is it easier to go that way more often as far as the split time?

ROCCO BALDELLI: This has clearly been, for me personally, one of the more challenging positional discussions, roster discussions, like usage on the position players side because we've relied on Vazquy for a lot this year.

With the days off in the playoffs and us choosing to go with Ryan to catch, to this point, all the innings, but generally speaking, the vast majority of the innings.

One, keeping Jeffers fresh -- the days off help. There's multiple days off in between series. He can catch multiple days in a row, and really you're only looking at playing two games in a row and then having a day off, which is something that any of those guys that play that position can handle.

If we were talking three in a row, four in a row, five in a row, like we do in the regular season constantly, totally different discussion for me. This is something we'll continue to monitor obviously and keep checking with him to make sure he's fine, but I think he's going to be more than good to go.

And, Vazquy, we're going to do our best to keep him sharp because the snap of the finger, he's going to be in there and find himself in there. There's a ton of scenarios where Christian Vazquez is a very consequential player for us in this series and beyond.

It's generally how these games play out. There are games that play out where you hit the seventh inning and we are putting Vazquy in the game for any number of reasons. We could still see both guys getting time out there, but for the most part, Jeffers is going to get a lot of the bulk early work in the games.

Q. Rocco, you won't know when tomorrow's game is until sometime late tonight. Does that affect anything at all? Is that a concern at all to you or for Joe?

ROCCO BALDELLI: Depends -- what, you plan on watching it on TV? I don't know. No, we'll get the news out to everybody. I did hear that, and it's unusual. We get used to dealing with a lot of unusual things in our game. Our players are very maneuverable, pliable, whatever you tell them. They'll be ready to go. There's never any second thought about it or any excuses or anything like that.

If they found out at midnight what time the following day's game was going to be, they'd be fine. These guys don't go -- we like to pretend everyone's going to bed at 10:00 at night before these games. I don't think that's the case.

Q. (No microphone)?

ROCCO BALDELLI: They'll be ready. They'll be ready.

Q. Julien from a distance is the most difficult guy to read. Facially, nothing changes. Has the playoff changed him at all? Is he any more of an amped-up guy, or is he the same guy?

ROCCO BALDELLI: No, we're getting less and less from him. It's funny because visually sometimes that's what it looks like, but he's probably interacting with more people throughout the day -- I swear to you. I'm not lying. I mean, I'm not making this up -- than almost anyone else. There's some guys that are above him on that list.

He might not be initiating all those interactions, but there's a lot of people that, throughout their day, they're looking for him, and they have a good time with him, and they like playing with him. So there's a lot more going on there than he lets on a lot of the time.

People are probably having more fun being around Eddie Julien than any other player in our clubhouse on a daily basis. I don't think that's changed too much. I think he's enjoying -- I think Eddie's enjoying everything going on right now in a big way.

I like watching him play. He's a good player. What an unusual player. Just a different kind of guy to have in the clubhouse. You don't see guys like him very often come around because he's also a little bit of a character. He's a guy that I like walking by. When I'm walking down the hall and he's coming my way, I can't help but smile before he gets there.