NL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS PHILLIES

October 23, 2023

Jeff Hoffman

Citizens Bank Park

Philadelphia Phillies

Pregame 6 Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: We'll get started with Jeff Hoffman.

Q. With Aaron Nola going tonight, what do you admire the most about him as a pitcher both in his presence and his pitch making?

JEFF HOFFMAN: Yeah, Aaron, he's a work horse through and through. If he's not out on the mound, he is probably in the weight room. It's usually the only two places he's really hanging out.

I think what he's done through his career -- we're the same age -- he's pitched in the big leagues so much longer than I have. From day one he was ready to pitch in the Big Leagues, and I've always admired that about him.

Ultimate competitor. We're excited to have him out there tonight.

Q. How are you feeling physically, and what's the recovery process been like since Saturday?

JEFF HOFFMAN: I feel great. My recovery process really doesn't change unless something pops up, and I need a little bit extra. But me and the training staff have pretty much done the same thing, which is I spend 30, 40 minutes on the training table, make them poke around. If they find anything, we address it. Today I just got off the table, and everything feels great.

Q. Those of us who aren't here year-round are making the very obvious observation that Bryce really fits this city. I assume you guys see the same thing.

JEFF HOFFMAN: Yeah, absolutely. Bryce's personality, his competitiveness, his will to win is unmatched. It really is.

I've been around some great players in my career, and I think when it comes to the will to win and obviously the big moment stuff, he's at the top of the list. He cares so much about the city. He really does. It's not just something that he's saying in front of a microphone. We hear it every single day in the clubhouse, and I think it's rubbed off on a lot of guys.

We all really, really want to win for the city. Obviously you see after the big clinching games and stuff like that the type of response we get from the fans singing the song and everything in the crowd. It's so much fun. We're excited to keep it going.

Q. Speaking of Bryce, you are one of the guys who was throwing him BP when he was trying to get back up here, and you were trying to kind of catch on at that point. What's this year been like for you from Spring Training and trying to carve out a role, and now you are being asked to get some of the biggest outs of the season for a team that has World Series aspirations?

JEFF HOFFMAN: It started crazy, and it's kind of ending crazy. This whole year has been unbelievable. I've thanked the organization 100 times for that opportunity to come up and throw to Bryce. I've been on record saying that was pretty much the World Series to me at that point. Here we are with a chance to go back.

I put in a lot of work to get to this point. It's not an accident that this is happening. I like to think that everything that I've put in is finally kind of coming to fruition, so I'm excited to get out there and hopefully finish this thing off tonight.

Q. So much has been made obviously about the fans and how great they are. When you look back on this year, is there a moment, a time where you realized maybe these people are a little bit different?

JEFF HOFFMAN: Yeah. I mean, I saw it pretty early on. Day games, midweek day games, that kind of stuff and we have 38,000 to 40,000 people in the crowd. That kind of stuck out to me right away.

You see how much everybody cares. You hear how much everybody cares. When we don't perform, people get upset. When we do perform, they're right there with us.

I feel like everything that is a Philly sports fan is very, very clear when you are a player and when you are out on the field.

Q. Along those lines of appreciating the opportunity to be here, can you articulate what you were doing at this time last year, last October, where you were, what you were doing?

JEFF HOFFMAN: Yeah, I was on the couch at home not winning. And I think right around the tender deadline is when the Reds cut me loose, and kind of got a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. And I was excited, because my offseasons are always something that I look forward to -- not because I want to be done playing for the year -- but because I put in a lot of good work. And I really trust the group that's around me in the offseason, and I trusted them to get me to a spot like this.

This year has been so much fun. Every day I come to work, I'm so excited to come to work, so excited to get to work with the people that I get to work with, and it's all because of the group that we have in the clubhouse that make it that way.

Q. You mentioned the connection with Nola. Of course, first-round picks in the same year. I wonder, Jeff, as you've gone through your journey in baseball, how have you looked at that? Knowing how talented you are as a pitcher but also the expectations of the first round, how to take the positive of that from a mental standpoint without letting it feel like a burden?

JEFF HOFFMAN: Yeah, I think I struggled with that for a little bit. I definitely put a lot of pressure on myself coming out of college and getting drafted, and I missed all of that first year because I was rehabbing my elbow.

I don't know if I really handled it the right way. Looking back -- I mean, what I know now, obviously things would have gone different. But I think for me personally the way I am as a competitor, less is more for me. When I'm out on the mound, there's really not a whole lot of thinking going on.

I trust the guy that's behind the plate a lot. Probably more than I trust myself. We go out there, and we just do. We don't think. We just do.

Q. Is it a simplification to say you're here just because of that batting practice or pitching to Bryce? Do you feel like you would have been here anyway?

JEFF HOFFMAN: I think batting practice to Bryce, at least the way I have thought about it, I think that helped overlook some of the numbers that I was putting up in Triple-A at the time. My stuff has been the same all year. My stuff has been the same since mid-January when I was trying to find a job.

I think that when I came up to throw to Bryce, it was, one, for the organization to see me really for the first time because I wasn't in camp with them, and I didn't know anybody really besides some of the guys that I played with in the past. But I think me throwing to him on this type of stage in a Big League park with everybody's eyes on, I think that helped overlook a few of the things that maybe weren't so shiny at the time.