MLB WORLD SERIES: DIAMONDBACKS VS RANGERS

October 26, 2023

Torey Lovullo

Globe Life Field

Arizona Diamondbacks

Workout Day Press Conference

Q. You have known Bruce Bochy well from his time with the Giants. What is it about him that gets the team to beat the odds and make to it the World Series?

TOREY LOVULLO: Well, first of all, he is a definite Hall of Fame manager. I always find that the most -- a very humbling experience to be in the same building as him. I've said it since the time he was in San Francisco, that after a game, when I'm done managing my team against his team, I'm exhausted. You just can't miss anything. He is all over everything that you're trying to do on a moment-to-moment basis. It can be a big challenge.

The beauty of it, too, is that he manages off the scoreboard. I've got a card in front of me. I've got all sorts of stuff I can look at. And I keep my dugout card.

He's just going off of his instincts and what's going on on the scoreboard. So to me that's amazing. He is an unbelievable human being.

I remember when I presented his gift to him at home plate when he was stepping away from the Giants, I just said, it's been an absolute honor to manage against you. I hope you find your way back to doing this one day.

He said, I'm tired right now. If I do it will be an honor to be managing against you as well.

I couldn't believe he said that to me. I was just honored to be in his presence. And I will be for these next nine days.

Q. Wondering if your roster plans are going to change too much here and kind of the same thing with how you'll handle your pitching staff with rotation and whatnot?

TOREY LOVULLO: We're going to discuss that right now, the front office just got here. We're going to talk about some of the characteristics of our lineup, what we want to do, how we want to manipulate different things and have as much leverage as possible through some of the ideas that we're having as the game is moving along.

I don't know what we're going to do at this point. It really comes down to an extra pitcher or an extra position player. We didn't quite get into that extra pitcher. So we feel like there could be a need for the extra position player.

The starting rotation will follow the same pattern, if that's what you're asking about. It will follow the same pattern. I don't want to be secretive about it. It will be Gallen, Merrill, Pfaadt and we'll figure out what's going on on day four.

Q. This is obviously Bani's former domain here in Arlington. What's he meant to your staff these last couple of years?

TOREY LOVULLO: He's probably the best thing that's happened to me in my managerial career. I've had unbelievable people around me that helped teach me, drive me, posture me. Jeff Banister has changed our culture in every way that we have wanted him to help and assist in that way.

He fills in the gaps. He fills in my personality gaps, that's the first thing. And at times I feel like he does a better job than me.

You know you're in good hands when the person, your first lieutenant, does things at a better clip than you. He gives me the freedom to roam. And I feel that's where I'm at my best. While the drills are taking place for pregame, while the day is being set up, I can step away from that responsibility and watch it from afar, and then sit in my office for 20 extra minutes to have certain meetings with certain players about how we're going to push along.

But Jeff has, for me personally, filled in my gaps. I tend to be a little dry and simple in one space. He's taught me to open up my perspective a little bit, challenge players the right way by saying the right thing at the right time.

And I certainly know that if I'm not, he will be doing that.

If there's one person that I could ever hope would get back into a managerial seat would be Jeff Banister. He deserves another opportunity. I'm sure that's coming.

Q. Talking to Evan Longoria he said his first time around he had to get a hit in every single at-bat in the World Series and the world was caving in on him. His words, he said he knows how stupid that was. A, how important is it to have a guy like him that these guys and talk to or he can pull aside and share that with? And, B, how have you seen the younger guys respond to him?

TOREY LOVULLO: Thinking about it going full circle for him, it's 2008 or '09 and he's playing in a World Series. He's referenced being in that arena we were just in in Philly and some of the challenges and would pass along information there.

It's happened a lot in the postseason about what to expect at every turn. And he's the guy that guys will turn to just to have a conversation about how to relax and how to expect certain things.

But it goes way beyond that. It was probably a day one conversation in my office that I gave him free rein to do whatever he needed to do, just run it at me. If you need my assistance, a push here or there, I can assist you.

But conversations you can have when I'm not there are way more powerful than anything any other teammate or any other coach could have because of your reputation. And he has not stopped from doing that.

And I encouraged him also to remember he's a good baseball player. I don't want him to be a Crash Davis who will be teaching lessons every single day. But he can kind of -- and for me, too -- he can peek around each corner and tell me what's there and give me a little bit of a snapshot as to how to relax and how to get through that moment, because this game is filled with manager anxiety and insecurities. I think he's done that well enough for so many years that he can pass that along.

Q. Brent Strom, how good is he at his job? And what did you not know about him before he came here that's kind of you learned about him or been surprised by?

TOREY LOVULLO: The first thing that I realized very quickly, there's a lot of intensity. There's a lot of dugout intensity. I thought that he was a pitching guru that was doing his thing every single day and would try to teach and have the kids trust him and learn.

But he's extremely engaged pitch to pitch and there's a fire in his belly, at 70-plus years old, that I hope we all have because I think it's what drives him every single day.

And once again, you look for culture changers. When Jeff Banister was hired, he needed to change the culture and help me hold guys accountable, period, end of story, with the entire team.

Brent Strom brought a new glossary, a new pitching glossary. And he's the architect of what we do every single day on the mound.

The language changed immediately. The focus as to what we needed to do, pitch to pitch, batter to batter and game to game changed instantly. And it took a little bit of time for to us get there.

But I hugged his wife the other night and I said, thank you -- and I did the same thing for Karen Banister, to both of the wives, I said, thank you for sharing your husbands with me, because without them we would not be in this situation and sharing this moment right now.

Q. When Kevin Ginkel came on the scene, he was really good in that first year, in '19, and then kind of wavered a little bit next couple years. How has he improved -- evolved, I guess, in that time, and how did he sort of enter that circle of trust for you?

TOREY LOVULLO: Well, I think, the back half of that question, I think every player when they perform, unfortunately it's a performance-based industry, and especially when you're driving down towards the stretch drive of the season, you want to have guys you can turn to and count on that have the right heartbeat, that they can go out execute in a time of crisis or be able to execute in the most critical moments of the at-bat.

And Kevin started to do that from midseason on. And I've had some difficult conversations with Kevin Ginkel over the past four years, there's no doubt about it. That's why he earned my trust because of the way he was able to control his heartbeat and execute.

Four years ago he came on, in '19, and I think we won 85 or 86 games, and he put us in that position. He enabled us to put Archie Bradley on the back half.

He started, the very back half of that ninth inning. He started to earn his way into the back half the game because of his ability to execute. The same way we've seen it.

I think he got hurt. I think he got banged up. I think he got injured and just couldn't finish his pitches. Instead of pitches taking off and exploding in the zone, they were starting to roll up there.

He learned a valuable lesson. Speak up when you're banged up and get taken care of and not try to pitch through it. It cost him a little bit of time. I think at that time he was taken off the 40 man he was exposed in the leagues and nobody picked him up he fell back in our lap and we rehabbed him he got healthy started to have success.

He had a lot of sponsors at the beginning of last year when he came on board and we could see that things were starting to flush pretty good for him.

He's taken off from there. So it's really the finish of his pitches, the ability to pound the zone, and he's got a nasty breaking ball that he's not afraid to throw at any time.

Q. 10 years ago, you were part of a team that won the World Series. What have you kind of taken maybe from that experience that you can incorporate now that you're a manager as opposed to a bench coach?

TOREY LOVULLO: I was just writing a text message to a couple of people about the same thing today. They asked me the same question.

It's fairly simple. I watched from an unbelievable manager who was my mentor in John Farrell about how to stay calm during turbulent times or exciting times.

He had won gear, one demeanor, and it was always under control. I remember him speaking to me about limited days off. Maintaining focus. Yesterday it was our second day off in the postseason. So we've been working out every day and staying as sharp as we possibly can.

And the guys, even though they were reluctant and pushing back at the time, I think they see the need for the reason why we had those workouts.

And John also talked about balance and being able to separate from the moment, go out, have a nice dinner, spend some time with your family and friend, and when you come to the ballpark, make sure you're ready to go.

So I'm drawing from those experiences because I watched him do it. And then it's hard to explain; it just seems like one continuous day for me since we arrived in Milwaukee, and that was -- I don't know -- 20-some-odd days ago. It's just this foggy approach to every single day that we have a job to do and it's like just go get it done.

You go to order something at Chipotle, it's meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, it's the same thing, the same lineup, every single day for me.

You know who Sebastian Maniscalco is? If you haven't, Google it when you walk out of here, his Chipotle skit. It's hilarious. That's what I feel like.

(Laughter).

Q. How have you been able to use these perceived slights against your team, whether it's 84 wins, people threatening to have a pool party, talk show host threatening to retire, as far as motivation?

TOREY LOVULLO: I want to talk about that in a second. I want to dedicate an entire answer to that one guy.

I think, at the end of the day, we're all internally motivated. Like, we should be. It's our job to come here, stay motivated and stay focused. I don't think we need extra. But when you get extra, it's like a glass of iced tea. Add a little bit of honey and lemon to it, it tastes perfect.

When we hear those things, they're out there. Social media makes it happen really quick. And it's really my friends and my family that are dropping it in my lap because I don't necessarily -- I'm not on social media and I don't read that type of staff. But I find it entertaining. I get to it.

And we just put it on our list and keep those receipts and walk around with a little bit more of a chip on our shoulder. It gives you a little bit more motivation. And when you can get a little bit more, you take it.

Some of those things do really bother me because nobody knows the magic that's sitting inside that clubhouse right now. Nobody knows what we're capable of doing on a daily basis. Nobody knows how hard we're working to make today happen. Hopefully people start to respect this ballclub. They better because we're here, and it's real.

Specifically speaking on Mad Dog, Steven A. Smith, you're my boy, you're my boy, and I need you to hold him accountable. I need you to keep going at him every single day. Don't let it stop.

But a deal's a deal. I agree. You've got to -- you can't back out of that one, Mad Dog. You've got to do something. I don't know if you're talking about TV, radio, but I do like Howard Stern's thought about walking with a billboard saying that I am whatever, a liar and an A-hole, in Midtown Manhattan for half a day. That will do it for me, but I ain't going to forgive you until you do something unbelievable, maybe show up here and say you're sorry to the entire team. That's all I want to say about that.

Q. I was asking some of the guys earlier, typically we kind of ask what have the veterans taught the young guys. What do you think the young guys have taught the veterans, or even away from that, taught you, because they talked a lot about the music, the older guys said the music is pretty bad for them. What have you learned from the young guys on this team?

TOREY LOVULLO: That it's really important to give them a voice inside of our clubhouse and give them legs.

I was brought up in a totally different time where you sat in the corner and you listen to everything and you never said a word. And I know that didn't work for me. So since day one, when they get here, their opinion matters, what they say matters and how they act matters.

Everybody in that clubhouse is respectful and humble. But the young players go out and play with an unbelievable amount of enthusiasm and focus, and that's very, very contagious.

We have three -- we used to have four -- somebody had a birthday the other day -- four 22-year-olds starting in NLCS and now the World Series. To me, they need each other. The entire group needs one another and they feel their importance, and they're one of 26. And it shows up every single day.

But for me, it's like they're my children. They're 23-year-olds. I have 23-year-old children.

I go home and say things to my kids and they're, like, that's pretty cool, dad, how did you hear that? I'm like, don't worry about it, I just heard it in the clubhouse a hundred times. Meek Mill -- they didn't even know if I knew who Meek Mill was. I didn't until four days ago.

It's a real thing. It's a real thing. They know they're important. Important to everybody. And I give them full authority to be themselves.

Q. Back to Boch, you have a guy here who has been managing for 26 years and he's been through the gamut of what it was like to be a manager back then, to making adjustments to be a manager now. He's kind of like old school/new school in a way. You're a new school manager in this era. And I've known both of you for a long time. What's the difference, do you think, that you've had to do as opposed to Boch, and Boch continues to be successful and you're just getting there now?

TOREY LOVULLO: I have to continue learning and growing. I think my biggest fear -- and you guys that have been with me have heard me say this -- my biggest fear is getting caught in 2005 or 1995. I have to evolve as a manager, as a human being. Probably everybody in this room feels the same way.

So I do carry along a lot of the old school baseball traditions. I have that inside of me. And it is part of my core, but I need to evolve to understand what a younger player is going through, per the example that I gave just right now.

I have to understand what it really means when somebody goes through the lineup as a starting pitcher three or four times. There's real evidence and it's statistical analysis for the past 25 years that show certain trends and certain habits, that did anybody know what a run differential was 30 years ago? No way. But for some reason it's pretty close to being accurate.

So certain things do get my attention, and I have to evolve. Boch is unbelievable. He is instinctually an unbelievable baseball mind. And he probably has a computer in his head that nobody is aware of. And he's tried to share that with people and you just don't get it.

So I think he probably gets a lot of information that he finds repetitive and he might put to the side, but I guarantee he uses every sort of angle that he can to make the best decision moving forward.

Because that's all we do. All I want to do every single day is make a great decision for the player to be successful in that moment.

Q. As you look over the season and all the things that you went through, do you think that the restructuring of the bullpen after the trade deadline was really the nexus of what pushed you guys into this position today? You had 26 blown saves the first half of the season and you were doing bullpen by committee back then. Then you got Sewald and Thompson, other guys fell into position --

TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, 100 percent, the bullpen is a very strong reason for why we're here right now. We've had good hitting, great starting pitching. But it gives me a lot of options on the back half of the game.

They go out and collect huge outs. All coming from different angles, different stuff, different shapes of their pitches, and it's a very good balance.

We did have a lot of blown saves prior to getting Paul to come in. I think that's why run differential is so lopsided and looks a little awkward from time to time. I get asked that question.

But going back to last year, it was a number of blown saves. It was the same thing for a portion of this year. Once we got Paul, it sewed up that ninth inning, allowed everybody to fall backwards, gave Kevin Ginkel an opportunity to be a better version of himself, and we took off.