📅 Published on: 2024-12-26 13:00:06
⏱ Duration: 00:52:11 (3131 seconds)
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Welcome in Eric Hosmer! 2015 World Series champion!
0:00 – Intro
0:45 – Eric Hosmer
#baseball #erichosmer #MLB
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🕵️♂️ Transcript:
[Music] here you go here you [Music] go welcome to another Samson sit down this is a good one folks get ready we somehow managed and it’s impossible to know how to get time with Eric osmer yes you know him if you’re a Mets fan because he crushed your dreams back in 2015 if you’re a Floridian you know him because he went to American Heritage happens to be right across the street from where I lived in Florida and if you know anything about baseball now you know that he’s got opinions thoughts the experience to articulate them and he is someone to watch and follow in the media space and Eric first of all welcome to nothing personal thank you for being here appreciate it appreciate it nothing personal to those Mets fans out there it’s almost 10 years so we can almost officially get over it you know I’m not finding that people get over stuff quickly in sports people are still upset about the 03 Championship people are still upset about trades that Wayne heis Zinga made in 1998 26 you by the way you’re a Floridian what do you mean get over it people haven’t gotten over the Marlins fire cells yet why is that H I don’t know man that’s just uh it’s crazy because there was not as much media as far as Twitter and X or Instagram social media wise but um yeah I guess people especially Marlins fans they felt like once the team won it was like we fire sale right after that but I mean there are so many good players to come through the marins organizations if you really do go back and evaluate those trades I mean you look at what they got in return for some of the superstars and they were some pretty damn good trades did you grow up a Marlins fan I did so I grew up Marlins fan obviously Marlins were home I would always go I would buy those $5 Fishbowl tickets and I’m I’m surprised I’m admitting this to you but we would end up sneaking down into one of the first rows of the bullpen or somewhere Over The Dugout and we pulled it off I don’t know how we pulled it off and then uh my father is from New York up in Cold Spring close to West Point and we were you know he was a big Yankee fan so I got to go to the Yankee Stadium for the first time and that was an eye openening experience getting to see Yankee Stadium the Bronx the New York fans and just kind of how they treated everything so I definitely took a likening to the Yankees but then that quickly became uh and I believe it was 03 I was in a tough spot and I had to pick aide either way but I stayed loyal to the Marlins that was the hometown team so did you go to any of the World Series games in 03 so I did not go in ‘ 03 I went in 97 I went with my Uncle Joey and I was probably I would say one section over from where Bobby Bonia hit that home run right field amazing and then in 2003 I actually went to the game I believe it was against the Giants when PUD Rodriguez got trucked at home plate and he said I’m not effing letting go of this ball and that was one of the most iconic moments I think of my Marlon memory uh it’s funny you say that because people ask what is the best memory from the 03 Championship run as president of the team and people would expect me to say winning game six in Yankee Stadium to win the World Series or in the alternative winning game seven in Wrigley Field in order to uh win the pennant of some people would say the Bartman game I mean what a postseason to think of it but the number one memory for me because I was sitting 20 feet away right next to the Dugout was the game you’re talking about which is the game four of the first round against Barry Bonds and the Giants the best team in baseball that year they won over a 100 games heavily favored and I want to tell you about running a team and a player so an interesting perspective when you go into the playoffs you have to set your roster and The rosters get submitted to baseball and then baseball sends the roster back back to you so we saw the Giants roster before the series started and we were very unclear why they had an extra pitcher we knew Jason Schmidt may have been a little dicey but They Carried an extra pitcher instead of an extra hitter and we said to ourselves they’re not they don’t no pinch runner on that team and that’s before the series started but normally you say things like that and it never matters it never comes up the only reason that Pudge Rodriguez is holding that ball and that Jeff conine was able to throw out a runner on that fly on that single to left field is a it was shallow but B it was JT snow running and JT snow as you very well know great player great player but but he had below average speed he probably would grade out at a 40 in in terms of speed and it was just a perfect storm and the feeling and urbina couldn’t even wipe his own tus and we hadn’t even made it world series that was the first of many blown saves but I remember watching that play Live thinking we just we just beat the Giants and we’re going to play in the LCS and I’m so glad you were there that actually makes my day yeah it was incredible and now thinking back on your guys’s run I mean beating the Giants going to Wrigley beating Chicago beating New York in Yankee Stadium you guys went into some pretty big markets and and took care of business but that’s amazing how that all shakes out I remember Schmidt the guy the pitcher on the Giants was unbelievable he was nasty and it came back to bite him because it seems like they needed an insurance an extra pitcher to cover his injury or whatever he was going through but man those were those were some great memories and then Jeff Conan Mr Marlin I mean I idolized him growing up i’ I know he was out there and Weston I believe I think his kids used to play Little League out there and I’ve seen him at the Little League field a couple times when I was growing up but I mean he was a a great player great guy to idolize for sure do you feel old that Griffin conine is a big leager oh my gosh it’s crazy I was just talking to people the other day and even like my last couple years in my playing career just kind of some of the guys some of the younger guys not knowing certain TV shows not KN knowing certain uh you know musical artists was was crazy to me but even the other day I was talking to somebody and we were talking about how Jimmy Rawlings and uh Ryan Howard are not doing a podcast the 611 and they had to go back and kind of look up who Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard was and I’m like are you kidding me like that’s not there’s no way but I guess we’re getting older I do got some gray flakes coming in here now so it’s father time is getting us oh Father time gets everybody and it’s you know 10 years ago since you won the World Series and I’ll never have this feeling having not been a big Leaguer but you are going to games as a fan as a young boy and then you find yourself this is only 12 years after watching the Marlins win the World Series that you celebrate a World Series do you think at that moment or is it the final out or is it going into the ninth inning with three outs when does and don’t tell me one of the great gloves of all time for people who don’t know how good Eric was just one of the best first base gloves we ever saw but when do you start thinking to yourself wait a minute um we may win the World Series man I tell you what it’s one of those where you kind of sit back talking about old being old and crusty Now you kind of sit back and reflect and thinking of the whole Journey on how we went in 2014 all the way to game seven lost to the Giants and pretty much Madison Bumgarner to then bounce back make it all the way to the playoffs and then eventually win the World Series you just understand how many things have to go right for your baseball team to have a chance to even play in the postseason I mean you need injuries you got to stay away from those there’s crazy hops crazy things that happen throughout the game Crazy calls with umpires that can change a game either way so to understand that we went all the way to game seven lost back the next year and won plus everyone talks about that World Series hangover how you play an extra month and it’s hard to get ready for the next season so just reflecting all that I can’t believe we actually pulled that off and did it but it was a special group our guys in Kansas City we were you know determined it was uh 2014 was such a magical ride when we went all the way to game seven and lost I don’t think any of us envisioned us losing so it was just one of those moments to where like we have to get back on this stage and then when we ended up playing in 2015 against the Mets in New York and that World Series started there was really it was just a thought of there’s no chance we’re letting this one slip away and I think that experience year before definitely helped us on the World Series stage you know it’s funny you’re talking about life as a royal and then you’re talking about Yankees and and different markets one thing that is inescapable is that you can win the World Series in a small Market with a lower payroll than what the Yankees and Dodgers currently Trot out there and so many fan bases and this off season has been a great example where the Yankees don’t get Juan stto for 760 the Mets steal him away for 765 and it’s as though the world had been set on fire like it is the end of the world and it just makes me smile because one player does not make a World Series it just can’t happen and your Royals team our Marlins team great examples we had good deep teams and it wasn’t about payroll because frankly Eric your team was better than the Met 15 yeah and you realize the process of being a small Market team you know we are group in the minor leagues you know me Salvador Perez Mike mustakis we were the guys it wasn’t really pressure on one guy to come up and save the organization and get Kansas City back to the playoffs it was kind of our group so to realize our group came up through the minor leagues struggled a little bit in the beginning of our uh Big League careers as the Royals you know 2011 to 13 we didn’t have really good records as a team and then eventually making the playoffs in 14 and 15 so the whole process was really special and um you obviously want to win every year fans and the whole fan base expect to win every year but when you do it with a small Market it’s a it’s such a unique bond between players and fans and the whole organization and fans I think those big Market teams that’s the expectation no doubt is to win and if you don’t win go out spend as much money as you possibly can to load the team up and do it the next year but the reality of it is for small Market teams it’s not like that so the fan base Kansas City was really glued to our group of guys especially those young young prospects and then you know getting to celebrate with the fans we became uh glued to them and there was such a unique Bond we had in Kansas City to you know we just talked about before the show it’s going to be a 10year reunion here coming up and we were just in Kansas City for the 2014 ALCS reunion and it was so fun to be able to sit in the stands and enjoy it and see that perspective and hang out with fans and actually have time and have a beer and just hang out because obviously when you’re playing stuff’s on the Fly and you don’t have that opportunity do you feel like Bobby wit right now Bobby Wht Jr he doesn’t have the mustakis or the you or the Salvador Perez do you feel like he feels although ironically he still has him which is funny to say but do you feel like that he feels that sort of pressure that maybe is a group in 15 um and in 14 that you didn’t feel I I do because he got a tremendous contract you know that’s the new that’s the new trend in the game now is to identify talent and try and lock him up for as long as possible and I mean he’s getting top dollars close to 300 400 whatever million dollars it is and when you look at the deal now especially after the sto contract it looks really good for the Royals but I certainly think Bobby feels that pressure because any time as a player you sign a big contract you feel like it falls on your shoulders you have to be the leader of the players you have to be the leader in that Clubhouse to motivate guys each and every day and during the course of a baseball season it’s eight months it’s every day so there’s going to be days where you know you’re either going through something off the field or you just don’t feel all the way there and your energy doesn’t show the way it should and I think people are always going to be pinned on him but this kid Bobby Wood Jr is so special I mean not only the physical tools that he has on a baseball field but I got to talk to him last year in Spring he came on digging deep and he mentally is so far ahead of the game that was the big Trend you know the new trend now my last couple years of playing is a lot of these young players are hiring mental skills processed velopment coaches to where when I was a rookie it was all about weightlifting and guys are then taking that to the offseason and training in the off season I think fast forward now 10 plus years the mental side is huge and Bobby Wood Jr in my opinion after hearing him talk and hearing his process is Way Beyond his years mentally don’t you get worried though and without making this too much about Bobby Wick because it’s not but in terms of players and the pressure they feel as the years go on if the Royals and they had such a great year last season he had an MVP year short of being the MVP because he’s in a league with uh Aaron judge but that fact uh if you don’t win uh don’t you feel as though that the pressure If you combine the money and the losing isn’t that where the unhappiness lives yes I think that’ll always continue to be the the driving motivation for Bobby I mean Bobby and Aaron judge two guys you just brought up right there if you look at their Seasons put their regular seasons I mean up against any regular season the last couple years these guys are MVPs year year in and year out MVP candidates and they did unbelievable then you get to the postseason which is such a short amount of games whether you get knocked out early or whether you go to the World Series like judge and they don’t perform the way they want to and that weighs on them and that’s crazy I mean you look at Aaron judge he can go out next year in New York and have 60 65 home runs and it’s still going to be that first day of the playoffs the conversation’s going to be the same no matter what so I think it is a tremendous amount of pressure but I think these guys find ways to bottle it up and use that for fuel to go and get better I know Bobby Wood Jr especially after last postseason against the Yankees did not perform the way he wanted to but it almost seemed like after talking to him after he is so ready to go this year you can almost book he’s gonna have another MVP type season but then when the postseason starts it’s like it’s going to be a brand new season for him and I’m ready for him to go and I think he’ll be ready to go and that’s if though I mean you know that being playing Kansas City and all the different small markets and low payrolls there are low payroll teams that make it the Guardians the the Royals there were the Rays have windows that are open but those windows don’t stay open long and so it’s funny the way you just set it as a guarantee not guy obviously you didn’t guarantee it but assuming that the Royals are in the playoffs I’m not sure that uh you know you need another Seth Lugo type signing where you’ve got a player who it’s it’s funny Eric we uh when you’re building a team I always tell people I don’t need a GM to tell me to sign sh Otani or Juan stto that’s not very helpful I need a GM to tell me to sign Seth Lugo to 15 million times three because when you’re a sa young finalist and you’ve signed to that deal that means that you’ve got a good front office and when you were playing so one of the things in your career first of all you’re speaking out of total experience when you signed with the Padres did you feel that at all that when you were going in because you signed a deal that you were well worthy of signing you had to leave Kansas City uh and when you stepped in there were you thinking okay I need they’re looking at me differently now certainly and it was it was a different situation it was almost like when I got called up our group got called up to the big leagues and we had some veteran guys you know raban to Jeff franor to Alex Gordon these guys that it was kind of on them to hey where there’s a bunch of young guys coming up and you guys have to show these guys how to be professionals how to prepare how to deal with the media how to deal with certain things a Major League season really throws at you and and the major leagues is so different because I think as a player your whole career you really don’t struggle maybe a short period of time during the minor leagues and then you kind of get over that and it’s like okay I struggle for a little bit but now I’m good and there’s no more struggling it’s not going to happen but the big leagues is so different like you have to be ready to go each and every year and it’s such a different grind so I think I put a lot of pressure on myself heading over to San Diego to not only try and perform at a high level but to do the right things with the guys in the clubhouse there were so many young guys I mean the year before I got to San Diego go there was three rule five draft picks that were on the big league roster the whole entire season and you know as building a team that essentially never happens I mean you might have one guy from the rule five draft that can stick the whole entire season and you’re trying to keep him in your organization there was three so there was not much familiarity that I had with any of these guys so I really tried to take time and get to know these guys off the field get to know these guys on the road get to know these guys any chance I could so I certainly felt that that was on me and then once we signed Manny two years later I felt like okay now it’s kind of split duties Manny can handle some I can handle some but yeah I definitely felt that and I wanted to do what I could for those guys on and off the field did you smile Eric when Manny Machado signed and he said that he chose San Diego because of their great minor league system did you smile at all I did and everyone’s like man this is great because Hosmer is starting the trend he’s bringing these guys to San Diego I’m like no I didn’t $300 million brought Manning Machado to San Diego let’s be about this but no I certainly did and Manny was a guy at burrito High School down in Miami he and I at the time he was represented by Scott Voris and a guy named Jim pisel who was the guy that went out and recruited for Scott on the high school level so he and I both knew piz real well I actually went with piz my first offseason to watch Manny a couple times at burrito watch him play in high school so we knew of each other got to meet each other real quick before and after his games but never really got to hang out or not got to know each other more than that so getting to know Manny over there getting to play with him and uh just getting to see how talented he really was was truly an honor for me and um you know I’m sure you’ve heard me say it plenty of times I bring it up all the time Manny Machado is a guy that people don’t understand how much growth he’s had throughout his career not only on the field but in the clubhouse as well because he’s a leader man he really is a leader he wasn’t in the beginning and uh he got older you know I had that with a player AJ Bernett was a tough tough player as a young pitcher um and you know what people grow up and they they get older and it’s funny in baseball you get labeled as a clubhouse problem you get labeled as a immature player and it can stick in front office’s Minds for a whole career but when you are with a player and spend enough time more than off more often than not there’s a maturity that happens and the the greatest thing is when the maturity can happen with the Peak Skill period because that’s when you get the all star production that’s when you can win when you’ve got Players whose production matches their maturity but there’s a lot of times in my career and in your in your career too where you see players my God that player’s so good but he just can’t get it together he’s too immature he’s too young or he’s got too many issues it’s really hard to be a big leager Eric it is it very much is and it’s harder to be a big league Superstar because I think Manny Machado and with Fernando tatis going over there I was like okay this is going to be yes because he can learn from Manny and Manny has done a phenomenal job and at the same time I think tatis coming up to the big leagues and essentially being compared to Manny continued to drive Manny to be the player he is today because Manny is unbelievable he’s had a Hall of Fame career I mean the numbers he’s put up he plays essentially 150 to 155 games a year which is unbelievable very Val but I think he yes I think he’s had a tremendous impact not only on tatis Plenty other guys over there there and you know Manny was a guy that uh Peter Sidler the late owner for the Padres who was an unbelievable human being but Peter really took a notice to how Manny was in the clubhouse and he understood it was Manny’s team and the bond that Manny and Peter had was special and I think that was some of the big reasons why San Diego those years uh when they lost to Philly whether what 22 23 they were all in and it was fun to watch and I think Manny and Peter did a great job in collabing to get that team to where they were did you ever feel the pressure in San Diego because they’re with AJ preller they often build up you know it’s funny they’re not talked about like the Marlins but they change courses often as we did they’ll build up yeah and then trade away and then build up and then see how that goes and trade away which is not a terrible way to do it you try to capture an open window when you can but as players I’ve never asked a player this before did you feel going into a season when the front office had done something or put a team together and you thought man we can’t get off to a slow start because if we do I’m worried they’re going to give up on us yeah certainly and I think that was that was kind of the message to me when signing in San Diego was you know it’s 2018 now we have a loaded farm system tatis and a bunch of guys that are ready to follow we’re really going to give this a year or two before we’re actually kind of all in on winning and we’re going to go seek free agents the top free agents so that moment when Manny signed it was kind of like okay this is the time now like this is where we’re on the clock we need to start winning and if we don’t win there’s going to be stuff to happen otherwise you know guys are going to get cashed in for prospects so you’re definitely on notice and I think right when about your manager getting your manager getting canned that can happen it happened right there and Andy green he won 70 games he was the handpick guy and gone that’s got to be how did you react to that you know it’s a tough situation because I really thought that Andy green you know it’s a tough situation for him to control the clubhouse I feel that a lot of young managers that maybe didn’t have a crazy playing career their resume or having been a Bruce bochi or a Dusty Baker guys that have been around for a long time it’s hard it’s hard to earn the trust for the players in that Clubhouse especially when you have some veterans on the team but I felt like Andy green was unbelievable at knowing what moves to make on the field I think that he got kind of a raw deal because before we got to the point where we had a really really good roster a roster that should very much be in the postseason I don’t think he really ever had that opportunity with that kind of roster I think he was always with us during the rebuilding years and then once that roster became in 2020 a playoff Contender he never really had the opportunity so I definitely feel for him on that aspect did you speak to Peter Syler did anyone I had players come to me we fired managers as you know in Miami just because it was a Tuesday and so did you have uh we had some player Mutiny sometimes when we fired gerardi during the season the player Mutiny happened and we kept him to the end of the season you know you had Andy green was let go jaay Tingler didn’t last very long at all he lasted a couple Seasons um did you guys wonder whether Peter Sidler was listening to you or whether he wanted to listen to you on an issue like a manager certainly I think Peter was always uh open to talking to us about players and managers and all that kind of thing we never really like he never really called us into the office and asked us about Andy or anything like that he would more so ask us about players so I think that was kind of more of him and AJ deciding to go a different route and then when Tingler got fired I think that was just kind of an obvious move because that year I believe it was 19 we had an un no no it was 21 I’m sorry the year after 2020 the crazy season but we had I mean one of the biggest meltdowns the second half you can possibly have and I think it got to the point those last two months of the Season where there was clear disconnect between the front office and Tingler and between the players in Tingler honestly so I think that was kind of a more OB obvious move and I think at that point in time AJ had gone through two younger managers and I think it was known that we got to get a veteran presence in here and that’s when Melvin took over but do you really need the connection to perform or is that just a good excuse when it just by the way teams don’t perform every year as you know and there doesn’t need to be an explanation or a reason but I would definitely ask uh when you’re not when the team isn’t performing and you dismiss it or say um that it’s a disconnect with the manager how does that explain to me how that impacts your ability to win a game yeah so I players are smart right you cannot fool players especially at the big league level and I think as players all you really want you want everybody to be pulling on the same rope so when there’s certain moves being made when there’s certain lineups being made the way they are to maybe showcase somebody to eventually get traded or to me just for a different reason than solely just winning I think the players very much are aware of that so as one of the older veteran guys on the team you’re trying to get guys motivated you’re trying to get guys ready to go and there’s naturally going to be a small group of guys that just kind of aren’t into it and know what’s going on and are very upset because they might get traded or they’re not playing because of a certain reason so I think that becomes very hard and at the major league level I mean you need everybody pulling on the same rope you need everybody finding any kind of edge you can to win every single day so when there’s that separation that’s when it becomes really really hard to win and then the culture starts kind of kind of going a different direction and I think at that point that’s when you kind of lose everything so you say the I just want to dig into that a little bit the culture going a different direction doesn’t that happen after the L so the losing happens first do do we agree that that’s the first thing that happens and whether the re there’s still a connection with the manager there’s a love of the owner but there’s a team that for whatever reason it’s not it’s not happening that particular season when during the season are you saying all right it’s not a slump anymore uh it’s not there there is a fundamental problem that the team can’t win are the players picking up on that and then making it a self-fulfilling prophecy and that’s what keeps it going for a whole season long disappointment yeah to me the the Major League season now has kind of broken into two seasons I think as players and even as coaches and manager you know that you need to by the trade deadline give ownership give the GM reasons to make you a buying team to not sell off to make you in the playoff race so you can go whether it’s whatever missing piece you have to the team whether you need a bullpen guy you another starter another bat so to me it’s like get to that trade deadline and if you’re still in contention then the team will go out and figure out moves to make you better and that’s where I think that year in 19 it got to a weird spot because we weren’t that too we weren’t too far out of the race and we felt that we were kind of hitting our stride as a team as a young group of players and then certain guys get traded you trade your closer bradan who I know you’re familiar with and it’s like man like what’s going on here plus the message we’re getting from the manager is hey we’re in this we’re trying to do whatever we can to win let’s go let’s do this every day and then all of a sudden that happens so it’s like whoa where where’s the disconnect here so I think that’s where the miscommunication or the lack of communication can get deflating as a player but at the end of the day there’s no excuse you’re a major league player you need to go out there and do whatever you can to be ready to play every single night and that’s kind of the reality of what the big leagues is can you walk me through then um 2022 Bob Melvin’s taking over for the Padre’s and we’re getting to the deadline we’re 12 you’re about I don’t know 10 12 games over 500 things are going fine and the Padres want to ad and the ad was speaking of Juan stto Juan stto and people may not remember this you were in the trade you were going to be traded to the Nationals as part of the package and you invoked that amazing sword that your agent so lovingly get for you and you invoked your no trade clause can you walk me through that and I’m I will be totally forthcoming with the way that I can have gone at it with Scott over the years and we’ve negotiated together and I’ve had certain things to say about him um just to explain to people what business is and he’s in the business of money and I respect that obviously tell me and and and let me give you one more bit of background Eric before you answer my first experience in baseball was Scott Boris representing a player and if you go back uh in o oh when I joined the Expos my first year in Miami was 02 we wanted to trade Charles Johnson and he had a no trade clause and it was demanded by Scott that we pay a million dollars to CJ to trade him and I said well no like that’s totally insane why why and because he’s moving away from home or the inconvenience for the family whatever the case is um eventually that trade got done that helped us win a World Series tell me in your mind when you get a no trade clause why you want it and then what would make you invoke it yeah so at the end of the day you just want to protect yourself from having to go to a place you don’t want to go and it’s nothing against Washington DC those guys over there Mike Rizzo Davey Martinez I just truly felt at this point in time that they weren’t in a position that they wanted to win and I’m at the point in time where you know I’m in my 10th year of my career I don’t want to go through another rebuilding situation you know I went through 18 and 19 and to me it’s it’s not fun you want to be able to compete for a championship year in and year out so leading up to that it seemed like it was about two years of rumors of me getting trading in spring training getting traded at the deadline didn’t happen one year next year in spring training kind of go through that cycle again so at that point in time it was like okay you know I remember having conversations with AJ and one day in spring training it’s like hey it was a night game the night before I get a call from AJ it’s like hey you’re getting traded tomorrow it’s going to be one of two teams one team is a good City good team the other team is a not so good team but it’s a good city it’s going to happen tomorrow blah blah blah so I get there next day in spring training nothing happens it’s like 10 11 o’clock and I’m like hey do I come into the field what do I do blah blah blah end up going in there and it’s it’s really awkward as a player you go into the locker room obviously the media is going to swarm your locker start talking to you asking questions hey what’s going on what are you hearing you walk into the food room there’s three conversations going on at three tables everyone shuts down and it’s like you know out of respect we don’t want him to hear if we’re talking about the trade or what we’re watching on TV right now so it got to the point where it’s like AJ man like I don’t want to be a distraction here I feel like I’m taking away from the whole entire group so if this is going to happen just make it happen if not then let’s move on and let’s play and you know help me out here and tell everyone it’s not going to happen and ultimately it just never happened that spring and then we get to the deadline and there’s more rumors that are happening and I’m like okay I think after that conversation in Spring I really think it’s going to happen now so I get a call in the morning it was uh 7:38 California time West Coast and it’s hey there’s a trade in place to the DC to the Nationals it’s four prospects and then a group of three big league prospects me Luke voy will Myers will Myers is on the last year of his contract so DC is not going to trade for will because that contract’s up and they’re in rebuilding mode so you have the option to exercise your no trade if not they’re going to take from that three-player pool of big Leaguers so then it probably becomes Luke voy do you want to go yes or no I’m like no no you know DC just right now it doesn’t make sense for me I don’t think they’re uh in bu mod trying to win sorry one second it was that quick are you saying that that you when you said no you didn’t call your agent you didn’t call him first and talk about well wait a minute maybe we can get a couple years tacked on maybe we can get some money tacked on did you say no without consulting anyone on that initial phone call I did I said no to AJ right there I just it was not uh again no offense to those guys but it just wasn’t an opportunity that I felt like that would be the best possible situation for me to win or eventually go back to the playoffs so then you know a couple hours kind of go by and talking to AJ back and forth talking to Scott now and it’s like Hey listen we don’t have at bats for you here so if you stay here you’re not going to play essentially you’re going to be another guy off the bench or whatnot and I’m just kind of telling Scott you know Scott listen I know AJ’s going to trade me like I understand you’re telling me that there’s no other suitors out there for me but I just feel like AJ is going to pull the trigger this time and I just think there’s a better opportunity out there for me other than DC so Scott’s kind of going back and forth and then It ultimately got to the point where something got leaked out in the media that I was holding up the whole entire trade so obviously Padre fans aren’t too happy with me they have the chance to get Juan stto and they think that I’m the one holding it up which was never the case but that kind of put some pressure on me to eventually try and take the deal to DC still don’t do it and then ultimately about an hour hour and a half before the deadline I’m kind of scrolling through Twitter just sign trying to see what’s going on and I see something with the Red Sox and then literally five minutes later I get a phone call saying that I got traded to the Red Sox ended up talking to Scott H Bloom who was the GM at that point in time and that’s kind of how that crazy morning went down it’s funny because uh in the old days uh players were very unhappy to hear what was happening to them from anyone other than the president GM owner and now it’s practically impossible it really for whatever reason well I know the reason social media is ahead of talking to players and the reason is that when a trade is happening and I know you know this but just for the audience uh the league gets involved when there’s money changing hands and you have to submit a letter agreement before you talk to the players that’s pending medical approval on both sides and the commissioner has to approve money if money’s changing hands and before that time you can’t talk to your players because there’s no trade but when the commissioner’s office gets the information the union gets the information somehow magically the media gets it as well simultaneously though they’re on the distribution list so when you are reading about yourself on Twitter at the time is your emotion upset anger relief or you just that’s part of the way you live which is in the Twitter world uh it was a little bit of both honestly because I was so connected with that group of players you know with Bob with the coaches everybody that we had a chance to go to the postseason that year and of course I wanted to be a part of that I wanted to be on the ride with those guys and uh ultimately it just didn’t get to happen so I was definitely disappointed and bummed out about that but at the same time like I told you this was like a two-year string of these rumors constantly coming up and like the worry of like okay I might get traded here or I might get traded here I might get traded here so there was definitely a sense of relief after that of like okay that’s kind of all out the window now I can just go somewhere and play and then obviously it didn’t work out in Boston I got hurt but at that point in time I was like okay now we can kind of put all the trade stuff I can finally get off of MLB trade rumors and trying to find out where I need to try and buy or rent a house and just go focus on playing baseball so uh it was a little bit of both of that situation but does that impact your play Eric does that impact your play when you’re when you’re on MLB trade rumors or you’re thinking about the fact that your name has been out there for a season or two do you take that you never took it to the into the field um did you ever take it into the Batters box uh you know I don’t I would definitely not blame that and say yeah that affected my play but I think that definitely wears on you a little bit mentally anytime you have a bad game I think after you’re thinking okay that’s I’m out of here there’s no way they like me or I’m gone yeah exactly but no I don’t think you know I think at the end of the day that’s what’s so special is like when you’re in The Dugout with the players at that point in time it’s like us versus them so I think all that kind of stuff goes out the window and it’s great because you’re in The Dugout there’s no TVs there’s no phones there’s no rumors flying around you can just play baseball so I think at that point in time it’s good but definitely before and after games I think it wears on you mentally and there’s a lot of weird situations whether it’s weird encounters with people in the organization or people on your team so I think ultimately I was relieved to kind of get away from those awkward situations does the mental part get better when you have to move to Boston what’s the first call you make I know the way it works in the real world and I hope it happened in your world is that you hear from the other teams Boston’s GM will call you sometimes the owner of the president sometimes the assistant GM and then the traveling secretary will call you and talk about your flights and get you all scheduled and give you information about housing give you an opportunity to stay in a home hotel when the team’s at home on the road is easy you’re all in a hotel is that mentally taxing when you’re traded like that it was and it definitely is because not only the baseball aspect of it my wife at the time was seven eight months pregnant so now we have to figure out where we’re going to live in Boston we got to figure out what doctors what hospital all that kind of stuff that kind of goes into it but luckily she’s a rock star and she just kind of told me to focus on baseball that she would take care of all that other stuff so that definitely plays a role in it and that is a big factor in all this stuff but uh Boston Hein Bloom reached out right away traveling secretary like you said and then it got crazier because the team had a Sunday Day game in Houston and then was were flying to Kansas City that night so we were supposed to go to Kansas City in San Diego I believe that August and that would be the first time I gotten back to Kansas City so that was going to be a lot of fun I was definitely looking forward to that on the schedule so then all of a sudden it’s like boom I’m back in Kansas City I just got to the Red Soxs I’m now seeing everyone in Kansas City for the first time in a couple years since I’ve left the team and at the same time trying to meet all these guys in Boston and that whole thing so it was definitely a little chaotic there in the beginning but that’s just the world of being a professional baseball player you know if you worked at a like a on Wall Street uh and you go on trips you’re in sales on Wall Street and you’re going to visit clients you’re calling on clients there’s a ton of travel that happens during the course of your 12 months working when you’re traded in baseball you say that your wife at the time I still your wife so yeah not your wife that when you say wife at the time I was thinking oh you’re on to maybe you’re I worded that wrong thanks for correcting that because the truth is if you’re traded in July the season ends at the latest Halloween but more likely end of September in theory and I’m plain Devil’s Advocate to try to help our audience you could pretend that you’re going on road trips um and you don’t need to bring the put the kids out of school and it’s summertime anyway or enroll them in September School depending on the number of years you have left or find a hospital that minute why is it that the players feel that and I’ve heard this from players throughout my career the pressure to get firmly settled so quickly post trade when you live a life as a baseball player you’re on the road all the time it’s just part of it’s part of what the game is and during the off season you can go anywhere you don’t have to live in your home City so what is the mentality post trade that makes you like because you just man you made me tired you listed four things like thought of immediately and I’m wondering why that happened so fast like that yeah it’s it’s uh you know it it is a a different situation but at the same time like you say we’re always kind of bouncing around we’re always kind of unsettled throughout our professional careers but I just think at that point in time and I think a lot of the the first time parents can allude to it you definitely want to be settled you know you want a big thing with my wife case was she’s like I need to get the nursery set up a month or two before the kid gets here my little boy Jack I just want to have that settled and that would give me peace of mind and then of course if your wife is unsettled naturally you’re going to be unsettled because you want her to be in a good spot mentally especially carrying a baby so that’s where it was a lot of firsttime stuff kind of thrown at me and that’s where I was just kind of learning on the Fly I think if it was a normal season and it was just case and I and she wasn’t pregnant and we’re bouncing around different cities we’re completely used to that but I think that situation was so different unique because that was our first time she was pregnant she was about to go pop and ready to go so I think that was what really threw threw us a curveball in that whole situation you could have gone the Jeter way and not had kids till after you retired could have gone that way I’ve spoken to players about that AJ Ramos did that too didn’t want kids while he was playing wanted to wait because of what you’re saying it’s such a huge pressure uh to be a baseball player and have little kids and you need a wife who’s a rockstar and I’ve never met your I can only imagine how hard it is and you you know your playing career is not so far in the rearview mirror I was thinking about your whole career I want to say if I recall right was your first season 12 by chance 201 2011 2011 First full season full season was 2012 but I got called up in 11 okay so I was thinking about how much has changed 12 is when Marlin’s park opened and that’s sort of how I gauge sort of pro player in the world series and then Marlin’s Park from 2012 when I think about the changes that happened over the course of your career I think I have the math right that you had a season last year where you lived with the pitch clock yes yes in Chicago do you view that as the biggest change you saw over the course of your fully pensioned career yes I think the the pitch clock was certainly a different that was an adjustment for sure I mean I remember the first game of spring training I actually got uh they struck me out on a violation of the pitch clock and I was like thank God this happened here because if this happened during the season I would lose sleep over it but it was such a different adjustment that I think guys were you know trying to use that whole entire spring to really get used to it because as you know there’s some hitters and I wasn’t one of these guys but some hitters I mean they were taking a minute to a minute 30 outside of the box before they got in ready for the other pitch so that was certainly an adjustment but I think overall the last two years I would say of my playing career it was almost like it was a different language that hitters were speaking to hitting coaches pitchers were speaking to pitching coaches because of the analytical stuff that got involved and it’s not knocking analytics at all but it’s like if you’re in a hitters meeting my first couple years it’s like hey this fast Ball’s got a little cut maybe a little sink whatever he throws hard it’s 90 but it’s a sneaky 90 so make sure you’re on top of it now I mean there’s so many numbers to where this guy’s got horizontal break or the vertical angle on this ball is so different so to me that was also a big adjustment was just the overall language that the coaches and players were kind of giving back and forth but at the same time a lot of these younger players that were coming up to the big leagues that’s the only language they knew so that was my biggest thing with the old school versus new school that I would always tell a lot of these old coaches or Old School coaches it’s like man you don’t have to be Allin on the analytical side but you need to be well equipped and know what the stuff is and understand that language because these guys that are coming up now to the big leagues that’s all they know and that’s really all they speak one of my favorite lines in my career was Vladimir Guerrero senior and uh vlat Jr’s father who people may not know is a Hall of Famer a a one of the greatest hitters I got to see in 18 years here’s what he said and it was not because he didn’t have perfect command of the English language this is how we played baseball David I see the ball and I hit the ball that’s it he didn’t know he couldn’t name if you asked him today name 15 pitchers who you faced he would not come up with 15 pictures who we faced Carlos Delgado was the opposite I don’t know why this is he kept a notebook he kept a notebook of every at bat of his entire career every pitcher every pitch sequence and he had it and he would review it Vladimir Guerrero so that’s one side Vladimir Guerrero didn’t he I don’t think he ever knew what teams we were playing forget the pictur and now we give so much information to hitters and I’ve spoken to conine about this with his son it’s absurd they’re just their brain is so flooded that I just want to grab them and say get it all out of your head right now because you’re you’re looking at your shoulder you’re looking at your elbow and then you’re saying oh my God I got to get launch angle and velocity and he’s about to throw 99 and oh I got a little crick in my elbow here I mean it’s it’s insane to me yes it must have made I tell you what oh for sure and I think players that kind of played throughout the years that I played so came up in 2011 ended in 22 or 23 whatever it was I think there was a point in time and I credit the guys that are still in the league performing at a high level because you come to a point in time in your career where you want to keep it that simple SE ball hit ball that’s all I need to really focus on and then at some point you go through a little bit of a struggle whether it’s a week two weeks and you’re searching you’re searching for anything mechanically something to just ride on to get you in a good mental spot to be ready to go and figure out how to break out of this slump then all of a sudden you see some young kid come up and a kid that went from hitting five home runs in the minor league all of a sudden putting up 20 to 30 and he comes to the bat in cage with two duffel bags a ball under his arm a soda can to step on and you’re like what are you doing right now and he’s like oh this is my new kind of hitting approach this is what I do so I’m thinking to myself do I need to do this and I think you come to a point in time in your career where it’s like nope you’re just going through a rough patch continue to stick with it so I definitely you know think I bought into the new stuff and tried that out and that kind of took away from my old natural approach where that’s where I was saying at the beginning of this I think the players that came up through my generation that those years you always came to a spot to where it was like do I do this and try it out or do I just continue to stick with where I’m at so that was kind of unique and I felt like that was something that the group of guys that played the same years as I did kind of went through some of these warm-ups man they make me laugh have you seen PA in what he does to get ready to pitch I mean I listen I I had pitchers the way they got ready to pitch was staying up all night and getting drunk and stoned and then they would you know throw a shuty you know you’ve got know guys who were living on pizza and beer and but it’s just it’s funny that sort of he these pictures because there was just a report recently that MLB released the 62-page Treatise I talked about it on a recent nothing personal about how picturers are getting hurt because they’re all chasing velocity like really every who didn’t know that exactly we had to interview 200 players and trainers to come up with everyone is addicted to philosop it made me laugh but um when you were facing I I would say that in 2012 maybe one or two guys on a staff could throw a 100 and then by the end of your career every pitcher you’re facing is throwing 98 minimum if you’re not throwing 98 you don’t forget it you know there’s no more quatics did you say to yourself like okay um I’m I can’t catch up to this anymore so the it’s crazy because the game changed so much in a way of like you said the backend or I’m sorry the bullpen guys that remember the back end guys the three four five starters usually were command guys they would mix the ball you know mix speeds do that kind of thing and then it got to the point or now you’re facing one of these guys and you get to a hitter’s count say 20 whatever you’re pretty confident that they’re trying to throw a ball in the strike zone so you’re going to anticipate something a little earlier be ready to swing because they’re trying to throw a strike I think now like towards the back end of my career it got to the point where teams were calling up young guys based off of the metrics so their stuff their velocity was very high they’re spinning their curve balls at a tremendous rate and the mentality of a pitcher was not you know to get back in the strike zone on those two counts so for me I found myself in those two counts ready to anticipate certain pitches and then it’s a slider in the dirt so I think that’s where it changed a a little bit as well and hitting just continues to get harder and harder because these guys not only are not really trying to throw the ball in the strike zone and they really don’t have any um uh I don’t even know how they don’t really care if they throw a ball up and in and Miss it’s like old old school ways and I don’t mean to sound old and crusty again but like if a guy went up and in towards your chin and you’re not a rookie they’re gonna kind of respect that a little bit and get away from the strike zone and go back and then maybe the next that bat they’ll try and go in there but today it’s like you see guys miss over here and they the very next very next pitch is the same spot right in your head so it’s a tough it’s a tough day in as there’s no way to get comfortable anymore in the Batters box because these young pitchers they’re being called up uh forget the injuries the fact is when you are chasing velocity you’re losing command uh there’s no more um hey we take three 0 and you just Groove the fast ball down the middle because hitters aren’t doing that they’re because if that’s going to be the one pitch brat bat they’re going to try to do it and so the game has just gotten to me more complicated and then we make it more complicated with analytics and again I’m not being old and crusty but I think we’re almost at an inflection point because if you look at young players and talk to them you’re right they speak a different language but let me tell you they’re often not speaking the language of success and you’re seeing a lot of pitchers blow out you’re seing a lot of hitters flame out and it’s been harder to scout who’s going to be successful I’m not sure that’s such a positive thing no and I think now when you look at the industry and what the teams reward what they pay guys based off of and it’s not you know the amount of walks you had or whatever it’s metrics it’s a lot of you know he spins a fastball at a very high rate same with the slider there’s certain teams out there that Acquire pitchers just off of a pitch because metric metrically that pitch that slider Austin Adams is a guy who’s Flo around three or four different teams and he throws 95% sliders because he can just spin the slider so good that that is what teams are acquiring is that pitch and a big example is I think there’s certain plays that are winning plays for example and and to your point I think these are getting highlighted in the postseason to where that’s where the industry is understanding this is not winning baseball this is not how you build a winning team so you take a position player and say you got uh the two Aces on the mound in a World Series game right you have a guy on third with less than two outs you essentially are telling guys hitters you need early contact to drive this run in but now RB are considered semi luuy stat if you go out of the zone to hit that ball to make contact to drive that run in you’re chasing your Chase percentage goes up if it’s a ground ball or not hard contact your exit V goes down so overall that average kind of whatever doesn’t play to your favor so when you’re trying to preach the guys as an older player hey we need that run we need you to do what you can do but at the back end of it these guys are losing money in arbitration because their Chase rates down or certain metrics aren’t the way they are that’s where it becomes a little bit of a pickle but to your point I definitely think that teams are noticing now especially in October that you need to play winning baseball you need those players that know what winning baseball looks like and what they have to do to generate runs or just generate wins in certain situations well Eric you played winning baseball throughout your career what a successful career a world championship ring and now a successful career media we’re already out of time I could going I barely got to half the stuff I wanted to talk to you about Eric cosmer thank you let’s do this again please absolutely appreciate you this is fun [Music]
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