Comes with the job. It's the Yankees manager and
whether it's the manager of any of these other teams
too, you know, you're either going to be
right or wrong. There's no gray area, you
know, a decision you make is going to work
or it's not gonna work, but at the end
of the day he's handled the ups and downs,
the successes, the failures all the same way,
and I think that is a strength. That is
a benefit. I know that if he wasn't the
Yankee manager, it would be, you know,
a feeding frenzy for him to be a manager that's
coveted elsewhere and objectively that's how we see it.
We're hopeful that we can find common ground to add
him to continue his leading our players from that dugout
. I mean at this stage in my career,
I put a priority on obviously get my body ready
. Yeah, I don't think there was a need
for me to be here in the last few days
given the climate, you know, I talked to
Boonie. Uh, we had a great conversation.
Everything's honestly perfect and seamless, and my relationship with
the guys in the clubhouse hasn't changed, so yeah
, I feel great to be back and I'm ready
to roll. I'm a starter. So right now
I'm a starter. You're the 6 starter, so
how do you handle that? See how it plays
out. I'm a starter. I'm gonna start.
You don't want to pitch a bullpen. I won't
pitch. I'm I'm a starter. Playoffs, it's
different roles that calls for different circumstances. I was
completely fine with that, but overall I'm a starter
. I've been doing this 10 plus years and like
I said. Not many people do it at that
level or can stay healthy at the level that I
do to go out there and get 30 plus starts
that I do pretty routinely. You're getting way ahead
of this thing. Like we're getting them ready.
We're building him up to be a starting pitcher,
and it's so far out there and we'll obviously address
anything we have to once we get into certain situations
. But right now the focus is getting him ready
to go, and I think he's got a pen
tomorrow and it's getting him ready to start and then
as we go when things come up, we'll dress
them. Never say never. I mean I don't
necessarily see us doing that, but you know we'll
see where we're at again. That's a long way
away. Reality is we're probably getting 1011 guys ready
to be starters. Who knows how many of them
you're gonna have to use right away or you know
, at some point during the season, um,
you know, it's I'll never say never, but
I'm not looking at it as we're going to have
a 6. Maybe 900 95% I feel great.
That's the the priority when I go here I'm feel
more excited when they tell me you need to play
that day and be there. The last time it's
hard because they do the. When it's, but
I'll feel great. That's the morning, yeah,
I need to take it easy a little bit when
I get on base. I need Riley and also
he's to join. I'm gonna score easy. Mhm
Yeah, I mean we're a good team and we
won a lot of games last year and we fell
a little short of where we wanted to go,
but it's baseball. It's a hard game and hopefully
we can win a World Series this year. We
got a really solid lineup, solid pitching, so
as long as everybody can stay healthy, I think
we'll be right back to where we were last year
. But the biggest thing is health. Everybody's got
to stay healthy. Um, you know, if
not, other guys have to step up and that's
what we've had in the years past is guys who
came up, they've done well and kind of stepped
right in and uh we really didn't miss a beat
, so that's where we got to be. Jed's
done such a tremendous job and and putting together,
uh, what I feel like is probably our best
roster yet just in terms of the depth in terms
of, um, filling needs that we, uh
, may have had in previous years, um,
you know, they've been really thoughtful and intentional about
building this roster out, uh, to give us
the, the best chance, chance to succeed.
So, um, you know, I think Jed's
Jets had an awesome offseason and I'm, I'm looking
I'm looking forward to, uh, seeing that come
to life this year. Yeah, I mean this
this has been a winning organization. This is a
winning organization and I think they're wanting to win every
year and um I think it's a great thing that
we've picked up some players this year and I just
can't wait for all of us to be together here
um so that we can get the results that we're
after. Well, AJ, first of all,
welcome to the spring. I keep saying this,
but it feels like the offseason absolutely flew. How
are you feeling entering this camp, especially after making
it to the postseason, for the first time since
2013? Yeah, we're excited. I mean,
obviously a lot of momentum coming out of last year
, and we have to balance being excited about that
, but also being realistic that it's a new challenge
. It's a new team. We have a few
new players. We have some guys who are now
battle tested from. From that playoff chase and,
and obviously uh we want to win the division and
get back into the into the postseason. So,
um, love having Terri Skol at the top of
the of the of the rotation. I love the
return of Jack Flaherty. I love our young development
. Rodley Green makes an all-star team for the first
time. Labor Torres comes on board, so lots
of good things going on in Detroit. We got
to now do the work to go. I think
the first thing that stands out is the early arrivals
. There's a lot of guys that showed up early
anxious to get to work. Everyone looks great.
It's it's ironic because it was such a shortened winter
, but I'm refreshed. I maximize the offseason,
and I think all the guys feel the same way
, kind of given guys showing up early and which
you wouldn't think, but that's just kind of,
I think people are just really excited about our ball
club. Everything feels right in the world when.
Kirsch is in Dodger Blue. Fortunate to get that
done. Keke, the value is obvious, not
just what he does on the field, but the
impact in the clubhouse. Our mindset right now is
we're excited about the guys we have in camp right
now. We're not able to ever say we're done
. It's just not in our DNA, so we'll
continue to, you know, do what we do
every spring training, but we feel really good about
the talent we have under this roof right now.
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