Dodgers Territory - Mark Prior Joins! Ohtani pitching soon, Graterol injury

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

The Dodgers announced that Brusdar Graterol underwent shoulder surgery and will miss the first half of the 2025 season. DT hosts Alanna Rizzo and Clint Pasillas discuss how his absence could impact bullpen construction this offseason. (3:08)Get 20% off + free shipping with the code FOUL20 at manscaped.com(11:05) Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior joins to discuss Walker Buehler’s magical final out to secure the World Series and the grind to get 11 wins in October.(19:20) With Ohtani set to return to the mound, Prior discusses the pros and cons of utilizing a six-man rotation.(22:31)The injury epidemic among pitchers was a significant issue across MLB in 2024—how do the Dodgers move forward in  addressing and mitigating the problem?(34:35) Plus, our hosts discuss the 2024 HOF ballot and if any former Dodgers stand a chance at Cooperstown.Subscribe to DT on YouTube! DT is LIVE on Mondays & Thursdays at 12p PT/3p ET all year long!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We are your host. That is Clint Paseas. I am Alana Rizzo. We are taking you through the next 30 minutes, all Dodgers, all of the time. Thank you so much for being here. Please rate us five stars, like and subscribe, smash that like button, all the things on YouTube and anywhere that you get your podcast. We will be joined shortly by Dodgers pitching coach, Mark Pryor. Lots to talk about with Mark Pryor.

So thanks to the former Trojan for joining us to. day. Clint, let's get to the big ticket. Let's do it. All right, until Juan Soto signs someplace, we're going to have to continue to talk about Wan Soto. I don't think, though, that Wan Soto is going to be in Pantone 2-94, Dodger Blue, nor should he, because I just think that the price is too high. Clint, from what you're hearing, what you're talking about in all of your conversations, is that pull too deep? Is it too much as far as that is concerned? The Dodgers is not going to chase Soto. Yeah, I mean, I think the Dodgers have kind of made it not obvious. They've, they've, you'll never hear the Dodgers actively say something about a free agent, of course.

However, agents talk to people, yada, yada, I don't see the Dodgers going to the stratosphere that Juan Soto and Scott Boris are looking for. The report, Mets willing to go up to $650, $660 million to add that onto the pile that they already owe to show Hayotani for the next decade. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Muki Betz. That's Freddie Freeman. Freddie Freeman for a few more years. Yeah, they are going to be used in conversations, guys. And look, I am not an insider. We are not experts in this.

However, I speak Dodgers very well. And I look at reality pretty decently. The Dodgers are going to be used. We're going to hear about the Dodgers being in. Same we're hearing with the Dodgers maybe being in on Corbyn-Burn. the Dodgers are going to be used a lot this offseason because they know teams know they want to run it back they got all the money in the world allegedly they print money i just don't see them going to those highest highest echelon free agents what do you think about the sodo situation yeah i mean the last i checked he wasn't a two-way player right he's not show hey otani uh two point oh i mean show hey otani is an international superstar he puts butts in seats he's going to make a lot of money for the gugenheim group and good for gugenheim right like Nobody gets into this business to lose money. They put their money where their mouth is,

and Shohei Otani has already paid dividends. Juan Soto is just not that guy. I just don't think we need to spend that type of dollar amount, that type of figure on, you know, just a right fielder or just to DH. So my point is I don't think they go for him. I think we move on, right? Like Jen has even said in the chat next. And yeah, let's move on.

Let's talk about people that are actually Dodgers already, right? So Bruce Rattarol, it was announced that he had, shoulder surgery. Clint, he's going to be out at least the second half until the second half of 2025. How does this affect the way that they handled the bullpen this offseason? You and I talked about people we would love to see back. Blake Trinen is one of those guys that you and I would love to see back with the Los Angeles Dodgers as far as free agents are concerned. Does this make his role even more important knowing that Bruce Dar is not going to be available for a big part of the year? Yeah, I mean, Dave Roberts already had alluded on a podcast with Mookiee

bets earlier this off season. One guy he would like to have back is Blake Trinner, and I think, you know, knowing now, guaranteed we know, bruisedaradradoral is not going to be available for at least the first half of the season. You need to have some arms in there so you're not, you know, killing people or we're not having our pitcher's heads falling off of their shoulders and all this kind of stuff. You need some depth. You need some quality depth. Now they could maybe backfill it with some guys currently already in the organization, the minor league level, maybe a Ben conspiracy type that we saw this year. I don't know that that's a good role for a Brent Honeywell or whatever, but you need some help. You need, as I like to call him, grown-up help, in this case,

more at the back end of the bullpen because they survived without bruised are. And, you know, hats off to him for pitching during the World Series with a labor issue. You know, the Dodgers absolutely needed him because of all of the nonstop injuries they suffered through this year. But it is. It is a big blow, but the important thing is we know, we hope our fingers should be crossed that Bruzdar will be back in time for the second half and for that always important, more important postseason run. But again, yeah, big blow for the Dodgers. Yeah, I think too. I mean, he was just so plagued by injury. I mean, he had so many different things going on with him, but obviously shoulder surgery is a big deal. So I think Blake Trinanin, that signing perhaps

becomes even more important. I would love to see Tanner Scott in. the Dodgers bullpen. I think that would be a huge get for them. I know he's going to come with a pretty hefty price tag, and I know you don't want to spend that type of money likely on relievers because they make you rip out your hair at night. I understand. You don't think still that this means a Joe Kelly reunion.

You think the ship has sailed with the Dodgers and Joe Kelly? You know what? That's perfect because I was going to go there. Look at that synergy going on right here, Alana. You're in my time, you know, time, what do they call that? Time code or whatever. I'm in L.A. I'm in L.A. What's up, everybody? West Coast, and now we're thinking right there along the same lines.

I think if they're prior to learning about this, I was, you know, this injury, this surgery, I would have said it's almost a foregone conclusion that Joe Kelly's not coming back. But now, knowing that he's older, he probably wants to stay close to home, close to his family. He's building this, you know, crazy mega mansion out there in Riverside with his wife or in the I.E. the wife and the litter of kids they got going on there. So maybe he does take a team-friendly deal to stay in L.A., run it back one more time, was not a major factor for the team this year. So maybe he can do something like we saw not so much Dan Hudson, but like what we saw Blake trying to do with the Dodgers last year,

take an extremely team-friendly deal, but something to stay close to L.A., stay home, kind of pay back the team for the investment, and try to run it back. so Joe Kelly very much could be back in play, in my opinion. Chat, what do you guys think? Is this a Joe Kelly situation? BC says we got some buffering.

We'll go to me for now. That's probably the smart play while I'm doing this. Let's see. Army Chow Main, great name, by the way, says asking Dodgers were one of 20 teams scouting. Do Young Kim this past week. Okay, were the Dodgers. I have no idea. I did not look into that.

But however, there is. is a chance that the Dodgers are in on literally everybody at all times. So if there is a player that is good, that is a potential signing, the Dodgers are 100% going to be in on that player, um, in some way, shape or form. But guys, it's live. We'll have Mark Pryor joining us again in a little bit. Richie Flores in the chat saying, Alana is frozen in time. Ghost bear, great comment here. Dodgers territory brought to you by Netflix. Hey, hey. Hey. Hey, I'm not Mike Tyson, but I'll do whatever for $20 million. I'll say that much right there.

Moving on, if we're going to trudge forward until Alana pushes the rejoined button again, which there she is. The Dodgers did make a couple of depth signings this past week. We'll talk about them. And I think Alana, you are back with us now. So that's cool. Thanks. Hello.

Sorry about that. Thanks for joining us. It's all good. Where did I leave you hanging? It's all good. I was about to move forward and let's start talking about the depth signings that the Dodgers pulled off this week with Jarvis and what is it, Jaquess, Jock? How do we say this name?

I'm going to go with Jock's. I'm going to go with Joe Jock Peterson Jocs. Yes, a couple of minor league signings, Bob Knight and go reporting that left-hand or delivered Joe Jocs or we can call him Jock-quez. We need some time to learn this young man's name. He signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers. They've given him an invite to their big league camp. Love to see that.

He pitched in 25 games in the Biggs with the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks the past two seasons. So has had a cup of coffee, if you will, as far as the big league stuff is concerned. But that is one signing. So a left-handed believer there. And then Justin Jarvis, that's four J's. Joe Jocks, Justin Jarvis. There's something to be said for that. Ken Rosenthal, of course, reporting that the right-handered Jarvis has signed a minor league deal also with the Dodgers,

telling the athletic Jarvis is a fifth round pick in the Brewers of the Brewers, gather in 2018. He was traded the Mets for Mark Kana in 2003. He split last season between AA and AAA. So a couple of younger leavers perhaps to see what they can do as far as the Dodgers bullpen is concerned with where they might fit. It's funny that we're already talking about, you know, spring training invites and we just won the World Series a couple of weeks ago. So appreciate that. All right. So Mark Pryor probably knows a little bit more about these guys. And I believe that Mark is getting ready to join us here momentarily, Clint. if you can bring him in.

Is he? Well, first, first. Before before we, I know. I'm going to let you do this because this is a man product. So why don't you go ahead and throw to it. Guys, well, we will be back in a moment after a quick word from A.J. Prisinski, Eric Kratz and Scott Braun about our friends at Manscape. F.T. Fam.

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And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen. She says, I have some cookies and milk. This is this badass convict. Right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at my mom. On the senior show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon Danny Trail,

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more excited in that segue to welcome in Mark Pryor, Dodgers pitching coach, after our friends at Manscape. Mark, you are a gem for taking the time to be with us. I appreciate you very much. Great to see you. Congratulations. You are a World Series champion once again. What was that moment like for you when you saw Walker Bueller throw that final out of the World Series, put his hands up here like you thought I was gone, you know, look at me. And you're a World Series champion and what's going through your mind? Well, first off, I appreciate the commercial. I don't know if that was a subtle like, hey, you let your beard go too long in the World

Series or I just need to, you know, get some extra grooming products. But yeah, no, I mean, it was, I mean, again, Walker, yeah, he put his hands up and, you know, I think, and he's mentioned it, there was moments this year where, you know, he was kind of on the fringes and, you know, him or, you know, the club, fans, I'm sure we're all wondering, are we ever going to get to the point where he's able to go back and, you know, kind of imposes will on opposing teams. And it was pretty special. I think, honestly, you go through the playoffs. It's four weeks. It is, it's a grind. The intensity is like no other. And, you know, you triple that, I think, just given the teams that we played, the Padres, the Mets, the Yankees. You know, my first year in 20 as being in the dugout, you know, was obviously a little bit different given the situation and the climate with COVID and the bubbles. But the intensity of these games were real. And I think you, it's more of like a little bit of, you're so excited, but you are just, you know, it's like a sigh of relief.

Like, all right, we finally, we got climbed this mountain that every team sets out in February to do. And we're the ones that made it to the top. and you're just, you just, you're almost speechless for the beginning of it. And then you, you start seeing your staff. You see players, coaches, trainers, and you just realize how much you've done with them for the last seven months. And it's just a shared excitement and a shared sign of respect. I don't even know how to articulate it well enough, but it's just, you look at everybody

and you're just like, wow, you know, we just did this. This is awesome. Yeah, I watched the final out about 715,000 times. You know, it's funny because we had John Hartung, the SportsNet, LA pre and post game host on the show last week. And he said that he looked over at Oral and he was like, you know what? What about Walker Bueller as our closer? Does that ever cross your mind as far as that? I mean, are those conversations?

I mean, obviously the guy is willing to do whatever it takes, right? He told you guys, listen, I can do this? Put me in coach type of situation. Do you think that as a possible future role for him? You know, I don't really want to get too far down the line. You know, Walker has mentioned his previous relief appearances hadn't gone so well. So he's mentioned that numerous times over a number of years that that was not something where he wanted to be. But given the state of, let's be honest, you know, where we were at with our pitching staff as a whole, you know, we were basically three starters through the playoffs with a couple of bulk guys here or there.

our bullpen was shifting from series to series with injuries and guys getting healthy and and not really knowing who we were going to have kind of between, you know, Vessi getting hurt and then Phillips getting hurt, running a bullpen game, you know, in that fourth game and then turning around and unfortunately Jack couldn't get very far. So we didn't have many options. And so, you know, Walker had started to slowly and slowly starting to feel better and recovering quicker as we got into September and into October. So that was starting to be a good sign.

And he woke up and he felt great that day. And I think he, as he's talked about, he mentioned it to our front office first. I didn't know anything about it, honestly, until the fifth or sixth inning, until I got a tap on my shoulder and said, hey, Walker's, you know, walk into the bullpen and I just kind of chuckled.

Because I didn't really think, I didn't still think that that was an option. And even then it was less than 5%. But as the game unfolded, you know, we were going to be running then on pitching. And Blake stepped up with another, you know, unbelievable heroic outing for him and really picked us up and got us in a position where we could strike. And Walker happened to be the back guy. And I think it's fitting given, you know, what he's done as a Dodger,

what he'd been through over the last couple of years, and specifically what he'd been through this year, all the ups and downs. and to be able to go out there and absolutely just carve, you know, for 15, 16 pitches and close it out. I mean, it's, you know, Freddie talked about that's the thing you dream of of being in the backyard. Well, if you're on the pitching side, those are the things you dream of in the backyard as well. Yeah, I mean, a lot of heroes in that World Series run, whether it be Walker stepping up, you know, doing his best kind of Kershaw impression, unexpectedly going in relief, Brent Honeywell, doing what he did on the bump. Ben Casperius kind of being somebody, nobody really knew a whole lot about, but still,

pitching some big time moments. How important is that to kind of have you get into the World Series? You get into the postseason, the roles don't mean anything anymore. Just go out there, get some meaningful outs. What does that mean for that group and for the organization to see so many dudes, in this case, with all the injuries, sometimes kind of very random dudes stepping up and putting together big moments that ultimately lead to, you know, World Series trophy in 24. Yeah, honestly, I think it just reiterates that there is never a blueprint for this.

We've seen teams do it, you know, with their bullpins. We've seen teams do it with their starters. And I think, honestly, it just really confirmed that playoffs is so much of it as you think something's going to happen or go one, way going into it. And you've got to be able to be nimble and adapt going through it. I think we knew going into it. We weren't going to be deep. We didn't have the starters that the potteries had. We didn't have the starters that the Yankees had. And so we knew that we were going to be relying a lot on our bullpen, kind of a surplus of bullpen from a standpoint of carrying, you know, 10 guys on

there and knowing that they all had various roles, but could do anything from a short outing to a little bit longer outing. And so, and then again, as we talked about earlier, as we had guys, you know, Vescia goes down late, Phillips goes down late in the next series. You know, we're adding guys left and right. You know, we put two guys on the roster from the beginning in Enriquez and Conspirius who really had a whole lot of pitch more, you know, than a handful of endings. And a couple of those guys were in low A or high A ball earlier in the year.

So, but they came in. and provided impact and picked up some big outs. And so I think it was just a testament to, you know, kind of their brotherhood, the way that they pulled together. I know they're the dogs as they like to refer to themselves at. But honestly, I think it was just our staff as a whole. Everybody knew that for us to win, you know, we had to pitch together as a team. We had to pick each other up.

We understood going in, we were going to take some games where they were going to be lopsided and being okay with that because we knew that was going to help us to win the series. And at the end of the day, was how can we just give our offense a chance each and every night? It might not be early, but it might be middle. It might be late. But given the guys that we have in our lineup, those guys just knew. We just got to give our offense enough time to put some points on the board. And they did that tremendously for those 11 wins.

Such an unbelievably self-less team. I mean, really playing, I know that's cliche, but playing, you know, for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back of the jersey. How two-part question for you, Mark? How close were you guys, if at all, to having Shohei pitch in game five or six or seven, if necessary? And what do you think you about? I'll just answer that. Zero. Okay, fair enough. We just want to get that out there. All right. Yeah. The six-man rotation, obviously you have Shohei Otani. You have Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Obviously, it would be nice to have Roki Sasaki in this rotation. But even if you don't get Sasaki, okay i don't expect you to speculate on free agent signings um what is your thought about a six-man

rotation and and do you think that's more of the game moving forward as far as the future of every staff well i mean that's that's kind of a loaded question the first one was easy uh it was very simple um you know six man rotations can be good i mean we we set out to do that this year obviously with yamamoto and his familiarity with the way he was pitching in japan And that was, you know, kind of a number one priority goal of ours. Like, let's get them, you know, pitching once a week or at the very least five days of rest and pitching on that six day. We had Paxton earlier in the year, you know, who we understood had kind of fatigued

down the stretch the previous year. So we kind of wanted to give him some extra rest days in there. As well as Tyler Glass now, you know, we knew we could probably lean on him a little bit, but we knew that we needed to get them rest at the same time. So it was something that we had set out to do. It's not the easiest thing to do. You run into days off. You run into guys sometimes getting seven or eight days off.

You might have to skip a guy. So there's a lot of nuanced parts of it. I think it's doable. The biggest issue is do you have enough depth to be able to do that? Because if one guy goes down, what is the cascading effect down to the chain? Like are you going to have to everybody all of a sudden pitch on regular rest when they haven't been doing it for, you know, maybe a month or two months? Do you have guys that are big league ready in AAA to come up and be able to do things? So it's something that takes a lot of planning in the moment, you know, from day to day and making sure everybody's on the same page on when they're going to pitch.

But it takes a lot of planning obviously, too, from your front office roster construction and making sure that you have that depth to fill because you're going to run into a stretch, you know, where, you're, there's going to be 15 to 18 games in a row, and can you do a six-man rotation all the way through that, or do you need to spot and drop guys in? So whether or not it's the way it's going. I think the other thing, too, is if you're going to do that, we might have the advantage a little bit with Shoahe-Nineau County against us as a pitcher, but if you're going to do that,

they definitely need to probably go deeper into games because you're probably going to be carrying one last reliever in your bullpen to be able to pick up innings. So there's a lot of things. factors to it. I think there's some pros and cons to it. But I probably think it's maybe training that way a little bit, but I'm not quite sure it's completely sustainable yet in the way that, especially if they start trying to reduce pitchers on rosters again. I went and sat on the little ottoman in front of him. Hi, dad. And just when I said that, my mom comes out of the kitchen.

She says, I have some cookies and milk. This is his badass convict. You're right. Just finished five years. I'm going to have cookies and milk at mom. Yeah. On the senior show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw, unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience, and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit down with actor, cultural icon, Danny Trail,

talk about addiction, transformation, and the power of second chances. The entire season two is now available to binge, featuring powerful conversations with the guests like Tiffany Addish, Johnny Knoxville and more. I'm an alcoholic. And without this truth, I'm going to die. Open your free IHart Radio app. Search the Cito Show.

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I'm from the Bronx. I think I grew up really poor. I didn't know that then because I very much used my creativity to romanticize life. And I'm like, my mom did a really good job of like, you step back and you're like, whoa, we, I don't know how we made it. So a lot of my life was like built out of like survival to get to the next place. Like my drive, my like tunnel vision of like I got to be better. I got to achieve this was off the strengths of like I want to make a better life for us. If you knew better brings real talk from women who've lived it.

unpacking career pivots, relationship lessons, and the mindset shifts that changed everything. Listen to if you knew better with Amber Grimes on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. You know, what we'll call it best laid plans of mice and men. The hope is you can get there. The hope was kind of there at the start of this year. But, hey, we all just witnessed this season. Ultimately, everything turned out well. But my God, the injuries, you guys had to have been worried who somebody upset somewhere

along the way because the baseball gods were not happy with the Los Angeles Dodgers this year. Another one to put you slightly on the spot, answer it to the best of your ability without getting a call from Andrew Friedman or Mark Walter or Lon Rosen or whoever. But a couple months back, Andrew Friedman was asked about the rash of pitcher injuries. It's not limited to the Dodgers. But he said in that, his quote was, you know, we're going to look into it. We're going to kind of look at it and investigate what our pitching plan is, how we're bringing guys up through the system. What sort of steps do you even do to assess where the rash of injuries

are coming from? Again, league-wide, but where do you start and what kind of steps are you taking if you can speak to that at all? Yeah. I mean, it's a question that's, I think, on everybody's mind, specifically if you're in the pitching game, it's not something that, one, it's an emotional thing. I mean, you never want to see anybody get hurt. Clearly, I have had personal experiences of what that can do, obviously to an individual, but how there is an effect on the rest of the team. And that means guys have to pick up more innings,

and then it becomes a little bit of a domino effect because now you're asking sometimes for other pitchers to do things that they're not quite ready. So as much as we talk about everybody in baseball being an individual and a team game, there's a lot of connections of how guys relate to each other because of what they do. You know, starters go deep. They give the bullpen arrest.

Starters don't go get deep. You know, the bullpen's going to pick up more. So it's kind of ebbs and flows through the course of the season. And as far as the injury is concerned, it's very difficult. I mean, we're talking injuries have been around for, you know, a long time. I mean, even back when I was playing in the early 2000s, you know, we were dealing with injuries. I was dealing with injuries. I was dealing with injuries.

and we've advanced so much in modern medicine and recovery, and we're still seeing an exponential growth in injuries. And where is it coming from? It's hard to pinpoint because everybody's different. Are we going to start saying that Velocity is the number one culprit? I'm sure there's some variables that for certain guys, that is an issue. But clearly, velocity plays in this game, and it's very important. How much of it is, you know, some of the scheduling,

How much of it is now that we are pitching on six days rest? Are we guys throwing more with more high intensity throws more often than they had in the past when they were pitching every on regular rest or every fifth day? And they were taking maybe a little bit of a break in between versus not feeling as fresh and as frisky. Are we not pitching guys too late? Are we detraining guys and not pitching them enough? You know, who knows? The bottom line is there's never one.

answer for one person. And then there's obviously, before they even get into pro ball, there's a lot of at the amateur level, how much of these guys have been doing, had injuries before they even got to pro ball. And then they get put into the pressure cooker of professional baseball throwing every single day. How much of that is just exposing preexisting things that people were unaware of. As far as what we're doing to it, we're probably going to get together after Thanksgiving

as a group, you know, top to bottom and start having these conversations and try to find out if there is anything that is common with the way we've been developing guys at the minor league levels and continuing through the big league levels? Is it something in our training? Is it something in the types of pitches that we want to throw and trying to see if we can find any common ground? Because I think the one thing is if you can find something common, then I think there's something actionable. What I don't think is actionable is basically what I just did is throw out all these theories that are out there, but they're all unproven. And again, and it might not be what hurt me doesn't necessarily mean it's going to hurt, you know,

player B and C and D. And I think that's really the hard part is everybody has their own personal history. Everybody has the way their body moves and the way they've trained. Is it coincidence? Probably not, but it's still trying to find what is the actual common themes and then being able to act on them and move forward in a very smart way, and not just kind of like a reactionary way. Certainly not one specific answer to all of the reasons.

But Mark, for somebody that had their career shortened by injuries, which bums me out because you were so much fun to watch, how do you make sure that you work with a guy like a Tyler Glasnow or anyone trying to get back from injury that they don't come back too quickly to further exacerbate, you know, the situation to keep him out even longer? Yeah, tough. I mean, it really is tough.

I mean, at the end of the day, they're not here if they weren't elite competitors. And competitors want to be on the field. They don't want to be on the sidelines. They don't want to be rehab. I mean, we have obviously one of the premier competitors in this generation or multiple generations. Now, at this point, in Kershaw, and we saw what he was trying to do with his toe. He was just trying to get back out there. So those were hard conversations because you want to got to push.

You want a guy to get back. You know he can help the team. know he wants to do it. And then in the same front, you're also trying to be like, hey, let's be smart because we do have time. A lot of times we do have more time than we think. We all feel that we're under a microscope when we're trying to get a guy back and the players like, I need to get back and you realize, you know, what's five days, what's 10

more days sometimes at the course of a season, knowing that that can pay dividends in September and October. So those are hard conversations. because there's not an answer to them. And you gotta be able to like read the person, read the personality. You gotta listen to the medical people's opinion on if this is too fast or too slow.

And again, it goes back to everybody's different and how they're able to heal. Everybody's different unable, how they're able to handle maybe some discomfort and push through it and be fine. And other people can't, you know, don't handle the discomfort as well. And they shouldn't push through it

because you're gonna create other issues and you know compensation patterns and stuff like that. So, So again, it's really difficult with these guys because, as I was, you know, we all are who've played this game. We all want to be out there and nobody wants to sit there and watch your teammates go out there and perform.

It's fine for a week or two, but when you've been sitting around for a while, you want to get out there. So speaking of Glass now, I mean, he did everything he could to try to get out there and be the best version of himself for us. But at the end, it just didn't make sense for him. And then I think we were talking about long-term issues. And I think that's where ultimately, usually is where the hammer gets thrown down, is when your body's telling you, like, this is going to be something that could be very serious and long-term and not short-term.

And that's usually what ultimately will make those decisions for everybody. As we're sitting here right now, if you don't mind expanding on that, are we at a point where the organization feels solid? Tyler feels solid that he should be full go for spring training? Yeah, we do. I mean, he started throwing a little bit right after the World Series, started playing some catch. He went on a vacation, and when he gets back here, he's going to continue his throwing program. Should have a normal offseason.

That's the plan right now is to build up his throwing and his workouts and then jump on the mound right after the first of the year and start ramping up for spring training. So we feel good about where he's at right now. He feels good about it. He was feeling good through the playoffs, but obviously there was no reason to throw at the time, but feel good about what. worries out right now. That's all good news. And you're going to have a show Hey, Otani in that rotation too, by the way.

How excited are you about that? I mean, that's got to be something. Just watching the way the guy goes about his business. I mean, that's incredible. But to get him as a weapon in your rotation, that's got to make any pitching coach feel pretty good. Yeah, no, I think we're all excited. You know, it was pretty remarkable to see what he did this year.

And obviously, hurting himself at the end was not ideal. but, so that might delay him a little bit. So we'll just kind of have to see how that rehab goes and how that affects kind of his throwing program building up. But yeah, I mean, look, this guy is, I mean, the guy's just special. I mean, there's really no way or the way to put it. What he did on the field this year, trying to rehab from Tommy John and then go out there

and put on the display that he did offensively and running the basis was incredible. And then he, you know, go right back at it the next day, do everything he had to do for his arm. the throwing program, eventually got on the mounds. But to be able to compartmentalize is incredible. I mean, we have guys, you know, I can even just reference myself, like being able to stay focused day in and day out on your rehab,

and then you ask yourself to go out there and perform, you know, at the highest level, if not, you know, the top three players in baseball, day in and day out with the other things that he was trying to do. It just speaks to his mental and emotional intelligence. and how strong he is to stay focused on the task that he's at and stay present. It was pretty special. And do it with all with the, you know, very low-key personality, you know, enjoying every moment of the day, enjoying his throwing program,

enjoying being in the cage, being in the dugout. Never once did you seem like this was, you know, a burden or a stress. He just looked like he was out there and enjoying being part of a good team, a great team. Yeah, maybe 50 home runs, maybe 50 stolen bases, maybe 20 wins for Shohei Otani. We will see. Mark Pryor, you are so informative. We love having you on. Such a great interview always.

Thanks for taking the time to be with us. Happy holidays, and let's run it back. I appreciate it. Anytime. All right, Mark Pryor, Dodgers pitching coach, since 2020, we appreciate you very much. All right, coming up, let's take a look at last looks, Clint. Let's do it. All right.

I wanted to introduce you to Liberty. This is a very rough story. So Liberty was at the divorce shelter here in California. And unfortunately, they took her puppies away from her at just two months old. The puppies were exposed to Parvo, but the shelter didn't bother to confirm that they had Parvo. So they took her puppies and killed her puppies anyway. She was 30 minutes away from being euthanized herself. Goodry's guardian and Healing Hounds Rescue were able to come together on a plan.

Liberty was saved 30 minutes from being euthanized. euthanized. She is parvo negative. She is healthy. She is very sad, though. She's continuing to look around for her puppies, but she's going to decompress and we're going to get her a foster home and we're going to get her healthy and happy and, you know, giving her the best life that she should have. So if you are interested in adopting liberty when she is ready in a couple of months, please reach out. Gidre's Guardian.org or you can hit us up on our socials. We appreciate that very much. Yes, no, I think of that too. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. We're going to change your name, by the way, because all I do is think of that commercial. So let me ask you this. A thought for the road. Yeah, go ahead. Oh, I'll say on that dog, I look at this dog and you remember that viral dog that's like, oh, you're the maple kind, the bacon? The bacon? That's what she looks like. Oh, are you kidding me. Anyways, guys, adopt the dog just for that.

that dog just recently passed away, but was one of the most, like, viral Instagrammed dogs ever. That was a great, great, great video. So please reach out about Liberty. We really appreciate your help. So I don't know if you saw this, Clint. Yes. Before we get into what's coming up on your channel tonight. So the 2025 Hall of Fame ballot has come out.

There are 14 new timers, or first timers, rather, to the ballot, three of which have played a portion of their career, some very little, some quite often, with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Russell Martin, Hanley Ramirez, Curtis Granderson. Are any of those Cooperstown bound in your mind? No. There's something, you can make an argument for Curtis Granderson. Hanley Ramirez, the peak of his career was too short. And Russell Martin, people who've watched me for a long time know me, know how much I love.

Russell the muscle. I love Russell Martin. deeply. If there's one player where I actually get starstruck, it's still Russell Martin, still not a Hall of Famer. None of these guys will, sorry guys, there will not be any more Dodger Hall of Famers in 2025. That's my thoughts. Yeah, I agree with you. I don't think they're Hall of Famers. I think they're all, you know, I still will never forgive Hanley for messing up Kershaw's a perfect game. But anyway, that's either here nor there and that's not on the ballot. So, all right, what is coming up on your show tonight? All Dodgers with Clint Fassias. What are you

Well, tonight, more Dodgers talk. We'll be talking more, you know, rumors stuff. There's some Corbyn Burns rumors. Apparently the Dodgers are going to be more in or reportedly more in on Corbin Burns. So we'll be talking about that, taking some voicemails as well. Just having a conversation, offseason conversation with, what, a week, a little more than a week till Thanksgiving.

It's the slow season of the hot stove, guys. So hang in there. It will warm up. The winter meetings are, what, what, three weeks away? Things will get fun soon enough. So subscribe to the channel. Subscribe here, of course, to Dodgers territory.

We'll be back on Thursday. Alana will not be here on Thursday, but I will be joined by our friend Scott Gorman of Dodger Blue. We'll be talking more Dodgers, taking comments, all that kind of stuff. So Alana, enjoy your vacation like you needed or something. Yeah, I'm in L.A. And I'm going back to Mass for like 10 minutes.

And then I'm flying in Kentucky for Glenn. London Rush's 50th birthday party. Yes, that's the, that's the era I'm in, old people, friends, parties. All right, have a great day, everybody. Thanks for being here on Dodgers territory. Make sure you check in with Clint tonight on all Dodgers with Clint Pesias. Clint and Scott Geerman back on Thursday. I will be back with Clint on Monday.

Take good care, guys. Go Dodgers. Okay, bye. Peace to the planet. Shalameen, the God here. And listen, we are back. The Black Effect Podcast Festival is back in Atlanta on April 25th at Pullman Yards. Yeah. And the full lineup is nuts.

We got the Grits and Age podcast, Deante Kyle and Big Ice Cup Cat. We got Club 520 with Jeff Teague and the gang. Don't call me white girl. Mona will be there. Keep it positive, sweetie with Crystal Renee. We got reality with the king with Carlos King. And yes, drink champ will be in the building.

Okay. Plus, you know we're going to have a lot of guests. So you need to join us. And we got the Black Effect Marketplace to pitch your podcast and everything you expect from the Black Effect Podcast Festival. Tickets are on tail right now. Go get yours at blackfeckfect.com slash podcast festival. Don't play yourself, okay?

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