Dodgers Territory - Mookie Betts Sidelined, Roster Decisions Ahead of Opening Day

Episode Date: March 17, 2025

DT hosts Alanna Rizzo and Clint Pasillas break down the news that Mookie Betts will miss the Tokyo Series due to illness and discuss reports that the Dodgers may send him home early. (0:48)(5:29) Over the weekend, the Dodgers faced off against NPB teams in exhibition games, and of course, Shohei Ohtani wasted no time, launching a home run in his first game back in Japan.(11:03) Our hosts highlight any surprises from the Dodgers most recent round of roster cuts.Last week, our hosts sat down with Will Smith, Miguel Rojas, and Anthony Banda to talk about clubhouse dynamics and their outlook for the upcoming season.(15:13) Miguel Rojas shared his first impressions of Roki Sasaki, his thoughts on Mookie Betts’ transition to shortstop, and what continues to drive him at this stage of his career.(23:17) Will Smith opened up about the new faces in the clubhouse, Roki Sasaki’s electric pitch mix, and how he communicates with the Japanese-speaking superstars in the rotation.(27:39) Anthony Banda discussed his goals for growing with the Dodgers in 2025 and what it’s been like building chemistry with the new bullpen arms.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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Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton Eckerd. In 2022, I was the lead of ABC's The Bachelor. But here's the thing. Bachelor fans hated him. If I could press a button and rewind it all I would. That's when his life took a disturbing turn. A one-night stand would end in a courtroom. The media is here. This case has gone viral. The dating contract.

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I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2. on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If he needs to take a couple of days, take a week into the regular normal, everybody's playing season, I'm perfectly fine with it, but it's definitely a concern. The song gets me every time. Hello, everybody, and welcome to a fresh new episode of Dodgers Territory. Clint Paseas, Alana Rizzo, we are back in our normal home studios.

great to be back with you. Thanks so much for listening, for watching. Don't forget to like us, rate us five stars. We appreciate it as we make our way to over 10,000 subs on YouTube. Appreciate you guys. We've got a lot to talk about, Clint. Game start for real tomorrow. Let's get right into the big ticket.

Before we get into the actual game on the field, some concerning news about all-star shortstop, all-star right-fielder, all-star catcher, all-star everybody, mokey bets, dealing with some sort of illness. And Dave Roberts said he will not play in either of the Tokyo games this week. He did not end up taking part in today's workout. This was yesterday, according to Jack Harris. He's contemplating, the team is actually contemplating sending him back early.

He's expected to be ready for the domestic opener. That does not say, Clint, he will be ready for the final exhibition games against the Angels. So ready for the domestic opener. But folks are saying that Mookie, who's not a massively large human anyway, has already lost. 15 pounds. First of all, we hope you're okay. We hope Moopi's health is, of course, the utmost importance. But how concerned are you about this? You definitely have a little bit of concern here. Like you said, he is not the biggest boy in general, and to lose 15 pounds trying to make a position switch. He's somebody who hits in the top part of this order, somebody who has some pop for this

lineup as well. It's important to have him healthy, have as much strength as possible. So they need to focus on getting him right. We don't know what is, affecting him. It sounds like some sort of, you know, flu-like symptoms, whatever that entails. Of course, when we were out in Arizona, we didn't really see him the final two games that they had out there in Arizona. So you and I were kind of discussing that, not seeing him in the locker room, like, hey, what's going on here? We heard maybe he's busy doing something else. I think he's been dealing with this a little bit longer than what they are letting on, what the organization is letting on. But give him time. I have no problem if he plays in any of those Angels games. I don't even need to see

in the opening day lineup for the domestic home opener. If he needs to take a couple of days, take a week into the regular normal everybody's playing season to eat some burgers, get right, get healthy, get the strength going, get that man's strength going, the dad's strength going again. I'm perfectly fine with it. But it's definitely a concern.

You're glad it's out of the way now, or at least it happens now. It's not happening towards the end of the season, into the spring train or into the postseason, and then you have a lot of problems with that. But it's definitely something where you got to, you got to kind of squint your eyes a little bit and like, let's watch this.

I'm watching you, Mookie. Where are you at with it? Yeah, I didn't see him the entire time. We were at Camelback Ranch and we were with the Dodgers on Monday and on Tuesday, and I didn't see Mookie at all. There was not a Mookie Betts sighting. That could very well just be because I wasn't in the same places that he was, but I'm concerned for his health.

Now, domestic opener, I mean, that's 10 days away from today. If Mookie Betts isn't right in 10 days, something's really going on. So I'm hopeful. Again, I'm with you. I don't care if he plays against the Angels, but he better be in that opening day lineup because if he's not something is seriously wrong. And I don't care what handedness the pitcher is that we're going up against the Detroit Tigers. Mook needs to be in there. But again, that's the thing about this Dodger Club, next man mentality, next man up. And that will be Miguel Rojas, obviously, Clint, at short for both of the games in Tokyo.

Going up against Imanaga on the first game, obviously. Who are they starting for the second game in the Cubbies? I think I saw it was going to be Justin Steele. So you're facing two lefties and that. Two lefties. So Miggies in the lineup, which I like that, of course. Yeah, Miggi rode there. Tommy Edmund at second base.

And I believe we're going to see a lot of Andy Pahas in center field for those first two games. And then whatever happens, I'm assuming, you know, Terek Scoobal will open the domestic home opener for the Tigers. So there'll be a lot of lefties the first couple of days, the first couple of meaningful games that count for the Dodgers. So getting Micky in that lineup as well. We talked to him. We're going to play that video a little bit later in the show.

Miggy looks good and Miggie looks ready. Had himself a really, really nice spring. Also, when we saw him, you guys were seeing the video, wearing a nasty bruise on the left arm, so he definitely wore one for the team. But again, and that's kind of what I was getting to there. Missing Mookie for a couple of days or even a week of season, if they have to open the season with him on the injured list,

which that might be a little bit of a reach, I'm okay with him being right rather than forcing his way in there. We saw him. I'm sure you've seen the video out there, Lana, like in Japan. He's walking around. He was on the field trying to get some work in, but he had mentioned, you know, the fatigue setting in pretty early. And you don't want him to get himself injured, trying to make plays.

At a position, he's still, you could say, still learning, still trying to get good at perfect his craft as a shortstop. Get him right. Throw him out there when he's fully ready and fully healthy. Yeah. I mean, for all we know, he had bad sushi. I don't know. I just want to make sure that he's okay.

and I want to see him in that opening day lineup. Aside from the Betts news, though, Clint, Tokyo has been one heck of a vibe. I mean, all of the videos everywhere, not only from the Dodgers and the Cubs posting, but they're reporters and, you know, and just all the players themselves posting interviews and footage of everything going on in Japan.

I am so jolly that we are not there in Tokyo. You tried. You tried. Nobody listened to me. Like nobody wanted to me. Chat, I will tell you, this woman tried very, very hard to get on that plane. She was willing to jump into Landon Necks, you know, carry-on bag, everything. Anyway, I will roll myself up and get into one of those Dodgers equipment bags.

I'll do whatever we can. Get it'll work on the yoga. Yeah, no, yeah, it's certainly not flexible enough to be in those bags. But how about Shohei? Second at bat goes yard at the Tokyo Dome. I mean, you can't write this better, right? No. I mean, seen him go yard.

And we got to point out again, this is a dude who's not very far removed from a significant enough shoulder injury that required surgery in the off season. So to see him already out there swinging, and we know they slowed down his pitching progression so he could work on getting the swing back, getting the timing back, and to see him, you know, he fired off a homer in his first spring training game against the Angels a couple of about a week or so ago, and to see him going yard against, you know, a team in his, in his home country is really, really, really cool to see. Show Hey, year two in Dodger Blue. It's going to be a lot, a lot of fun for everybody.

Yeah, girl, Elisheva Jones, saying it's not from sushi. Muki was sick for the last couple of Arizona games. I know. I was trying to make a joke just because they're in Tokyo, and there we call it Japanese food. Here we call it Japanese food. There they just call it food. How about some decent final tuneups from Snell and Glasnow,

likely to be the domestic starters in games one and two against Herrick Scouble and the like in game two. Snell, 4.1 or 4 innings, 4 and a third end. Good Lord. Four and third innings. Three hits three and a vacation. Two walks, seven Ks, Glasnow, three innings, one hit,

zero earned runs, one walk, and six Ks. How do we feel now, knowing that we have Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Roki Sasaki, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glassnow, the first four games that count, obviously. How do we feel that the season's upon us? Happy. I am ready. I am ready for real baseball.

am tired of fake baseball. Even as fun as, you know, the Tokyo series or the exhibition games are. And admittedly, I was in Arizona, partying with the boys, having a bevy or seven while out there. I was not staying up to watch a 3 a.m. game. And we were too busy to watch the 8 p.m. game. But they won one. Shohei went yard and the guys got their final Snell and Glass now got their final fake

tunups in or the tuneups, fake starts in. And they came out of it healthy. That's the most important thing. They came out of it healthy. And we know learning from Dave Roberts last week when we sat down with him a week ago today, Dustin May will be the fifth guy in that rotation. He's hanging back in Arizona. He did get some work in as well while others were getting work in in Japan.

This is a team that's ready. And that was, I think, the through line you and I could both agree on that we heard from everybody in that clubhouse at Camelback Ranch. They are ready to go. They are ready to run it back. They are feeling good. They're excited about the series, but the more so excited about getting this team back together along with the new pieces ready to, again, be the first team to win back-to-back World Series since the Yankees in 99 and 2000. And they are a club that is well equipped to do so.

Well, I think you mentioned the new guys, and that's what's most exciting, right? It's one thing when you have the veteran leadership around that clubhouse that has done it, you know, been there, done that. The Dodgers doing so last year winning the World Series in a full season. so there is no asterisk. But you also have some guys in the clubhouse that are, I guess, new blood, you know, kind of injecting some new blood and some new energy into the clubhouse, guys that we talked to. And we showed you on Thursday when we ran the sound of Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, obviously.

Just guys that are still chomping at the bit, still hungry. There's a good, really good mix of infusion of the veteran players that have already won a World Series championship, some multiple mooky butts of the world, Clayton Kyrschos of the world. By the way, somebody was asking, Stephen Munoz was asking any word on my boy, Kersh um yeah i mean he's there he's in Tokyo with the fam ellen and all four the kids are there having a great time kershah is ahead of schedule and i don't want to say that let me let me stop that right there because then if he doesn't come back exactly when he's supposed to but i had a conversation

with rick honeycutt who was watching uh we were all watching kersh's bullpen session in arizona and rick was there as a special assistant whatever and um just talking about i mean the stuff is definitely there i mean kersh still has a little bit of numbness in the foot in which he had the surgery on. So he's not 100%, but I mean, he he will be likely ready to come back in June. Again, you don't need Kershonda the second half of the season, but I do think that he will, you know, he'll be ready probably sooner than we all thought he was going to be ready. So good news there about Kersh. Again, the influx of new energy I think is great. We're going to hear coming up from Anthony Bonda in just a little bit, as we didn't get to hear from him on Thursday.

we're also going to hear coming up from Will Smith and as well as Miguel Rojas. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpright became the victim of a random crime. He pulls the gun. Tells me to lie down on the ground. He identified Tremaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Germain was sentenced to 99 years.

I'm like, Lord, this can't be real. I thought it was a mistaken identity. The best lie is partial truth. For 22 years, only two people knew the truth, until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you. you get your podcasts. Why hasn't a woman formally participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a decade? Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age. What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year? He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Wagageddon change the paddock forever? That day is just seared into my mess.

I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on No Grip, a Formula One culture podcast that dives into the under-explored pockets of the sport. In each episode, a different guest and I will go deeper into the wacky mishap, scandals, and sagas, both on the track and far away from it, that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Good people. What's up? What's up? It's Questlove. So recently I had the incredible opportunity to have a real conversation with actors and producer Jamie Lee Curtis ahead of the release of her new thriller series, Scarpetta. I can honestly say I've never done an interview like that before. At one point, I shut my laptop down. And we just started chatting as old friends, recent Oscar recipient. So we have some commonality there. I predicted that, by the way.

And you said these words to me, dust off your mantle. Yes. And I looked at you and I said, what? And you said, dust off your mantle. And then I left and that was it. And then when all of that happened, I remember the next morning, I think I wanted to like write you and go, how did you know? Listen to the Questlove show on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcast. How about we switch gears now to behind the seams? Let's do it. All right, before we get into the sound from Miggy Row and Big Willie style, what do you think about the first round of position cuts? There was a name on there that kind of surprised me a little bit. The Los Angeles Dodgers, this was a few days ago, about six days ago. Their first round, right-handed pitcher Bobby Miller,

infielder, outfielder, Haysong Kim. And they reassigned right-hander Giovanni Gallegos, catcher Dalton rushing, that's your boy. Infielders, David Bodie and Michael Chavis, and outfielder Eddie Rosario to minor league camp. Any surprises on here? Yeah, not the first round of cuts. This was almost like the final round of cuts.

I guess we should say. So to clarify on that part, we can also add after, I think it was game one or game two, the exhibition series, Hunter Fedusha on this list. No, I would say no surprising names. The only surprise coming from it for me is they aren't going

with any of the non-raster guys. I thought maybe somebody like a Bodie who, you know, you talked to a little bit out there at Camelback having himself had himself a pretty nice spring. Eddie Rosario obviously has some major league experience, has some show pop, has done it at the big league level for a while. I thought maybe they would give them a little bit of a chance, give them some run early in the season. But they decided to stay internal. Stay with the guys that are already on that 40-man roster. Stay with guys we saw a lot last year. And I think to me the biggest factor in the.

that was He'sson Kim not really being ready for prime time from the jump. And I think, I don't know how much they expected Kim to be ready like on day one. I'm sure they hope, but they knew, you know, he came into camp and they revamped the swing almost immediately. And if you're going through wholesale swing changes and be like, oh yeah, no, can you get this done in about three weeks? Thanks. Be ready to hit, you know, players you've never seen. But I think Kim was the, the factor that sort of changed everything. So now, you mix in, Mookie, Betts being six of Miggy Row gets the start

at second bay or at shortstop and then you're going to have Tommy Edmund now moving back to second base where he's won a couple of gold gloves and then Andy Pot has Dave Roberts had mentioned the bare minimum is going to be starting against lefties but he's going to be when we eventually see all said

and done he will be the opening day center fielder for this club and they're going to be ready to go. They have enough depth. They have enough pieces there to make to make do with what they have. And now it comes to how this front office built this roster with guys like Pahas, but also keeping Miggie Roe around.

Good, good friend here on the Fowl Network and here on Dodgers territory. And Miggie Roe, you know, he sees final couple seasons of his career, you know, ahead of him here. This is his final season under contract technically with the Dodgers. And he could have another really, really good season. season back healthy. And I think that's some of the stuff you guys had talked about, right? Just being ready to go and ready to play wherever this team needs them. Well, the thing is when we found out that Kim was being, you know, reassigned or whatever it was, I do think that I was, I was not that concern. We talked about it in our production meeting, right? It's like a three-year,

$12 million deal or whatever it is. It's not like they're spending $50 billion on this guy. And then, oh, by the way, he's starting in the minor leagues. But I mean, yeah, he has to figure out a way for the bat to catch up to the glove. We already know that he is kind of projected as a gold glove infielder, middle infielder, but until the bat gets up to big league level, that's where he's going to get the most at-bats, right, is in the minor leagues to get in the most reps as possible. And again, the one thing this team has is versatility in depth, and they have a ton of infielers that they have to find at-bats for and they have to find places for. So I'm not certainly, I'm certainly not worried about that. But in terms of Miguel Rojas, you and I have had many

conversations with him. He's a big friend of the program, big friend of foul territory in general. We spoke to him in the Dodgers clubhouse on Monday or Tuesday or whatever it was, just talking about, you know, what it is when he looks around that clubhouse and how this team does, in fact, run it back. Let's take a listen to McGee Row. Maggie, when I think of you, I think of a veteran leader in this club. And you look around you, obviously, there's a lot of guys that are incredibly accomplished, but there's also some guys that have added some new blood into this team, Tanner, Scott, Kirby, Michael Confordo, those types of guys.

What makes you believe that this is a group to run it back? To be honest with you, all these guys bring something different than what we have last year. Obviously, we won it all and we are World Series champions, but a lot of those guys aren't. So they're coming with some hunger. They want to be champions too. That's why they join this culture.

You can see it not just on them, but Rocky Sasaki as well, making the decision to play for this organization because we really have a... a good chance to win, not just this year, but for the rest of maybe the next 10 or 15 years. So they should be really excited about joining this clubhouse because it's a great way to start your year with the opportunity to play the first game, thinking about winning at all. And that's all you want as players, especially when you're later in your career, when all you want is to do that, to win.

I know you already have a special bond with Sasaki. who gave him his number. It was so weird yesterday watching you in the game back in 72. I'm like, that's just so strange. But let's talk about what you've seen with Sasaki. You're obviously going to be playing defense behind him. What have you noticed now that maybe you didn't know about him before? Well, the personality, and it's always nice to get to see the guys when they first get here. They're acting a little weird, you know, like just careful where they walk and all that. But then you see how comfortable he gets around the players, around the Latin players.

He understands and speak Spanish a lot from his past teammates in Japan. So I'm really excited about him and the way that he look at the, you look at his game against opposition and the way that he wanted just to do good and to be the best that he can be. It was amazing. So I'm really happy to see him in Dodger Blue and looking forward to watching pitching in Tokyo in front of his family and his hometown. hometown so I'm excited for him and not just him but everybody who's going to

receive the first opportunity to play in Doja Blue. You were born to be a middle infielder. That's just who you are. It just it looks easy to you. I know it is not but it looks easy the way that you play and I know Mukki's doing everything he can to be a gold glove shortstop for a world championship team. How have you seen that develop? Yeah I mean having a full off season on his belt now and the experience from the last couple of years playing for a for a few games in 23 and then last year he played a good amount of games. Getting that experience and getting those reps to feel comfortable going into all season knowing

what he need to work on. What I'm seeing from him is a guy who's way more comfortable at the position, knowing what he wants to do instead of copying someone else. And I'm happy for that because he deserves to be the best on the field. He always got to be one of the most electrifying players on the field. But at short step is a little bit different. You know, you have to kind of like, like you say, you have to grow up and and born with some kind of ability to play short. But he's learning his way and he's really good at it.

And I'm putting my money on him. When you think about this club, you immediately think versatility. I don't think anybody on this team just plays one position, you know, other than I think maybe you should start catching. But you look at Tommy Edmund, he could be your, you know, starting centerfielder. He could be your starting second baseman. You just never know where you guys are going to be on the Diamond. How have you seen his versatility help this club? Yeah, Tommy when as soon as he got here last year,

we knew he was going to help the team in whatever capacity. We're playing right field in the past with the Cardinals and coming and play short the last couple of the games of the game. So we won a war serious with him playing shortstop last year and it's not even his first position, you know. He's a goal goal goal player, second base. I'm really excited about Tommy helping the team and it's just an unselfish guy, you know?

Like he will do whatever it takes for this team to be better. And that's one of the things that make us really strong. We got CT, we got kicket, we got a pass move all around the outfield. Myself, we can play different positions, and we bought some playing time that way, you know. It's something happening on the field with anybody that plays the first game of the year. It doesn't matter. We want to have more players, and I think our team is in a really good spot. keeps you hungry. You know, you've been in this game a long time. You don't have to continue to play, but you want to.

Yeah, I just feel like being part of something bigger than just us, you know, players. It's an organization who's trying to be worldwide, one of the best ever, you know, and being part of this team and look around all the talent that we have. It's really nice to reflect on this a couple years later and say, I was probably one of the best team that ever was assembled. So I'm 36 and I'm trying to continue to look younger because I wanted to be part of this and I wanted to keep playing baseball and win another championship. That's what keeps me going. I appreciate you as always. Thank you. Anytime.

Thank you. He's the best. Find me somebody better than McGee Row. I appreciate how thoughtful that his answers are, right? And he's like, yeah, I want to be a part at 36 years old. I want to be a part of something that's really special. And this is a Dodgers team. Clint, as you know, that is very special.

I mean, they can make history again. they believe it. You know, they don't, they are still humbled. They are not taking anything for granted. They don't just assume that they're going to roll out there every day and get the W. So I can appreciate the hunger in that. What do you get out of the conversations and the comments that, you know, that McGee was just saying about this club? I think I really like that last thing he said. You know, I want to be a part of, he's decided to be a part of what could be the best, you know, compiling list roster of people best team ever you know obviously you're going to have that conversation is this the best roster ever is this the best group of dudes ever we got to watch the next 162 games

and then a postseason and then let it breathe after the world series parade and all that kind of stuff before we really know is this team going up against the 1927 yankees or the 2020 dodgers or the 2017 dodgers when they're not getting cheated against and all that kind of stuff uh it's a very very good club and this is a guy, like I said, heading into that clip that he's in the twilight of his career and he wants to have fun. He still has a lot of fun playing baseball, being around a group like this and welcoming in the new players as well. So to have a field general like him, you know, for Dave Roberts to have somebody like Miggy Row to go along with Muky Betts, to go along with Freddie Freeman, who are more of the lead by example guys. but Miggie is the guy who's going to put his arm around you if something's bad and you have so many veterans already in there

it's not like they really need that often but to know that Miggi Rowe has the you know he has the Cajunas to beat somebody who's going to you know shoulder up on on Freddie and be like hey you know we got you like they did last year when when Freddie was injured or when he was dealing with with all of the family stuff with with Maximus being ill you know this is he's a type of dude who helps that clubhouse, stay together, stay cohesive.

And Migy Row, very, very important game, a important part of this roster. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpbright became the victim of a random crime. He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground. He identified Termaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Germain was sentenced to 99 years.

I'm like, Lord, this can't be real. I thought it was a mistaken identity. The best lie is partial truth. For 22 years, only two people knew the truth, until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Why hasn't a woman formally participated in a Formula One race weekend in over a decade? Think about how many skills they have to develop at such a young age. What can we learn from all of the new F1 romance novels suddenly popping up every year? He still smelled of podium champagne and expensive friction. And how did a 2023 event called Wag Agedden change the paddock forever? That day is just seared into my memory. I'm culture writer and F1 expert Lily Herman, and these are just a few of the questions I'm tackling on no grip,

a Formula One culture podcast that dives into the under-explored pockets of the sport. In each episode, a different guest and I will go deeper into the wacky mishaps, scandals and sagas, both on the track and far away from it, that have made F1 a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Good people. What's up? What's up? It's Questlove. So recently, I had the incredible opportunity to have a real conversation with actors and producer Jamie Lee Curtis ahead of the release

of her new thriller series, Scarpetta. I can honestly say I've never done an interview like that before. You know, at one point, I shut my laptop down. And we just started to start. chatting as old friends, recent Oscar recipient. So we have some commonality there. I predicted that, by the way. And you said these words to me, dust off your mantle. Yes. And I looked at you and I said, what?

And you said, dust off your mantle. And then I left and that was it. And then when all of that happened, I remember the next morning, I think I wanted to like write you and go, how? What did you know? Listen to the Questlove show on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Mickey Rowe kind of reminds me of how JT was as kind of a player coach, player manager, if you will. I do really feel that he's going to have such an impact on and off the field in that dugout and in that clubhouse.

Another guy that's involved in every single thing that happens on the field is Will Smith, obviously. As a catcher, you are literally part of every single play. We had an opportunity to catch up with Will as well. listen. All right, obviously a man that needs no introduction will. Great to have you back. You know, in this year with this team, you look around, you're like, my gosh, what a squad, right? But it doesn't mean that you guys are automatically going there. What is it about this group of guys that gives you the confidence? Again, sounds ridiculous because of the superstar power that you can run it back. Yeah, obviously a lot of talent in the room. MVP, Cy Young's, guys that could win one that haven't.

So obviously a lot of talent, but, you know, great coaches, great staff, great, great organization, you know, from the top to bottom. So, you know, we're excited. Obviously, it's going to be a long year. Have to deal with probably injuries, adversity and all that. But, you know, it's our goal every year to win World Series, and we know what it takes, obviously, from last year and all that. But, you know, it's not going to be easy. We know that. So we're up for the fight every single night.

I think this is such a good mix of obviously veteran presence, guys that have done some pretty amazing. things, but also some guys that are hungry. You know, the Tanner Scots, the Kirby Yates of the world, I mean, some of the complementary pieces that you have to what's already a world championship team, how much does that infusion help those guys that, you know, kind of been there, done that, have that hunger around them again? Yeah, it's good. It's good that, you know, you have guys that haven't won one maybe or whatever. Just to maybe fuel us a little more. I don't know. I'm still hungry for more. So I think every single guy in here wants to win a championship this year. And And that's our main goal.

So it's just us coming together as a team pulling for each other, fighting for each other every single night. And, you know, that'll probably get us over the hump. Roki Sasaki was obviously a coveted free agent off-season signing. Dodgers, of course, landed him. This is a destination place. I know that they want him to work on a third pitch. How important do you think that is to complement that splitter and the fastball that he has? Yeah, I think it'd be great, obviously.

You know, you want as many good pitches as you can have as a pitch. pitcher. He's got three really good pitches and a fastball split or his slider right now. But I'm sure he's going to look totally different in two years. That's just the name of the game. Guys have to adapt and figure out what it works. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to figure out what plays in the big leagues for him. What it needs to change or improve or it could be the exact same. I have no idea. But we're open to all that in his career development and all that but you know I'm just here to help him along the way and guide him in a game you mentioned helping along the way how does a American-born English-speaking

backstop deal with three really good Japanese-born Japanese-speaking starting pitchers well luckily baseball lingo is baseball lingo yeah we got the interpreters Ierton and Hero and all them so yeah that helps you know they try to teach me a little Spanish or a little Japanese. So kind of working on it. Kind of, we'll see. But no, it's fun. They actually know English better than you think.

You better get on that Rosetta Stone. Let me ask you a little bit about Shohei Otani. What is the difficulty, Will, when you have a guy that obviously is a designated hitter, he's an MVP, he's a 50-50 guy, but then he also has to rehab on the pitching side. So it's not like you can send him out on a rehab assignment because you need them in the lineup the next day. How does that work in terms of getting him built up to where he needs to. to be on the pitching side, but also using him as the DH.

Yeah, I don't know. That's not my department. I know Shohei is, he works harder than anybody. I know he is going to have a plan with the medical staff, with the training staff, with the coaches. So they'll come up with the plan. And, you know, when we get him pitching, that'd be great for us. And hopefully his bat's in the line of every single night for us. So they'll figure all that out.

Good stuff there. Good stuff. He's like, that's above my pay grade. Rizzo, that's above my pay grade. But it is a question, right? We were talking, of course, to a bunch of other folks, too, about how is Shoah going to get built up? It's not like we can send them the, you know, rancho to figure this out. So any whoozle, you got to love the calmness behind the plate with Will Smith. I appreciate, obviously, him to take in the time. And one of those guys, Clint, I want to get to it because we didn't get to it on Thursday.

One of those guys he's going to be catching is Anthony Bonda, a huge piece of this puzzle. The ladies love him. You got to talk to him last week. Let's get to it. You add a lot of talent this off season that somehow the World Series champions get even better. What can you say about some of these dudes? We were just talking to Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates. Of course, there's a Roki Sasaki in the building. Blake Snell added to this, another lefty. What can you learn from these guys?

And how do you feel about the new look of the defending World Series champions? I think the new look is, you know, and it's incredible. This is by far the best team I've ever been a part of. And, you know, what we're learning is just like, you know, how they, you know, Tanner, I know, I know Blake from Tampa. So I kind of know how to talk with him, how to communicate with him and like, you know, what makes him tick. So that's kind of what I'm getting to learn with Tanner and, you know, a little bit of Roki. And so, you know, but it's been great. It's been fun getting to know them on a personal level. and you know it's and I'm looking forward to during the season when things get you know

kind of on the like crazy or you know swirly as Walker Bueller. Yeah I guess you could say but but you know just to you know be able to communicate and bounce ideas off of you know the bullpen guys you know tenor and everything else like that Kirby Yates you know we're talking splitter stuff and everything else like that so there's a lot of you know, ongoing conversations, trying to, you know, improvise the ideas of trying to get better and trying to understand each other to when we do struggle or when we do have a battle, we can go back and look at it and then go back to, like, really discussing those ideas, discussing those pitching plans and stuff like that within our group.

So that's something that we're looking forward to, and that's something that we're, like, I'm really, really trying to work towards. with the newer guys, but yeah, we're just excited to have each other and everything. A hell of a group of guys. Of course, you're one of those dudes who kind of showed up unexpected last year, assume a massive role for this team, getting big outs in the postseason as well. How are you hoping your role, your career continues to grow now in their second full season with the team? I'm just, you know, honestly, I'm just trying to go and get the outs and whatever lane they drop me in as far as in that lineup. you know go out and do my job and hand it off to the next guy it's not going to change from

last year's plan as far as like just the mentality of attacking the hitters and you know showcasing the best stuff and and putting everything out there and then handing it off to the next guy behind us you know that's what we did all year and we did it in the postseason we ended up you know being the last team standing so that that doesn't change it's always going to be like that at least in my eyes, you know, as a team, if everybody does their job and consistently does their job, we should be coming out with a lot of Ws. This is a team that is built to come out with a lot of Ws, a lot of talent in there. We've already talked about.

Talk to, if you guys missed it last Thursday, we had our interviews with Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, in there, the new blood in that bullpen. I really, really love that, a bullpen. That was so important for this team last year. But talking to all these dudes, seeing the vibes at camp, this is a team that's, that's ready to run it back, and we talked to Dave Roberts on Monday about the whole World Series hangover. It's not going to be a hangover with this team. This is a team that's hungry to get out there and get it going again.

One thing I wanted to point out, Alana, as we were both also wearing hats from the guy. Shout out to our friend Tony B with West Coast Multimedia. He came out, worked with us for free to record our videos. He just showed up, gave Alana a Dodger's Territory hat. Of course, I had him make me some merch for my stuff. Well, actually, not even merch. It's just for me, my podcast and all that kind of stuff. So huge shout out to Tony for coming out.

Thanks, Tony B. We appreciate you. Shoot some great stuff. Yeah. But all of that said, it's time to move forward. Games mean something starting this morning or tomorrow morning. I am going to set my alarm. I feel badly for you guys there on the Pacific side of things because it's what,

3 a.m. your time. I'm 6 a.m. here, which is early as hell for me too. But that's all right, man. It's real baseball and it counts. So best of luck. daughters enjoy the 2020-25 season before we say goodbye and talk about what's coming up on your podcast let's take one more quick look at last looks do it all right really quick just reminding you about max he's about 15 months old an adopter is needed he is such a smart smart boy he is being

fostered right now in yucca valley california um he's just a wonderful pup uh smart smart smart so if you're interested in learning more about max uh give us a shout at giddries guardian dot org or hit me up on social as well. Before we get to what's coming up on all Dodgers, baseball thought for the road. How about this, Clint? Apple TV releasing a World Series docu series called Fight for Glory. It premieres tonight, or excuse me, rather, it premieres March 28th, rather. It's on Apple TV. It's a dock on the World Series run of your and my Los Angeles Dodgers as far as the World Series against the Yankees. This looks good. You got to love the action. access, man. This is awesome. And I will say, you know, I felt slightly weird about us talking to Dave

about the World Series, you know, a couple days, a week from opening day. But for this to be dropping, I feel like we're pretty justified in still thinking about that World Series. Even if the team is ready to put it behind, content about that World Series needs to be out there. And if we don't get World Series DVDs anymore or Blu-Rays, I'm excited to watch this. I don't know what happened to Blue Race. No, I mean, listen, we were the only, we were the only outfit that got an exclusive with Dave talking about his mindset going, I don't care if this six years from now. I wanted him to get in the mind of a, by the way, and we knew that he had gotten the extension. We just couldn't announce it yet. So we were cheering Dave on the World Series win. We were also toasting Dave

on a very well-earned four-year, $34, $32 million extension or whatever it was. Congratulations, well-earned. What's coming up on all Dodgers with Clint Passias? That's a good question. We're talking about your Dodgers looking at it as a game one preview as well. We should have some roster news by then. So guys, Tube in 6 o'clock Pacific time. My channel, all Dodgers with Clint Paseas. That is my name and it is my channel. Come do that.

Subscribe there. Subscribe here. We got you covered with a lot of Dodgers. Don't forget. We have post game tomorrow after the games. They'll join Clint and I tomorrow on Dodgers territory. You better be there, bro. If I have to do it, let's do it.

Post game, bring a friend, smash. the subscribe button, not only for Dodgers territory, but for all Dodgers with Clint Pesias. Go Dodgers, it matters tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the story of the woman who last participated in a Formula One race weekend, the recent uptick in F-1 romance novels, and plenty of mishap scandals and sagas

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