High Hopes: A Phillies Podcast - Mound Visit Ep. 5: Roman Quinn on the 2019 Season, Kapler and His Relationship with Odubel Herrera

Episode Date: February 5, 2019

In episode 5 of Mound Visit, Tim Kelly is joined by Phillies outfielder, Roman Quinn, to talk about this upcoming season, what it's like to play under Gabe Kapler and his relationship with Odubel Herrera. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Then yeah, this Reese's Extreme Blizzard is real. And for a limited time at DQ, happy tastes good. This is the High Hopes Podcast. High Hopes. It's a bunch of baseball nerds, well, without the computers, talking about the Philadelphia Phillies on radio.com and sports radio 94 wip what's going on guys i'm tim kelly welcome to episode five of mound visit here on the high hopes feed and sports radio 94 wip in the past few weeks philadelphia and the

baseball world as a whole myself, we've all grown quite restless waiting on Bryce Harper and Manny Machado to make their free agent decisions. But what about players on the teams that these two could potentially sign with who could be impacted by such a signing? Roman Quinn, who made quite an impact for the Phillies after the All-Star break in 2018, is healthy and ready to compete for a major league job this spring training. I got a chance to catch up with him on how his offseason has gone, whether he's monitored the free agent market, and his expectations for the Phillies in 2019.

Let's take a listen. Roman Quinn, welcome to Mountain Visit. Thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. So we're on the cusp of pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training. Position players are due to report on February 17th. Are you feeling healthy and ready for the season? Well, definitely. I feel healthy and I'm ready to go. I've been training down here in Florida, in my hometown,

and I'm getting ready for allseason. Looking forward to it. So you hit.362 in August, your first full month up last year, but then you hit.145 in September. What were you able to take away from your most extended stint at the major league level that you worked on over the course of the offseason? Just making adjustments. Figured out where the pitchers were pitching me and trying to make adjustments for that.

Just going by just using a daily routine and just sticking with that consistency. Just learning. I was there. It was my first athlete, my first really full experience of the big leagues. And just to take that experience away from it was fun, and I'm thankful for going through it. So one of the big storylines in spring training will be how the final spots on the roster are filled out.

You are out of minor league options. That means the Phillies would have to expose you to waivers if they wanted to option you back to AAA, something that doesn't feel especially likely. Are you aware of that, and does it at all affect your approach heading into spring training? Not at all. I try not to feed into it, but I know I'm out of options.

I'm prepared to go to the big leagues for the whole season. So one of the things that fans may not be aware of is the mental struggle that goes with rehabbing injuries and missing games in the process. You've, of course, dealt with that over the past few seasons. How have you remained mentally positive and sharp through the injuries that you've dealt with and been able to stay in a good place mentally during those injuries? Yes, just having good people around me, having my wife and my parents,

and just always feeding me positive thoughts and telling me, you know, keep pushing on it. You know, things will happen. You know, things will go your way. And just realizing that the injuries that I have are kind of out of my control. And for me, playing really hard, man. I'll continue to play hard and try to take out of my control. And for me, playing really hard, man. I'm going to continue to play hard and try to take care of my body while doing that. Is there any part of you that wonders, because a lot of your game is predicated on speed,

anytime you come back from one of these injuries, if you're going to be able to reach back and find that same level of speed? I mean, not really. I feel like my speed has been there over all the injuries I had. I feel like I've maintained that. It's not got faster. I feel like if I just take care of my body and do the right things I need to do to prepare myself to go play 162 games, I'll be fine.

We're talking to Phillies outfielder Roman Quinn here on Mound Visit with Tim Kelly on Sports Radio 94WIP and 94WIP.com. Switching gears a bit, I assume you have been at least aware of the Phillies' interest in Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. How closely have you followed their markets, and what would it mean to you to have one of those two stars join the lineup ahead of the season? They're really, really great players, man.

Fun to watch. It would mean a lot to the team, and that would be a really big help for the team. If we can land one of those, I'm excited for these guys, the process that they're going through. It's pretty exciting to watch. So whether the Phillies make any more additions in the coming weeks into spring training, they've added Andrew McCutcheon,

who you'll be with in the outfield. They added Gene Segura, and they added David Robertson this season. Have you gotten a chance to talk with any of those three, and how do you feel like they improved the team? Because each of the three is accomplished in their own right I have not talked to either either one of those guys but uh I'm pretty sure Andrew McCutcheon is a great player and always been a great player I'm looking forward and learning from him James Chico I don't know too much about but I know he's a really consistent

shortstop and uh and David Robertson is someone I wasn't familiar with either, but he's a good addition to our bullpen. I'm just looking forward to the season. It's a lot of exciting things that the Philly fans have to be excited about, and I know they're looking forward. One teammate you are quite familiar with, of course, is Odubel Herrera. Herrera's talent isn't really denied by anyone, but he's struggled throughout the course of his first four seasons

with inconsistencies and some mental lapses. From someone who's in the clubhouse with him on a day-to-day basis, what can you tell us about how Herrera prepares and how he's viewed in the clubhouse? Oduble's a good guy, man. He actually works hard, and people don't give him a lot of credit about that. But he's a good guy, man. He works hard.

He goes about his business the right way, and I try to pick his brain as much as possible, too, because he's a really good hitter. And whenever I can talk to him about hitting or anything else, I do that. So we've seen in Philadelphia kind of the relationship between Nick Foles and Carson Wentz, two guys playing at the same position, how they've maintained a friendship. Have you and Oduble been able to do that? Because while you've shared the outfield some games, specifically games where one of you two was in a corner outfield spot, and a lot of senses you are competing for time in center field.

How do you balance that with a friendship with him and being able to build off each other? It's pretty easy to me, man. I've been competing with my friends all my life in football, basketball, and baseball. all my life in football, basketball, and baseball. It's easy to maintain a relationship, but my competitive mindset, I flip gears once I get on the field, man. Like I said, he's a good player.

He's a good player, and he's a good friend. He's a good friend of mine, too. I mean, I really have nothing negative to say about the guy, but it's just nice to have a competition going on there. It's something I love for him. So Gabe Kapler, your manager, he referred to you last July or August as one of the most talented players in the organization. He became a polarizing figure in his first year in Philadelphia. But what were your impressions in the time that you spent at the Major League

level in 2018 of Gabe? Gabe was a great guy, too, man. He's a really positive man. He's a great leader, and he never has anything negative to say about anyone, man. He always goes about his business the right way. Even when things isn't going

his way or things isn't going the team way, he's always positive, always a brainstorm. And that's one thing I love about Gabe. A lot of people in Philadelphia wondered if that positivity, especially down the stretch of the season where you guys struggled last year, if that positivity at all becomes hollow. What you're saying is that that positivity is something that players feed off of that even in a negative time.

You like that Gabe stays positive? Most definitely because, I mean, like anything in life, man, you go through tough times and you can't really do well in the past. And the only way to go about that is remain positive, stay smooth, and encourage the guys because he's a great manager, he's a great leader, but at the end of the day, the players have to play, and the pitchers have to pitch, and the hitters have to hit. So everything's got to work out in the team fashion, but like I said, he's a positive

man, and he's a great manager. Is he able to flip a switch, though, when a situation needs to be discussed? If somebody doesn't run a ball out, if there's a mental miscue, is he someone that's able to flip that switch and still effectively communicate that this can't happen again with the player? Oh, most definitely. Most definitely. He'll pull you to the side.

He won't embarrass you in front of the whole team, but he's going to pull you to the side and let you know that can't happen. I mean, even when I'm staying positive, man, he knows his stuff, and he's going to go about it the right way. He knows how the game's supposed to be played, and he's not going to let you slack one bit. How much as a player does it make you enjoy playing for someone when to the media and to the public they don't throw you under the bus

they handle stuff behind closed doors uh it's easy man it makes it it makes it the game a lot easier to play man because we're staying inside staying inside and we're staying inside the club house staying inside the club house and when you have to worry about the stuff getting out to the media then that's one less thing you have to worry about. So the Phillies have not reached the postseason since 2011. This will hopefully be your first full season at the Major League level. Do you believe the Phillies are going to make the playoffs in 2019? I definitely do. I definitely do.

And I think we're going to work our butts off to make sure that happens. Phillies outfielder Roman Quinn, thanks for joining us here on Mountain Visit. Thank you to Roman Quinn for joining this edition of Mountain Visit. Frankly, I had one question down to ask him about Gabe Kapler, but his answers on

Kapler were interesting, and I think it's important to hear. That doesn't mean that there weren't things to pick apart about Kapler's first season or that everyone feels exactly the same way as Quinn. I'm sure there's veterans that feel differently than Quinn, who's earlier in his career, but it's an interesting perspective nonetheless. Another interesting thing, and we touched on this a little bit, is what the Phillies' outfielder will look like.

If they don't sign Bryce Harper, I think things are pretty much set. You would have Roman Quinn in centerfield, Oduble Herrera in rightfield, Andrew McCutcheon in leftfield, and then that would leave you with the bench of Aaron Altair and Nick Williams. If they do sign Bryce Harper, though, that leaves a little bit more of a gray area on how the outfield will shake out because you would have Herrera in center field in that case I believe you would have Harper in right field McCutcheon in left field Quinn out of options and just generally someone the Phillies seem to like when he's healthy I don't think he's not going to be on the opening day roster so he's

locked into that fourth spot I think and then you get to either Nick Williams or Aaron Altair. Now, Aaron Altair is out of options. Nick Williams has two. At the same time, they're not competing for starts anymore. That doesn't mean Nick Williams or Aaron Altair wouldn't occasionally start a game, but you would think in this scenario, Bryce Harper's pretty much locked into right field, Andrew McCutcheon's pretty much locked into left field, and then in center field, you have Roman Quinn and Odubo Herrera. So Nick Williams and Aaron Altair would primarily be competing for pinch hit appearances

and occasional starts, but you would be looking at what they've done in their careers as pinch hitters, and Nick Williams has thrived in that role. He's aggressive. In 36 pinch hit at bats in 2018, he hit.333 with three home runs in nine RBIs. Aaron Altair, on the other hand, does not have a great track record as a pinch hitter and it's worth pointing out that these are small sample sizes, but you get small sample sizes as a pinch hitter. That's the life of the job, and Aaron Altair has a 194 career batting average as a pinch hitter. With that said, this quote from Gabe Kapler last September about Aaron Altair, it still gives me pause. He said, after a game, I'll say this, I think we've had a look at Aaron Altair,

and just because he hasn't had the success that he's wanted to to this point, it doesn't mean that we don't have confidence in the overall package, the baseball player that he is. He showed it last year. We've seen it in flashes this year. We all saw it in a bunch tonight. We saw everything, right? We saw the speed on the bases.

We saw the good jumps in the outfield. He hasn't played left field in a while. He went out there and looked completely natural out there. He saw pitches. He laid off pitches, attacked pitches, hit the ball out of the ballpark hit the ball up the middle he did everything that you want a baseball player to do tonight so that was after a game I believe it was in Colorado and things weren't going too well for the Phillies at that point if you remember but it's an interesting quote and perhaps I'm reading too far into it, but none of this will come into play if Bryce Harper isn't here.

I don't believe. I think you have your five set outfielders if you don't make an addition like Harper. But with Quinn having an injury history and Herrera having struggled to remain consistent, I think it would behoove the Phillies to keep both Aaron Altair and Nick Williams in the organization because both would play a role at the major league level in 2019 the only way to do that unfortunately would be for Williams to be optioned to AAA he has two options remaining Altair and Quinn of zero so it would have to be Williams going to AAA where I understand he would be extremely overqualified

you're thinking in that case is that he's going to be overqualified. He's going to probably tear the cover off the ball there. If you have an underperformance from Altair, maybe you DFA him at some point in the season. If not, someone's going to get injured. It happens in baseball. People panicked last year when Reese Hoskins was moved to the outfield. In terms of his fielding in the outfield and his ability to play there for as hard as he worked, it just wasn't a fit. But in terms of pushing Aaron Altair and Nick Williams into competing for bench time, can you think of, given the season Aaron Altair had last year, the Phillies would not have

been better off with him starting regularly. Nick Williams is a guy that we're talking about in this case as a fifth outfielder. So I always think it's better to have more outfielders than to not have enough. I mean, think about in 2016, you entered the season after Aaron Altair got hurt with Cedric Hunter as an opening day outfielder, Tyler Goodell, who Ricky Batalco called the commish, and that's probably the most memorable thing about Tyler Goodell. He was getting extended at bat. So you'd rather leave yourself with more good outfielders than not enough.

So having the surplus is good, and Gabe Kapler talked about this last year, about how to win a World Series, you don't just need a 25-man roster. You need a 35-man roster at least. And down the stretch, the Phillies were using virtually everyone on their 40-man roster in September so my guess is that if Bryce Harper's here you might have to make that tough decision on Nick Williams it could be that you trade one of Altair Williams I'm just thinking they're gonna have more value in Philadelphia this year than they would have in terms of what

you would get for them in a return that's just just my guess on that. I also thought Roman Quinn's answers on Odubel Herrera were interesting, and it's not that different. Last year, Aaron Altair, and this was after Herrera was hot early in the season, but he had a running miscue in the, it was a game in Atlanta, and Aaron Altair told The Athletic, I'd rather have him on our team than the other team. The guy makes mistakes but the talent with him is undeniable. Herrera's been in Clearwater for a few weeks now

I'm not sure that working hard per se has ever been his problem I don't think he is someone that's lazy. I think the issue has always been maintaining his approach. If you remember in 2016 when he was an all-star, he had an incredible first month. He walked almost 30 times. I think he walked about 25 times actually. And then in the entire 2017 season, he walked 30 times the entire season.

So it comes down to being able to maintain that approach because when he's on, when he was on for the first couple months last season, he was an MVP candidate. By the time you got to the all-star break, it was pretty clear it wasn't an all-star. And there were stretches last year, and this wasn't unique to last year, where Odubo Herrera went from being the best player on the 25-man roster to one of the least effective, especially when you consider a lot of his defensive metrics declined last season. In a lot of senses, I came to the conclusion last year that Herrera kind of is what he is, and that's someone you want to have on your team when he's going well,

but you want to have an insurance option for when he's not going well. That insurance option, in a lot of senses, could be Roman Quinn. Now, they both might be starting, which would mean the insurance options are Aaron Altair and Nick Williams, and that's not a bad place to be in either. But this idea that, oh, the Phillies, this was a storyline at the beginning of the offseason. A lot of people were trying to force that. Oh, it makes sense for the Phillies to move on from Herrera and commit only to Quinn or to move on from Quinn

and commit only to Herrera. I think these two guys, and I was talking about this with John Marks prior to talking to Roman, I think it makes sense to have both of them on the roster. If Quinn is not healthy, you have Herrera. If Herrera is struggling, you can put him on the bench because you have Quinn. And if they're both playing well, they're both very talented players. You're going to have both

of them in your starting outfield on certain days. And contending teams have more than just eight good starters on a given day. So I think it's a good position to be in. If you come to the problem of Odubel's playing really well right now, Quinn's playing really well right now, and healthy, which it kind of hasn't been something that's happened over the last few years, you cross that bridge when you get there. One final thing to keep an eye on as we approach spring training, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported in November that prior to Brian McCann returning to Atlanta where he spent the first eight and a half or so years of his career where he slaughtered the Phillies basically every chance he got.

It's crazy that the second Brian McCann left the NL East to go to New York, Lucas Duda kind of took over that role. Lucas Duda's gone, but now Brian McCann's going to be back here. And hey, maybe Bryce Harper ends up on the Phillies, but Juan Soto torched the Phillies in a small sample size last year. In any event, not to get too sidetracked, Jim Salisbury reported

in November just after Thanksgiving that the Phillies had some interest in Brian McCann prior to him ultimately signing with the Braves. That led you to think they want a backup that is a qualified guy. Jorge Alfaro is going to be the starter. So it was probably never a real option that they were going to acquire JT Real Mute.

So even if there were some reports that they checked in, that was more of a due diligence thing. And then if you're committed to Alfaro starting, it was probably never realistic that Wilson Ramos was going to stay here. It's not great for the Phillies that he ended up with a division rival because when he's on the field and healthy, Wilson Ramos is one of the best

hitting catchers in the league, but the Phillies elected to go with Alterra because I think they feel like he can be about what Ramos was. But behind Al Farrow, I'm assuming they want a backup catcher that produced a little bit more than Andrew Knapp did last year.

To me, the issue with Andrew Knapp wasn't the low batting average last year he hit under the Mendoza line. That happens in some seasons as a backup catcher. You don't get consistent at bats. It's tough to get into a rhythm some years. You have great years offensively. Carlos Ruiz went through this towards the end of his career with the Phillies where he had one year I believe it was in 2015 where it was like oh you know it just it looks like Chooch is at the end of the road came back the next year had a smaller role and was very effective

in that role but you have to make the best of all the at batsbats. So Andrew Knapp hit in the mid-250s a couple years ago. I'm not necessarily worried about what he is offensively. It's defensively he really struggled behind the plate, just catching pitches last year, blocking pitches. And Jorge Alfaro, to a degree, had some of those struggles as well, but he has perhaps the best arm we've ever seen from behind the plate. There are a lot of metrics that track pitch framing, and he improved dramatically last year.

So it's something you hope with Alfaro, and he's someone that has star potential offensively if he ever learns that he doesn't have to swing as hard as he possibly can every single at-bat. But you'd think you'd want to leave yourself with a more qualified backup, and I'm a little bit more surprised that we haven't heard anything since McCann, because Martin Maldonado, Nick Hundley, and even former Philly A.J. Ellis are still free agents, and these are respected guys.

Maldonado won a gold glove a couple years ago. Hundley's gotten some extended at-bats when Buster Posey was either injured or playing first base. AJ Ellis is someone that, he's the great example. He's struggled at certain times in his career offensively. He goes to Petco Park of all places last year, plays for San Diego and was very effective offensively. They're free agents.

Matt Wieters is still a free agent, although the A's are apparently interested in him. Perhaps he's overqualified to be a backup catcher, but there's options out there. And Andrew Knapp still has two remaining minor league options, I believe. I know he has at least one. So he could be sent to AAA and recalled if need be if someone were to get injured or if you sign a veteran like Ellis and it was clear early on in the first month or two that he just doesn't have it anymore, you could DFA him and recall Andrew Knapp. So you have options.

So I think that's something to watch prior to spring training. In any event, thank you to Roman Quinn for joining us on this edition of Mound Visit. Thank you to you guys for listening. You can subscribe and rate the show on iTunes under High Hopes if you haven't seen Jack Fritz's a million tweets in the last week suggesting you do so. Please go ahead and do that. You can follow the show on Twitter at High Hopes Pod.

You can follow me on Twitter at Tim Kelly Sports. You can read my work both on 94wip.com and philliesnation.com. I will catch you guys next. All-Star Closer, Kenley Jansen, we have a question. What's the best podcast of all time? Baseball isn't boring, baby. I'm Rob Bradford, and every single day I'm sitting down with the biggest names to show you this great game is the greatest game it's my podcast it's my passion it's a cause I started more than two years ago and it's now the most prolific national daily baseball pod there is another fact so jump aboard the BIB express follow and listen to baseball isn't boring presented by wasabi hot cloud storage on the free odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts