Locked On Mariners - Daily Podcast On the Seattle Mariners - Interview: Mariners RHP Casey Sadler Is Back and Has 'Unfinished Business'

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

Coming off a breakout year in 2021, Mariners right-handed pitcher Casey Sadler missed the entire 2022 season with a shoulder injury suffered during Spring Training. Now signed to the team on a minor-league contract after being DFA'd earlier this offseason, Sadler joins Locked On Mariners host Ty Dane Gonzalez to discuss the reliever's rehab, what his mindset is heading into camp next month, what made him so effective in 2021 and much, much more.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] the show on Twitter: @LO_Mariners | @danegnzlz | @CPat11For more of Ty and Colby, check out their Patreon: patreon.com/controlthezone/Join our Slack!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.Be sure to follow or subscribe to Locked On Mariners wherever you prefer your podcasts! For questions and other inquiries, email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

After missing all of 2022 with a shoulder injury, right-handed reliever Casey Sadler is back and he has unfinished business. He tells us how his recovery is gone and what his mindset is heading into a big spring training for him here on the Lockdown Mariners podcast. You are Locked on Mariners. Your daily Seattle Mariners podcast. Part of the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. It is Friday, January 13th, 2023. signing gonzalez for the locked on mariners podcast and thank you so much for megan s your first listen

subscribe like and turn on alerts if you're watching on youtube or subscribe and leave a five-star review on your preferred podcast platform if you like what you hear and if you want to hear from us even more please consider signing up for our patreon the link as well as our social accounts is in the description below on the show today big big big big show today my full sit down with mariners right-hand and reliever casey sadler Casey is back with the club on a minor league deal after undergoing season ending surgery on his shoulder last year. And he's hoping to pick up right where he left off from a dominant 2021 campaign. We talked about his recovery, his mindset heading into spring training, what it was like watching the Mariners in their drought while he was forced to rehab and a whole lot more. It's a wonderful conversation that I think you'll really enjoy. So let's just get right into it.

All right. Joining us now on the Lockdown Mariners podcast is Mariners right-handed reliever Casey, sadly. Casey, thank you so much for hopping on. I really appreciate you taking the time. I'll start by asking you what I would assume is on the mind of every Mariners fan tuning in right now. How's the shoulder? How are you feeling? Feeling pretty good. Thanks for having me. I'm glad I could jump on with you guys and have a little bit of fun today. Shoulder feels great. Just kind of getting work done and prep for spring training. I know it's coming quick. I think I looked at the calendar the other day. I'm like, dang, we got four weeks left and we're out of here. So I'm excited for that. excited to get back to normal and and get back to playing. I feel like he's been too long. Absolutely. So we're recording this on Tuesday in just a couple hours ago. The Mariners announced their coaching staff for this season.

And Casey, you have a new bullpen coach, former ace catcher, Stephen Vote. Have you met Stephen before? And what are your thoughts on getting to work with him? I haven't. I've never met him. I know he's got a lot of experience. I know it'll be interested to get to work with someone who's caught versus someone who's pitched.

I think catchers have a unique kind of position where they get to see both sides of it. So, like, we can bounce ideas back and forth off of each other of, you know, what he sees over the course of an at bat versus what we see from, you know, the mound and stuff like that. So it'll be an interesting perspective to kind of take advantage of. You know, I love Trent. Trent and I, you know, had a good relationship down there. It'll be good, you know, to keep that kind of going. but at the same time to get a fresh new perspective from someone that kind of sees the game from a different view behind the play. They see things differently.

So I'm excited. Be good to touch base with them and get to know each other and then go from there. So tell me what your off season has been like. Obviously you were DFAed, but you've since come back on a minor league deal. Was that always the plan to come back or did you explore other options when you hit the market? Well, there definitely were other options. I think for us and for me and my family, we wanted to be in Seattle. You know, obviously they have an agenda. They have a business side of it and we do too as players. And so, you know, there were other teams that were interested, but I think our heart was always here.

So it's nice to be here. I do think there's a lot of unfinished business coming off of the way that 2021 ended and then, you know, having to sit out last. year with some shoulder stuff. So for me, that was very important. And then also just, you know, staying in Seattle. You know, we love the city. We love the fans. My family, you know, loves this area. And, you know, so to get to pick up where we left off there is going to be tremendous. And just to see the outpouring of support from the people in the Seattle area. And it's just been amazing. You know, it makes you want to go to the ballpark. It makes you want to play. It makes you want to perform for for the city and for the fans. And so I'm looking forward to doing that again.

So you talk about unfinished business. I want to know, what's your mindset heading into spring training? Because this is a little bit different for you than last year going into spring training where you got to battle for a roster spot. You got a battle to make this major league roster. So what are your thoughts heading into next month?

First and foremost is just stay healthy. You know, make sure their shoulders is ready to go. That's, you know, number one priority right now. I'm wearing a really good spot. And then just going out there and doing what I know I can do. You know, not trying to do too much, not trying to prove anything other than the fact that, you know, hey, my shoulder's good. I'm healthy.

Like, you know what I can do. You know what I'm capable of. You know, let's roll. So I think that's been the pretty much the only focus to this point is, you know, stay healthy. Make sure you're putting the work in. Make sure you have a plan going forward with not only you and your body, but also the training staff and the PT staff. and the PT staff and stuff like that going forward so that we can say, okay, how do we not have to go through this again? How do we maximize, you know, what I went through so that, you know, I can be

there for, you know, 60, 65 appearances if I need to be, you know, going forward. So I think that's pretty much the only priority right now. And then, you know, everything else will fall into place, you know, as it does. So what are you working on this off season if you don't mind me asking? Have you made, have you had to make any changes to your mechanics because of the injury, any other tweaks you've made and feel free to get as dirty with it as possible. I love that stuff. Yeah, not really. As far as mechanics go, I try to just let, you know, them be what they are.

My mechanics, I think, lead to the way I pitch and what my ball does and the movement that I get and, you know, all that kind of stuff. So for me, it was more so of structural integrity of the shoulder, stability, strength, you know, that stuff so it can take that workload, that stress and, you know, all things like that. I think for me, when I start to dive into the mechanic side of it or things like that, I tend to go down these rabbit holes of, well, maybe I can try this or maybe I can try that. It'll make it better or this or that. Well, I think 2021 proved that it doesn't need to be better. It just needs to be healthy, you know. So like that's, that's really kind of been the focus this

offseason and just letting the arm progress and the shoulder progresses, you know, it's able to. And I've seen really good results with that so far. I feel really good. kind of still in the early stages of my throwing progression right now getting ready for spring training but it feels great. I'm just excited to be able to throw baseball again. That's awesome. That's great to hear. So I was looking back at your 2021 campaign and you know, obviously the 0670 RA is the thing that stands out for a lot of people. But digging even deeper, you were throwing the cutter more often. No one could touch your curve ball. I was actually hoping, I don't know if you have a ball there, but maybe you could just explain how you throw that curve.

And I'd love to hear just your overall thoughts on why you were so successful that year. I actually don't have a baseball with me, ironically. Typically, I do. I probably should ask before we start recording. It's all good. The curveball is just pretty much a standard curveball grip. For that kind of a pitch, it's more of like hand placement based on, you know, what kind of movement am I getting, what kind of hand placement works well with my arm slot.

you know, mine's maybe not a traditional 12, 6, 1 to 7 curveball. It's more of kind of like a slurvy sweeping type. So it's just for me, it's just kind of grip that team and, you know, try to spin it as hard as they can. And then just let it fly. I think with those pitches, guys and younger kids, especially, they try to be too fine with it. They try to place it. They try to do this. Well, you know, it's really just about making that thing look for it, look like a strike for as long as you can or look like for a ball as long as it can and then either dive into the strike zone or down and out of it. So yeah, it was fun last year.

I think, you know, in 2021, I was looking at my splits and it was pretty much even, you know, 30% here, 30% there, you know, maybe give or take a few percentages. And I think that plays, you know, because when a hitter goes up there and he looks at the counter, he looks at a situation, he's like, okay, seven times out of 10, he's going to throw me a cutter here. He's going to throw me a fastball or whatever. They can kind of hone in on exactly what you want to do. But you got a guy that's up there that's throwing a three or four pitch mix and it's pretty even. They're like, okay, like, what's he going to try to do to me now? So I think as far as a game plan goes, you know, I think that's important. But yeah,

other than that, it's just attack and get ahead. And, you know, this game's really hard. More from my conversation with Casey Sadler in just a moment. But real quick, a reminder of this episode of Lockdown Mariners is brought to you by Bilt Bar. Looking for a delicious treat, but don't want all the fat and calories, then you've got to try a built bar. We just got through the holidays and I know my goal is to eat a little healthier this year. And if you're like me, where you want to eat healthier but don't want to compromise taste, and man, I've got just the thing for you. You got to try built. With built, healthy is actually tasty. Seriously, they're so delicious. You won't think they're good for you. Perfect for your New Year's

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Man, that's hard. It's hard to tell, you know, because my success revolves a lot around, like, getting weak contact, allowing the defense to work, you know, trusting the guys behind me. So it's like as dominant of the performance that was from a pitching side, like the defense was equally as dominant behind me, you know, so it's like I can't really, I think it was more so a mindset shift of you come back. I had a little hiccup there early in the year. and going down and pitching, you know, those rehab games and seeing those guys, you know, down there still grinding and fighting and really kind of going after.

It's like, well, I should be, everybody should be doing this at the big league level as well. Like, just because you get there, doesn't, you know, it doesn't change like, hey, I'm still, you know, competing in an athlete. And, you know, for me, seeing that, I was like, dang, like, I learned that. I learned something from, you know, being on that rehab assignment. And so just taking that into there and really just attacking, attacking, attacking, attacking. I think that was where the biggest difference came from rather than going, oh man, maybe this clicked, you know, mechanically or, you know, pitch decision-wise, it was more of just like, all right, boy, this is what you got.

This is what I got. And I'm coming after you. So, you know, big credit to those guys behind me because a lot of my success dictates, is dictated by them. And I think that's important because not everybody's going to strike everyone out. And now you got a guy like Colton Wong behind you to pair with J.P. Crawford. That's going to be a lot of fun. That's going to be so much fun. I'm so excited.

And you're familiar with him from your days in Chicago, right? So I didn't pitch against the Cardinals when I was with Chicago. I didn't throw in that trip. Familiar in a sense of, yeah, I've seen him play. I've seen, you know, his work ethic as far as like on the field has, you know, competitiveness and stuff like that. I think that was a huge ad. And I'm excited to have those guys play behind me.

It's going to be a lot of fun, you know, sitting out last year, watching those guys compete in the playoffs and stuff like that. It was hard. You know, it was kind of a little gut punch of like, okay, like you got to be ready because there's something special happening here. And, you know, you want to be a part of it. And so seeing the addition, seeing where the organization's going and the young guys that are coming up and being successful and contributing in a tremendous way is really fun. And I'm excited to be a part of that again. So I was going to ask you about that because, you know, obviously you guys got really close in 2021 to finally ending the drought. Then last year they actually did it.

And I know you were watching every step of the way. But unfortunately, you know, you weren't able to participate in the way that you would have hoped. So what was I like? I know that you said it was a gut punch, but what was just that whole experience like and watching, especially those, you know, final few weeks of the season? It was a mix. You know, I was super excited for those guys,

knowing the amount of work and effort that it goes into an entire season, the amount of, you know, pains and aches and stuff that guys were playing through at the end of the year. And so to see them perform at that level and, you know, a couple things go a different way. And you're looking at a completely different situation of maybe they're moving on to the CS and maybe they're in the world series. You know, like so like on that, I was on the edge of my seat. Like, oh, come on, you know, that kind of stuff. And on the other side of it is like, it was a reality of check of, hey, like, your time in this game is very short. You know, you don't know when it's going to be over. I, you know, thankfully we have staff and we have access to a lot of these things that, you know, get us back on the field quickly and healthy and, you know, and strong and stuff like that.

But it really does give you a perspective of like, I miss that. I want to be out there. Like, that should be me or that should be, you know, us as a collective group that should be out there. in that situation. And so, you know, it does drive you to work that much more diligently, maybe not harder, but maybe a little more diligently, maybe a little more smarter in certain areas of like, hey, I got to make sure I stay healthy in this area. So maybe I need to back off here or maybe I need to push here. And so it was good. It was hard. It was a good transition into the off season of, you know, getting me back focus and getting me back, you know, sided in on where I

want to go and what I want to be and go from there. So for those that don't, know you've done a lot of work with the cystic fibrosis foundation. Can you tell us a bit more about that, how to get involved in anything you might have going on with that right now or anything else? So, yeah, CF has kind of been a deal for us. I have a friend who has CF and kind of brought the attention, you know, as far as the number is concerned and, you know, all that stuff. And then coming here and seeing how involved CF, the Mariners are with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation of Washington was really cool. You know, so to get plugged in with them was great.

We've done golf tournaments. We've done gala's fundraising events. It's really cool to see how many people come out and support these, you know, organizations and stuff in Seattle. I know there's a ton of great organizations. But so what we've kind of got going on when it hasn't officially launched yet. But the guy that I know, the buddy of mine that has. CF owns an apparel company called 65 Apparel.

So we've partnered with him and done a shirt kind of collabs with him. So a portion of the sales of that shirt will be directly donated to the CF Foundation. So people can go on to 65Apparel.com and, you know, take a look at that. He's got some pretty cool stuff. It is geared towards the CF community, but, you know, it is something I wear a lot of, you know, things that I've gotten from him that, you know, it's really cool. You know, designs are cool. The message is cool. And then as far as like moving forward, you know, I hope to get more involved here in the Seattle area with the CF Foundation through, you know, through the Mariners

and through the connections that we've made through that organization. And I believe if people want to, you know, donate to the college or find out how they can get, you know, more involved. I believe it's CF Foundation of Washington is what it's called. So I don't know the exact, like, link or the exact URL to that. But if they could just Google CF Foundation in Washington, it'll come up and they can get directly involved in the city of Seattle. We'll be sure to put

all that information in the description of this episode for sure. All right. So let's do some rapid fire questions. Let's go, let's get a little fun here. I'm just going to ask you a few questions here. just, you know, let me know first thing that comes to mind, basically. Funniest bullpen mate.

It doesn't matter if in Seattle or anywhere else you played. Oh, Joe Kelly when I was with the Dodgers. He's so good. Yeah, he's so funny. You never know what's going to come out of that guy's mouth. You know, it's just like he's got a unique take on, you know, baseball, on life, on, you know, just the humor of everything. And he's probably the funniest, funniest one that I've, you know,

had a chance to sit and converse with. As someone that's been saying, hey, the mayor should maybe, you know, look into trading for him. I love that answer. So let's try to get you guys reunited.

That would be awesome. He's, he's a good dude. He's got a good arm. Nassiest pitch you've ever thrown in a game. Oh. I think back to last year, I threw a two-scene fastball to Matt Olson when we were in Oakland at the end of the

year. I think it was one of the hardest pitches I've thrown all year and had some of the most movement I had seen all year. Front hip, fastball for strike three. That's the one that comes to mind, just because everybody likes to light up the radar gun. They like to, you know, throw the fastball and stuff. So I think that would probably be at the top of recent memories. Love that, yeah. I was watching a couple of your strikeouts last night, and you had this one against Hunter Renfrow back when he was playing for Boston.

and where you caught the outside corner with a two-samer, just frozen, nasty. Disgusting. I love doing that. I love that pitch. It's so much fun. It's great. It's great.

Toughest hitter you've ever faced? Oh, man. Who scares the daylights out of you when you step on the matter? They step in the better spots. For me, it's not, it's like, it's not a specific person. It's more the type of hitter. I think the toughest guys for me to face are the guys that have good bat to ball skills. The guys that will just sit up there and foul stuff off because I don't have like tremendous swing and miss stuff.

So it's like I do rely on allowing some form of contact. And so guys that can work that like eight, nine, ten pitch at bat where you're just like I've thrown you the kitchen sink. It's like what you know, those guys to me are the toughest. You know, the guys that, you know, obviously have all the pop and the big, you know, stuff like that, there's, you know, you want to call it scary or whatever, but like some of those guys have some holes, you know, and so if you can kind of stay away from those areas, but, man, those guys that they're just going to take their base hits or shoot the ball the other way or they're really going to work you down and wait until you make a mistake. Those are the guys that you kind of have to really focus it on and be like, okay, like, this guy's going to put the bat on the ball. How do I take that and turn it to my advantage? all right you uh when you signed back with the team you said you weren't sure if if you and the mariners were on a break or not so i got to ask you what's your favorite episode of friends oh man there's so many of them that that was our thing during pt so like in the mornings when the team was on the road like 10 a.m rolled around we're on tvs watching friends um gosh there's so

many. The, I think the episode where they're going to Ross's speaking engagement on a way, Gowler or whatever, and Joey and Chandler are fighting over the chair. And they go back and forth. And like, you know, when Joey shows up and wearing all the clothes and just like doing all the extra stuff, I'm like, oh my gosh. Like, that's, it's classic. But, like, you can't pick one.

there's so many so many like iconic little one-liners or little like skits or you know whatever and in the course of that 10 years that they had that it's it's classic i mean it hits every part of of life that you can kind of think of it's pretty pretty much pretty fun that was one of the first shows my wife and i bonded over and for our 10th year anniversary uh this past uh this past year. They were doing this friends experience and I live in Toronto. So they were doing it in Toronto. And they have like all the sets recreated and all that. It was such a. Wow. That's awesome. That's great. I know they did that in New York too a few years. Yeah. Yeah. That would have been cool to to go to. But yeah, it's it never gets old. You know, that's something that you can always turn on and

just be like, man, I remember when I first saw this episode or I remember when like, you know, that joke finally clicked or, you know, whatever. So it's good stuff, good time. So I know you're big Starbucks guy. You have, of course, you know, put out some gift cards out there for Mariners fans and whatnot. That's really awesome. Thank you, by the way. I may have used it a little bit. Good. Good. Good. That's what's for? What is, what's your go-to order at Starbucks? Alex. Ooh, I'm pretty plain. During the summer, I do the cold brew with either one or two shots of blonde espresso, depending on how much sleep I got the night before. And then the wintertime, I'm just straight black coffee, either the pike roast or the veranda. I like the veranda because it's got a little more kick to it. So, but yeah, those are my go-toes. I'm not big on, you know, flashy at all this. stuff. Like, if it's good coffee, it's good coffee. It tastes good. That's right. That's right. Yeah, that's right. So, um, you know, to be a reliever in major league baseball, you got to be at

least a little bit on hinge. So, so what, what do you do to find on hinge? Yeah, yeah, what do you do to get amped up for a game or for an appearance rather? This is going to kind of sound like, I don't know, counterintuitive, but like I try to stay as chill as possible. You know, most of the time when you come in the games, they're in sticky situations or they're in situations where, like, you might feel the tide of the game turning and it's your job to kind of keep it flipped, you know, in your way. And so, like, I know some guys like to get amped up. They like to get all that kind of stuff. But for me, it's like, if I can stay chill, like, the adrenaline's going to be there. But I find that if I get myself too worked up, then my mechanics falter, I rush, I try to do too much, you know, whereas, like, even keel, you know, you're, you're naturally going to get that kind of buzz or that, that kind of like,

adrenaline high. So, like, I do. I just chill, you know, we crack up down in the bullpen and, you know, just hang out. And then when it's time to go, it's more of like a sense of focus versus like this kind of hyped, damp up type, you know, feeling. All right. Lastly, we have a lot of Mariners fans watching and listening right now. So, the floor is yours.

Anything you'd like to say directly to them? Um, just thank you for all the support, you know, you show me over the last, you know, geez, since 2020 when I came over and, you know, really this year of, you know, a time where you do kind of as a player go through like, man, like, is this going to be the end? Am I going to come off, you know, on the backside of this and be fine, which thankfully, you know, I believe I am just from where I'm at, but like the outpouring of, you know, support and, you know, just the engagement back and forth on social media of these little fun little things that, you know, me and my family do and all this kind of stuff. And, you know,

to really feel a sense of the community here in Seattle is really cool. And I'm very thankful for that because you don't get that a whole lot of places. I've had a privilege of playing with several different teams and, you know, there's certain places you go that, you know, maybe it's not as fun to interact with, you know, the fans and stuff like that. And then there's other places that. like here where it's like, man, these people love their mariners. They love baseball. They love sports. And they love the people also. You know, so like to see that and to see people take an interest in, you know, what you do and be appreciative of, you know, the things that, you know, we get to do and the fun that we get to have in front of them on the field is really, really unique

and really cool. So for that, I say thank you and keep it up because we're going to need you. We still got a battle ahead of us in 2023, and hopefully we can bring some World Series Baseball to the city of Seattle. That would be a lot of fun. Hell, yeah. All right. Well, thank you again for your time, Casey. Best of luck to you this year.

Let's do it again sometime. Absolutely. I appreciate you having me. It was a lot of fun. And that's going to do it for our show. Thank you again to Casey for taking the time to talk with me. All the links for the cystic fibrosis foundation and 65 apparel can be found in the description if you are interested.

And thank you so much for joining us here for another episode of Lock. on Mariners. Be sure to give us a follow over on Twitter at LO underscore Mariners. You can follow me at Dan Gonzalez, the C-A-N-Z-L-Z, and Mike Oz Colby over at CPAT 11. That's CPAT-1. You can also find all that stuff in the description of this episode as well. Thank you again for making us your first listen. Now make your second listen locked on MLB prospects. Hosts Lindsay Crosby is a prospect encyclopedia and he's going deep on the MLB stars of tomorrow. It's free and available wherever you get your podcast just like us. And with that, have yourself a beautiful baseball day. And we'll see you on Monday.

Peace.