PHNX Arizona Diamondbacks Podcast - Nick Ahmed discusses 2023 role, mentoring Jordan Lawlar and persuading Torey Lovullo to let him pitch

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

PHNX D-backs beat writer Jesse Friedman speaks with Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed about his recovery from shoulder surgery and his mentorship of top prospect Jordan Lawlar. Ahmed also discusses his role with the team in 2023, his thoughts on the Daulton Varsho trade and his long-standing attempts to get manager Torey Lovullo to let him pitch in games. 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.

So I'll just start with, obviously, the shoulder surgery and, you know, just kind of this, this road back for you. I think Tori said during exit interviews that you were beginning your baseball progression should have a relatively normal offseason. How has this offseason looked for you so far? Yeah, it's been relatively normal, which has been good. Still have to stay on top of, you know, the strength and the range of motion and things like that. But I'm doing all baseball activities right now, hitting, throwing, running, fielding. So at this point, the offseason still with a month, last till spring training actually

starts. I feel like I'm in a really good spot. How is just like the recovery in general been for you? Do you feel like it's kind of gone as expected? Have there been any bumps in the road along the way? Yeah. I mean, I think the timing of the surgery being in the middle of the summer was obviously challenging, number one, just not being able to play the second half of the season.

But with that being said, it did give me time to prepare for 2023 here coming up. So I had plenty of time and time that I didn't feel like I had to push and get ready, you know, to come back too soon. So we tried some baseball activity earlier in the offseason, and I could have pushed through it if I needed to, but we decided to take it a little bit slower and slow the progression down. But, you know, everything ticked back up great in November and December when I rented back up again for the second time. So it's been in a good spot. But recovery from surgery is always challenging in any time. but I'm blessed to be around some really good therapists and trainers and people who help me get back to a good spot right now. It seems like this shoulder issue had been kind of bothering you for a while.

Can you just talk about kind of its impact on you, maybe not just in 2022, but potentially even before then? Yeah, so the first time I actually heard it, do for a ball in our summer camp, the second spring training in 2020 right before we restarted. and we had that new turf installed over at Chase Field. And I didn't slide when you dive. You kind of normally land and then slide a little bit. I kind of dove and just stuck. And I just felt my shoulder jam up really bad. But we had sat out four straight months with COVID and the pandemic.

And I was like, man, I just want to get back on the field. We have a short year. So I played through it that year and did my best to kind of keep it strong. But it didn't feel quite right all that year. I got to that off season. And I was like, man, I got time to rest and rehab and take care of it, which I did, and I got back into 2021, feeling pretty good about it. And I was 90% better, not all the way, but feeling pretty good.

And then a couple more dives during that season just kind of continue to irritate it. And it just kind of was this downward spiral where at first it was bothering me throwing, and then it was hitting, and then I would get the hitting to feel better, and then throwing would feel worse. So it was just this constant back-and-forth game where I tried to maintain it and keep it in a good spot. But, you know, I tried different injections of cortisone and PRP. and stem cell and just tried everything I could.

They'd get it right. But eventually it just wasn't getting to a place where I could play every day and was affecting activity off the field as well. Just trying to take a shower and wash my hair and put my seatbelt on in the car and things like that. So I had to go get it done. Unfortunately, it was the middle of the season. And I missed most of the last year.

But I'm ready to go and confident it's going to be in a great spot this year. Is it the kind of injury that I know there are some things where like when you have surgery, maybe you can get back to 90, 95% of what it was before. Is this the kind of injury where you feel like it's not really realistic to be exactly what it was before, but it's kind of close enough? Or do you feel like it is kind of like 100% you feel like you did before? Yeah. So the good part about the rehab process is you have time to slow down and you actually really

spend a ton of time strengthening and working on, you know, whatever the weakness per se is. So a lot of times you see that with guys who have Tommy John surgery, they actually come back throwing harder and they're even better than before. So just with all this time, just educationally, to learn how to best take care of my shoulder and the rest of my body, I feel like I'm going to come back even stronger than I was before. I talked with Jordan Lawler a little bit during the Fall League. And he mentioned that you guys had worked together on some fielding things. Can you just talk about your relationship with him and maybe some of the things he worked on?

Yeah, he's a good kid, man. I really like him a lot. He's hungry. He wants to get better. Obviously, he's super talented. but he's humble, man. He wants to get better and learn. So we spent some time last summer and into the fall when he was here for the fall league,

just working on some defensive stuff. And, you know, he'd pick my brain and ask questions. And we go out to the field and get some work in. So he's going to take some big steps forward. He's got the athletic ability, obviously, to do it. He hasn't had a lot of time, man. He drafted out of high school, got hurt. So he hasn't played a whole lot of professional baseball yet.

So I think he just needs some time and some reps, and he's going to be in a really good spot. Are there any particular defensive things you can point to you that you guys worked on or that kind of stood out to you when you were analyzing his game? Yeah, I'm sure this is somewhat public, but he shared with me and some of the coaches as well that his throwing was kind of more of the concern than the actual, you know, catching and fielding component. Sure. The arm strength is there, man. So it was kind of more of just put your feet in the right spot and learn how to use the athleticism that you do have. And it's not thinking so much, too.

So it was a lot of a lot of technical stuff with the throwing, but then it was also some mental stuff as well just to kind of get him to relax and not put so much pressure on himself. I think that can come being a young kid, being a high draft pick and all that. So he's handled it really well. And I think he's going to be in a good spot physically and then also mentally coming up this year. After Kyle Lewis was traded over from Seattle on his intro presser, I think he was asked, you know, have any players reached out to you or anything? and you were the one guy that he mentioned. Can you talk a little bit about him and maybe the conversations you guys have had and maybe also just kind of your general role as being, you know,

one of the veterans in the room and one of the guys that, you know, maybe some of those younger players are looking up to. Yeah, so that's, you know, being around here for a long time now, it's coming up on my 10th year with the team. Something I've tried to embrace the last several years, just being a leader, being a mentor, and being somebody that I can just share and take the young guys under my wing and just say, hey, man, I've been through this before.

I know what you're going through. Here's what's helped me and just be there for them to ask questions and bounce ideas off. So, you know, when we signed a new player and a new guy comes into the organization, I just want to reach out and make them feel comfortable, make him feel like they're part of the team quickly and just help integrate them that way. But specifically with Kyle, he actually played with my brother

with the Mariners in AA, so we had that connection there and played with my buddy Stephen Sousa last year with the Mariners. So we've been connected through some other guys as well. But, you know, we've connected a lot so far in the last several weeks here at Salt River and just been getting workouts in together and hitting in the cage and hanging out in the clubhouse and, you know, sharing our rehab stories because, you know, he dealt the knee issue for a couple years over there. But, yeah, you know, he seems like an awesome guy. He's ready to help our club in a big way. How do you feel just about the moves that the team is made in general over the offseason? It's been relatively active, all things considered. Yeah, we have the big trade, obviously.

league, trading bar show over to Toronto, which, you know, being a human, being a person, it kind of stings and it hurts, just knowing the relationship that he and I have built and the relationship he's had with the rest of our club is challenging on that end. And then from a player standpoint, we're losing a really good ball player, man. It's obviously phenomenal outfieler defensively and played really good for us on the offensive side of the ball, too. So that hurts, but we know there's a business side of it. We know there's, you know, intentionality behind it and try to make our club better.

And, you know, we brought in Lordus Correel and Moriano to catch behind the plate for us. So those two guys, I think are going to be a big help to our club. Bringing in guys like Evan Longoria, just with his track record and presence, is going to be huge for our club. You know, we've got a lot of young guys and a lot of young position players. So just to have a guy like him to look up to who is going to be really important for us. So I'm excited that the guys we brought in and I'm ready to get after it with all of them in a few weeks here. Do you have a sense of just kind of what your role will look like in, in 2023. Obviously, Geraldo took the majority of the reps in your absence last year.

Do you have a sense of kind of what that will look like with both of you guys? Yeah, there's never anything taken for granted on my end. I'm ready to show up this spring and show everybody, number one, that I'm healthy. I'm ready to get back to being on the field to be in the everyday shortstop like I have been in the past. But, you know, I have to go out and show that and earn that. Obviously, I didn't play a whole lot last year with the injury. but I'm fully expecting to go out and earn that job and win that role for our team and go out there and play 150 or 155 games at shortstop for us this year

and help us get to the playoffs and move the ball forward in a big way. So ultimately I'm just going to have to go out and prove that and play to my potential and my ability defensively, offensively from a leadership standpoint as well. But that's my goal is to go out and be healthy and be our guy shortstop for 150 plus games this year. Does the fact that this is a contract here for you, I imagine you kind of try to block that out? How do you prepare for that mentally? You know, that's not really on the forefront of my mind.

I've been blessed to play this game for a long time and we'll love to continue doing that. But just get in the moment, you know, just take care of the task at hand each and every day. And that all take care of itself if I do the things each day to, you know, help us win and help myself stay in the field physically. there was one moment during the season where or maybe a couple of moments where Tori used Carson as a pitcher in you know late in games that you know maybe weren't super competitive and when we asked about you know the different options on the team he mentioned you and the fact that apparently at one point there was a big game a couple of years ago against San Diego where you were trying to convince Tori like hey I pitched in college

I was a closer you know if you if you need outs like I can get them for you is that is that something that you aspire to, maybe in, in 2023, you know, getting, getting some big outs at some point during the season? Yeah, that would be fun, man. I did pitch all through high school and a little bit in college, and we had some conversations in the past, Tori and I about, you know, our bullpen was really thin and extra inning games and just needing an arm. I was like, hey, man, I can go out and, you know, I'm not just going to, not just going to lob it in there. Like, I can, I can pitch, man. Yeah, I don't know, especially after having shoulder surgery, I don't know if he's going to be willing to put me out there, but we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. That's fair.

All right. Last thing, I know you just appear to be launching sort of a new business venture for you, seven-pillar health and performance. That's kind of a newer thing. And, you know, you're passionate about fitness and, you know, just kind of sharing what you've learned over the years. Can you just talk a little bit about that and maybe how people can benefit from what you're doing? Yeah, I'm really excited about this. A new platform I'm launching very soon here. We're probably a week or two away from actually getting launched. But seven pillar health and performance. I'm going to share all the tips, insights.

Sorry for the noise here. We're going to be sharing all the tips and strategies and things that I've learned over the years as a professional athlete to help me maximize my own health and performance on and off the field. So I'm super passionate about health, all different areas. That's where we get to seven pillars from, spirit, mind, lifestyle, relationships, nutrition, fitness, and recovery. So we're going to hit out in a bunch of different areas. I'm going to share a bunch of different things that have helped me to become the professional athlete that I've become and things that I'm currently doing and working on to help me play at the highest level and continue to get better. So we're going to have social media presence if you can check out my Instagram and Twitter accounts. But we're in the process of finishing up a website that we've built out.

We're going to have individual and group coaching for athletes, especially younger athletes who are looking to take their game and everything to the next level. And we're going to have a membership where we're going to have actually. access to newsletters, articles, written content. And then also I've partnered with a bunch of different brands in the health and wellness space. At times, it can be expensive to live a healthy lifestyle. So that's something that I've been passionate about is just bringing access points to people to be able to live that healthier lifestyle at a lower cost.

So we currently have 16 brands we're partnering with already. I'm going to continue to grow that as well. So that's part of the membership to be able to provide access for people to have discounts to these great brands. Awesome. That's everything I got, Nick. Thank you so much. Yeah, Jesse. Thanks for having me on, man. All right. Take care. Yeah, you too. Thanks.