Talkin' Baseball (MLB Podcast) - Miguel Rojas is stepping up in Mookie Betts' absence

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

Get 10% off your first purchase at https://arenaclub.com/RoseMiguel Rojas is back on the podcast talking with Rosey about taking over at shortstop for Mookie Betts while he is injured, what the Dodgers could do when he returns, what OTHER shortstop is Miggy's sons favorite, Jake Cave's reaction to the Dodgers comeback and more! 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.

Hey, everybody. If you're listening on the Talk and Baseball Feed, I am Chris Rose, host of the Chris Rose rotation. It is our weekly baseball interview show with all sorts of players throughout the league. We also have a half dozen active major leaguers as our rotating co-hosts. In fact, it is time to hang out with one today. That would be Miguel Rojas. Now you're starting shortstop of the Los Angeles Dodgers. So if you're joining us on the Talking Baseball feed, thanks. Check out our entire backload of interviews, almost 250 strong.

us on the Chris Rose rotation feed. Thanks for hanging out with us the last three plus years. All right, let's get to it as we welcome in the one and only Miguel Rojas to the show. Hey, Mickey, how you doing, man? Everything is good. Rosie, how are you, man? Good, good. I like the lid, man. That is nice. I've been rocking these hats on the first part of the year. I like the upside down logo from LA. I've been, I've been, I've been. rocking at different colors to the ballpark.

People will be glowing it. Well, so let's get to it with style since that's your thing and new looks. The Dodgers had a second city connect. I've got to be honest with you. The first one, no boino, as I like to say. They look like pajamas. The second one, are we in? Thumbs up or not?

I'm completely thumbs up when I put it on. It shows so much better than what you see. on the on the pictures you know like when you first see it on the pictures and and out there when you know when they started like posting pictures of like oh this is how it's going to look or whatever um you you kind of feel like okay there's a lot there you know like all the the confetti and the i mean the the line on the on the los angeles like to play for the dodgers you know you always going to have like this this clean look you know it's either going to be like the whites with blue or the grays with the with the Los Angeles on the on the chest I think that's what you

used to but as soon as you put this uniform on you got a lot of options you know like you can go with the with the blue with the red navy blue is a it's a new and different color that you can have with this one I like the undershairs the the sweatshers the everything that it comes with I think it's pretty cool because that that give you like a different option throughout the year and especially for the fans. You know, the fans can have like a different option going to the ballpark to get new stuff. And I mean, I like style and I like the things that are that they always put out there.

And, you know, like I'm rocking hats and stuff like that from the Dodgers. Yeah. I mean, come on, man. That's how much stuff do they give you? That's what I've always wanted to know as a major league. How much free shit do you get? So I got the whole uniform, right? The hat.

And then we got like two undershirt with a with the logo on the shirt. Like we wear we wear those for like for body practice. Then we have like a full like a hoodie that. I mean, if you're not playing that day or you're the starting pitcher, you can wear the hoodie or you can cut it off. And then you have two of them. So you can cut one off for practice because it's really hard in LA right now or whatever you go. It's probably going to be hot during the summer.

So, and then you got like a full jacket just in case it's hiding LA at night. Then the socks, everything that you want, really you can have like a couple of them. But, I mean, you get a lot of free stuff. It doesn't suck being a major leaguer, does it? No, I think it's the best. It's a show. You know, like everybody, like everybody always coming that we're playing on the show. Yeah, I mean, it's a show.

You got, I mean, all kind of stuff. that you want to ask for, Bats, unlimited bats, unlimited, like batting glove, undershairs, hats and all that. And it's crazy because you find 25 or 26 men in the clubhouse, right? And everybody's so different, you know? Like, there's people who really don't ask for anything

and use the same hat for half of the year. They throw it away and they use a different hat. And then I play with guys that use one pet of batting glove every single day. You know, like, yeah, I play with Juan Uribe. He got like piles of batting glove on his locker because he wear a different pair of body glove every single day. And then you have a guy like Freddie Freeman that uses kind of the same, same long sleeve. I don't know if he changed it throughout the year, you know, but at same long sleeve,

same like under, like undershirt for the whole year. And he don't ask for many things, you know. So it's so many different like characters in the clubhouse. So what would what do Rebae do with the batting gloves when he's done with them? Giving away to a kid or what? I'm guessing. I'm guessing that he, so he take it back to Dominican Republic. I think he got an academy or something like that.

So he gave it to the kids. But I mean, we're talking about like brand new body gloves, you know. He worked for one day and then he just like give it away. How many, how much stuff? Excuse me. How much stuff do you go through? Like, how many gloves will you use in a year? I will go, let's say, so 6, 12, then 24. I'll say like 50 pair of body gloves, counting the batting gloves that I wear for body practice. Because I think in batting practice, you wear batting glove and then, like, within a week, it gets like soggy.

Because you sweat a lot, you wear it like for the cage and then you go outside for body practice and and you don't want to like swing about with a like a soggy batting glove you know when it's like really wet and and being in the big leagues you know and being fortunate enough to have all the stuff and all the um the abilities to get like batting glove and stuff like that to put it on the field um i just go with like i mean like one every other week okay what about your show mid like you got your gamer right you got your gamer glove and then my Like, how many mitts do you go through a year? Just two.

I feel like I break one glove in every single season. I got one glove that I work on. So I practice with that glove just in case my gamer broke. And it happens the other day. So I was like playing catch right before the game. And my gamer is like four years all already. I started using it in 2020. I didn't use it for that season.

but then I put it in play for 2021 because my only one was like kind of getting like heavy and because I put I put a little bit of pint on my glove and then that pint turn make it a little bit heavier plus the days that you play under the rain uh days that the glove get a little wet or the humidity and all that I play in Miami for a long time so the humidity in Miami kind of make the blue the glove a little a little heavier so I broke that in and so I've been used to the glove since uh 2021 so the other day i was playing catching from the dog out before the game and the whole web went so that's why i have my backup so the backup is ready to go i've been using in practice but it's never the same when you go to the game you feel like you're you need your glove

you know same thing i i believe you guys you know like you you need your pet of headphones you need your microphone you know your microphone you feel like you need your stuff so you feel comfortable when you go there and play. And everybody else was saying, oh, you're right. You can go out there without a glove on and you're going to catch a ground ball. And that's probably, that's probably right. But at the same time, I want to feel comfortable when I go out there with my glove. All right. Hold on. Were you like freaking out when your mitt broke? Were you nervous? Yes. I did. I was freaking out until I got my first ground ball with my new glove. So I catch it and I make the play. And now everything is all right. It's not, it's not like a

bat. You know, like the glove for a new fielder, it's not like a bad. That you broke a bad, okay, yeah, whatever, get me another one. It's the same model, you know, like you're going to feel kind of the same. The glove is different. The glove is like, it's some kind of way that you break some glove in

that is different. Every glove is different. So that's why the middle infielder's, anyone that you can ask in the middle infielder, they're going to have their glove and they're going to feel comfortable with that. All right, more of the show coming your way. But first, let's talk about the hobby. You know what I'm talking about. It's not easy being a fan of ripping packs or repacks. We hype ourselves up, think that we could pull a rookie show hay or an MVP show.

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10% off a $400 slab pack. That is 40 bucks you're saving right there. Anyways, that's arena club.com slash rose 10% off your first purchase. Go get that thing done. Miggi, I know we've talked about this a lot, but since you got traded back to the Dodgers, your family lives still in Miami. Your oldest child, Aaron, is, what, are you just finished second grade or something, right? Yeah, he just finished second grade.

Okay. So, you know, they've got a life. They've got to live through a portion of June. So the first third of the season, you're on your own. And I know how much your family means to you. now that they are with you for the rest of the summer. I imagine you're like a different dude, aren't you? Yeah, it's so much happiness and joy that I got throughout every single day now.

You know, it doesn't matter if I have a good, regular, bad day at work, you know, it doesn't matter. You always look forward to see them after the game and get some dinner together and then get to hang out with my kid and bringing it to the ball. and seeing the happiness of him every single day. I got the opportunity to spend time with him during Father's Day a couple Sundays ago. And it was like pure joy, you know, to having to have in there play catch with him before the game, enjoy all the festivities with him and see something that is going to be remarkable for

the rest of his life, you know? Like my opportunity to impact him, he goes beyond just being a dad. It's being a role model, giving the opportunity to be in a big league ballpark because we don't know, like, where his life is going to take him. So it's been amazing having them around for sure. Well, who's got better hair, him or Tyler Glass now? I think it's close. He's going to have some ways to go, but I feel like he's on his way.

And he don't want to cut it even, you know? Like he likes it. He likes it like that. He likes the flow, the hard. And I think I got a little Californian, you know, on air. I like it. I'm worried, though, that you're not even his favorite shortstop in the show because I saw the picture he took with Ellie, Bela Cruz. Is that like, is that his guy?

Yeah. Ellie is his guy because he likes, he likes guy who can really run and he for power. So Aaron is being like growing in a baseball field, right? So now he's playing his own video games, he's building his own teams on MBOB and all that. And Eli Delacruz is his guy, you know, he's his first pick. He likes the way he plays. He likes the way he goes about his business and the show that he's putting, you know? And how you're not going to like that guy?

You know, the fastest guy in the lead right now, who he homers, he puts. put a ball in the boat the other day, I think it was yesterday. Depth Center, 470 feet. And, I mean, for baseball, that is awesome. A guy like him that is, like, super energetic, play the game the right way. He's making his own path to be, like, a great player, respecting the game. And I love Ellie, too. So I gave Aaron the thumbs up on his favorite player.

And what a blast that must have been for Aaron to sit there. I mean, how old is he? He's eight, right? He's eight, but he's a shy guy. So Aaron is a really shy kid. He don't say much. He takes him a little while to kind of like feel comfortable around someone. And that day when we went to Cincinnati, he said, dad, I want to meet Ellie.

And I say, okay, yeah, I'm going to take you, but you're going to have to do the rest. You're going to have to go there and ask him for a picture. Please ask kindly. you know, and trying to talk to him. He talks Spanish. He's Dominican. So he's going to talk to you in Spanish. So he did a great job that day.

So he was so happy. Even though the communication was like a little short, I'd rather him to ask him questions or whatever. But he was okay just being around him and taking a picture with him. You must have been so proud of him. I did. I did. And I'm proud of him every single day.

The way he is starting to understand how, to how to behave in the clubhouse, you know, when to be running around, when not to respecting the work of others. Appreciate, like, he is starting to understand and appreciate how, you know, how comfortable he can be around like superstars, you know, being around Shohe Otani, being around Muki Betts, being around Freddie or Clayton Kersha. I'm trying to let him know that he's like, yeah, they're people too and they're like human beings. But they're going to be really important down the line when everything is set and done.

They're probably going to be in Cooperstown. So make sure you take a good look of this. Let's talk a little bit about Show Hey. I know we do at every show, but why not? I mean, there's a real possibility that he could be the first DH to win an MVP. I think as long as he continues like this the last three months, particularly with bets on the shelf, it's going to be possible.

Do you sit there as a guy who's been in the show now for a decade? And are you in awe of what he does at the plate? Yeah, every single day is something different, especially at the top of the lineup and being just the aging right now and just focus. His all focuses on hitting and help. in the team every single abat that he had, right? But he's not just like satisfied with just going to the play every single,

like every single abat and just, you know, sometimes it's really easy. You're going to get 600 abats. And it's really easy to throw some abats away. I feel like show him every swing he takes, he's trying to do something with it, you know? So I feel like that's something that is really hard to replace a guy's like a guy like Bucke Betts in the top of the life. up, right? So you say, okay, you're losing Mookie, you're losing a force in the top of the lineup. So you put Choha there. He's the only guy that can actually do what he did last week, you know,

we play it up the week, get six homers, for like 430 average, and kind of like he doesn't on a regular basis, you know, even though he's cold, he's going to do something for your lineup because pitchers are going to be throwing around him and he's going to walk and then we got that. behind him that they can drive him in. So it's a different guy and what he's doing this year. Hopefully he continued to do it and he can win multiple MVP's. It's different what you see every single day we show him because you can actually like enjoy every single time that he walked to the play. He can hit a ball 460 feet. But that's the thing. Mickey, he's hitting balls in Dodgers Stadium for people that aren't familiar with it. Like at night, the ball just doesn't

carry as well out here. Now that it's gotten hotter it will, but he's hitting the ball where a lot of right-handed power hitter quite. Right-handed power hitters cannot get to. Like it's ridiculous what he's doing when he's driving the ball to center and to left center. You just don't see that.

Yeah, do you see the one that he hit like a couple of weeks ago before we went on the road? He hit one up like, I don't know, 20 roads deep, left center. I have not see like a ride righte's power hitters hit the ball over there.

Yeah, I mean, I remember Giancarlo Stanton Homer that went over the building and Tatis a couple years ago that he hit one like pretty far over there like 480 or something like that. But it's like more to the pool side. But like in that area, you know, over the tarp in left center and right center,

it's going there like almost every day now. It's crazy. Speaking to every day, you have primarily become the shortstop because Muky Betts, unfortunately, has done the next six to eight weeks after he, you know, after he broke a bone in his hand. So there's been a lot of talk about the shortstop position. I mean, here you are. You're 35, right? Yeah. Okay. Can you play this every day? Yeah, I feel like I'm, I've done everything that I can throughout my, my preparation in the all season.

and mentally I feel like I'm ready to because I always prepare myself to be a shortstop for an organization. And that's what I want the organization and the manager to look at me like, that they have a shortstop there. So for me, I'm ready for the opportunity and for the challenge. I've been waiting for this throughout the whole year. I'm not looking for anybody to go down like that. But I feel like that's my job and that's part of my role. role, you know, being ready if something happened, to step up and being the guy. So, uh, for however, like how, for how long this is going to be, I don't know if it's going to be four weeks,

five weeks or whatever it is. I think the organization is in a good place because we have a lot of talent that can step up for the position. And if it's, if it's not me, Kike can play short, Chris Taylor can play a little bit of short, but I'm, I'm giving the opportunity right now. And I'm, I'm trying to, I'm trying to keep up the good work and the things that I'm doing. So I'm not surprised and I'm ready for the challenge. Well, the natural instinct was when Mookie went down, well, boy, the Dodgers have to pick up the phone and go get somebody that can do it every day and help lengthen their lineup and all that sort of stuff.

Has the front office talked to you about saying, hey, either, well, McGee, we are actively searching for somebody or, hey, dude, we believe in you. This is your job. Have they talked to you? No, they haven't talked to me. and I feel like we surpass that point. I think last year, when they talked to me, they talked to me about what my role was going to be, you know,

and it was going to be a utility guy that can play every position. But at some point, I feel like they've been understanding and they've been kind of like active on how I feel every time I play a certain amount of games, you know. I've been lingering with some kind of issues on my body over the last couple years. You know, my legs and my hips and some things here and there

that they cannot worry about because I'm 35, I'm playing a premium position and I understand that too. But I'm trying to let them know now through my work, my preparation and my kind of the understanding of my body what I can do to make them feel comfortable that I'm not going to go down.

And if I'm going to go down, it's because of like, you know, certain things that's going to happen, you know, like if you're going to get injured, you're going to get injured no matter what. But I feel like I'm trying to do everything that I can to stay active, to stay prepared, to do anything that I can do to make them feel comfortable that on me, they have a guy that can go out there and be okay, not just for five days, but it can be okay for a full, too much of the season.

With that being said, you know, this could be a lot of podcast talk or radio show talk. hey, the Dodgers need to go get somebody because Mookie Betts, okay, we understand he's trying to play shortstop, but he hasn't been the best defensive shortstop. And this team will be better with somebody else there. Do you hear that noise or not? Oh, yeah, of course. I do.

And I feel like, I mean, that's part of my life. You know, I never been kind of like the prospect that got the opportunity right away. You know, I never been the guy that, I, got my job like handed out to me. I feel like everything that I've done in this career for the last, I don't know, I've been playing for maybe 17, 18 years now. It's being based on sacrifice and hard work and dedication every single day and to prove myself over and over, you know?

I got 10 years in the league, Chris, right now. And 11 years playing baseball in the show. And I need, I feel the necessity of proving my, myself every single day. And I think that's what makes me go the player that he is right now. Because if I don't have that chip on my shoulder every single day, I feel like I would be like different in a way of like not as hard as a of a player that I am right now. Just because I haven't been through a lot of things and I haven't been like proving, proving myself every single day. And that's something that I mean yesterday I went two for four. And I,

I hit a goal and I help my team win the game. But guess what? That's over with. I need to prove it again today. So that's kind of my mentality every time I take the feel that I need to prove myself every single day. And if they feel the necessity of going, getting someone to make the team better, great. I'm here for it because all I want to do is win. And if they feel like I'm the guy who they want to plug and shortstop or second base or

third base, whatever it is, I'm here for it. So I'm part of the team and I understand what they're trying to do, how they're trying to get better. And you can never be like upset because they try to make the team better. It's awesome. That's why you are who you are. With that being said, is there a possibility at the end of this five or six week run, however long Mookie's on the shelf, that the Dodgers come to the realization that this team is better with you at shortstop and mooky bets at second. Yeah, that could be it, but I feel like I'm not going to take Gavin Lox out of the equation because the guy's been helping us win games too.

He's been really good at second base. He's been playing really good defense. And I'm totally confident that he's going to pick it up at the play as well. He's being swinging the bat so much better the last couple of weeks. And I feel like he's trying to find his soul self again, you know. I'm right next to him in the locker room. And I can see his desire to find that guy that he was at 2020, 2021, 2022 when he was like dominating every little opportunity that he got in the big leagues.

And I feel like the hope and the faith of him finding his swing that he can be, the player that he can be, I wouldn't take him out of the equation. So I feel like there's going to be, even though they play me a show, and Mookiee second or Mookieishore, whatever it is, or Mookie can move back to right, who knows what's going to happen. We're going to have a rotation that everybody's going to be involved to help this team win. With that being said, I don't want you to speak for Mookie Bets. That's not fair. But knowing him the way you do and the amount of work you two put in in pregame,

could they really move him back to right in the middle of the season or late in the season? Could that happen? No, I don't think so. On my personal opinion, he wants to be in the infield. So being in the infield, helping kind of saving his legs from like running a lot, you know, and diving for stuff or whatever. Nobody really understand how valuable is mooky when he plays in a premium position. You know, when you play in the middle on the infield, it will take you to a different level. so I feel like that's something that he really wants to do, which is like playing in the middle of the field,

playing shortstop or second base, it's been kind of like what he wanted to do for the last couple years. And I feel like moving him to ride in the middle of the year, just like that, it will be a little bit too much. But I feel like as soon as he back, we will see like the organization will see that the state of the team at that point, where he make the more sense, and he will be leading off for us in any position, you know.

So there are people that have wondered, and I think it's a good question for fans to ask, because they see you and Muki working so hard for hours every day, is he grinding too much, and is that physical and mental pregame strain affecting him at the plate? Can that happen to a player? I think it can, yeah. It can be, it can be tasking because when you do a lot pregame,

you have to have the reserve on you to play 162 games, leading off, and being the same guy offensively. It wasn't doing bad, you know? It wasn't doing like, he wasn't having like a season where you say, oh, he because he's grinding, he's not being mokey at the play. but yeah it can take a little bit of a of a mental kind of you know uh task on you and on your body too because you're taking a lot of reps a shortstop throwing a lot of balls from from the hole and working on different stuff on the fly but i feel like the player and the person

that mukie is i think he he needed to do that to feel comfortable that he's doing the work and he's putting the work to be the best at his position and at some point he's going to look back at the numbers and he says, oh, I'm not there yet. I got to keep working. He's not going to just put his mind away from working just because he's doing good. He's going to continue to do it. And I mean, that's who it is. Would you ever tell him maybe dial it back a little bit in his pregame preparation

or is that not what you should do? No, I talked to him about routines. So for me, if you find a routine that you can do every single day, that is short and it's compact, and you can actually put all the stuff that you need to do in maybe 15 minutes, or we talk about like 25 grand balls, that's the best way to do it, in my opinion. But sometimes he wants to do a little extra just because he wants to work on plays that he's not really used to do. so that's why for me the best advice that I could give him was how about okay we play six games in a week right and in the middle of that week we're probably going to play one day game at least one or two

those two day games is going to be really hard to go out there on the field and take down balls so I recommend you to have like a little routine on the side that you can do which which can be like knee drills, wide-bait drills, and then take a couple grand balls off the fungal on the side, so you don't have to do much on the field. So those two days are always going to be there. So they're going to be like break days for you. You know, like you're not going to do much over there. So out of the other five days, I want you to do three regular routine grand balls

where you're going to have your routine on the field. And then the other two days are going to be work days. The work days, meaning, okay, you're working on back hands, you're working on forehand, you're working on slow ground balls, you're working on hard hit balls, whatever you want to work on, but try to find a routine that works for you is going to be really important. So that's my only kind of advice that I gave about preparation and about, like, how to prepare to play a long season at shortstop, because that's the only thing that I have to do in baseball, kind of like play short stuff for 162 games.

All right. You and the Rocky played one of the most interesting games that we have seen all year. I turned on the TV. There weren't that many late night games going on. So I saw it was 9 to 4 and I saw that you were going to be hitting early in the inning. I was like, okay, well, I'll check out McGee Roe, see how he's doing. So somebody had gotten on and then they came up and the Rockies broadcast was talking about, well, this amazing stat that Miguel Rojas has, every time he's gotten to hit,

hit the Dodgers have won. And he said, well, that's going to come to an end tonight because it was nine to four in the ninth inning. Well, you came up and you got a hit, another hit. And I was like, yeah, a streak will probably end. Well, then you guys load the bases. And then Hayward pinch hits and he has an awesome at bat and he hits a grand slam. And then the lineup turns over to Otani.

I was like, holy shit, this is really going to possibly happen. Guys end up winning the non-check swing call on Tay Oscar. then he hits a home run. At what point did you think you guys had a legitimate shot to win that game? When I got to first base. Are you serious? I'm serious. It was 9 to 4.

I don't know. I don't know why, but I told, so it was no out in the 9, right? We played in Colorado, remember. So in Colorado, not a, not a, not, not lead it safe. So anybody can score like five runs in Colorado. right away, right? All you have to do is get someone on base and then a homer is about to happen, right? So I got to first base and I told Clayton, A Clayton, be ready because we're going to win this game. I told him that because of the streak and everything that has been happening and people have been

talking like, oh, it's 20 and oh when Miggie gets a hit. It's 21 and oh or whatever. Oh, it's going to be over today. So I was all for three and I walked to a plate thinking about it. And I say, Okay, we're down by five. What would I do here? And I was hoping for the walk. Be honest with you. So I want to help the team, but I didn't want to stop the street.

So I was hoping for the walk. But first pitch, I was taking first pitch, right? Because I want to walk. He threw me a fast ball in, strike. And I said, okay, I can't really take anymore, you know? I need to, like, swing the bat if the ball is there. So he threw me another fastball in. I got that blooper over the second base of my head.

As soon as I got to first base, I told Clayton, after that handshakes, I went, A Clayton, be ready, we're going to win this game. And he's looking at me all like, okay, Migi, whatever. All of a sudden, Miguel Vargas got to walk. They pinch it for Jason Hayward. When Jay hit the ball, I say, oh, my God, I can't believe it. I was a second base, and he hit that ball. I say, oh, my God, I can't believe this.

The ball hit the foul pole, and Troy is on the plate. Anything can happen, you know? He got that base. sit, they walk Freddy, next thing you know, we're winning the game. So when Teosker hit that ball, what was the dugout like? Oh, it exploded. Exploded in, like in satisfaction, and it was like, I mean, he did it again because he did in New York for us like every game over there, you know?

So Teosker is being huge for us, clutch, understanding the, the, the, the stage of the game, energetic, giving us, like, a lot of passion, you know, like that, that gladding, gladden player passion, you know, when he hit those homers, he's, like, fire up, and he's fired the whole clubhouse and the whole, the whole locker room up with his power. Did Teoska Hernandez swing or not? Really hard to tell, because, I mean, it's a high, it's a high pitch, you know, like, I haven't really go to the, like, side view and see it from that perspective. Okay, we can look at it.

Here we go. You tell me, that's a swing. It's okay. They're not going to take the win away from you. That's a swing. Yeah, I know, I know. Yeah, I mean, it seems like it. But, I mean, good thing, good thing is we don't have to talk about it anymore.

I do want to talk about this. Did you see, did you see Jake Cave's reaction? He's playing right field for Colorado. Watch him. Yeah. So the ball leaves the yard and he starts motherfucking the first. space hump who didn't make the check swing call yeah i have never seen that before i was laughing my ass off man i i i i saw that in person so i yeah i'm i'm aware and i talk to jake the next day

at second base he got he got the second base and he was like bro uh i want to tell you that it's nothing against you guys you know like i was acting that way not in like in disrespect but it's a big deal, you know? It's a big deal for us as a team and for our junk club to beat the Dodgers, you know, like beating and winning a game, regardless if it's the Dodgers or whatever, you know, but he mentioned something about, you know, for them to beat the Dodgers is a big deal, you know, in a game like that for the pitchers, for everybody, you know, to come to come in and do their job and do what they need to do to take care of the Dodgers at home. It's a big deal. So for me, for Jake to say,

that day, I say, man, we don't take anything, you know, the wrong way with your fire. And believe me, I play for a team that lost 98 and 99 games one year. And I understand how frustrated it is not to get it done. And when you got the opportunity to win games in the big leagues, it's always important, you know, and it's going to be a good feeling for that team to say, okay, yeah, we got to be the Dodgers at this day or whatever. And I totally understand what Jake was coming from, a player that he was just like shy of going to the World Series last year. And he was the Phillies, a really successful team.

And I feel like every team needs a leader and a veteran present like that, that cares about winning, cares about like his teammates and his team. And that's what baseball needs. I would be proud if I was a Rockies fan and that was his reaction. I want guys who are pissed off when they feel like they got screwed out of a win. And I'm happy, you know what? I don't think he needed to apologize to you or let you know because you understand the game. But I think that's pretty cool that you guys had that conversation.

No, he did. And he kind of like caught me by surprise because he didn't have to do that. but when he said it, I totally respect Jake Falaad for what he had to say on how he stands up for his team that day.

It's pretty remarkable. That you have a guy like with his strike record, you know, he's been playing in the lead for a couple years now. And so he's been around and he's, you know,

he's been in a winning team. He's been in a losing team now. And he understands how hard it is to be in the team. this level and that's the definition of not taking anything for granted every single day. The Dodgers are a show wherever you guys go on the road. But when you went to New York and the Bronx and played that series, I mean, Tiasca Hernandez came out and said, because he's played for years, whether it was with Seattle or Toronto, he's played a ton of games in that stadium.

He was like wearing a Dodger uniform in this rivalry in this stadium was different. Is it? Yeah, it was different. That felt like. I mean, I've never been in a World Series, right? But that was the whole setup was like the whole series, the World Series set up, you know? Like, we got Derek, one day we got Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, you know, on the field, doing the pregame show over there

on a Saturday night in the middle of June, you know? And then we have all these, I mean, three national TV games. It's so different, you know, the whole fans, how they travel to New York. They did the same thing in Boston last year, too, when we went to Boston for Mookie's return. But, I mean, this is crazy. We have, like, literally like 10,000 Dodger fans in the stands. And this group wants to do, like, a roll call for us.

The thing is, like, I don't think it could have happened because, I mean, Yankee fans are pretty loud to. And they, I guess they're not going to let that happen in their field. But, I mean, play for the Dodgers, man. and being on the road and seeing the seal of blue that we have everywhere we go, you know, and feel like we're playing a home game. Everywhere that we go is pretty amazing. To get a chance to talk to Stanton? I did talk to G a couple of times, not around the basis or anything.

I talked to him before the game one day. Yeah, I check him with him. It's always nice to talk to my boy. Yangtogne. You guys are close, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, we're really close, especially after those moments in Miami right before he got traded after that year,

you know, that Jose passed. And, I mean, the connection that we're going to have is going to be deeper than just baseball. It's going to be about, you know, those moments and what we have to go through as a family. And I believe those guys are my family. like D Gordon, Giancarlo Stanton, Christian

Geles, Justin Boar, E.J. Ramos, Martin Prado. That group of guys will forever be together because of what happens right there, what happened with the organization and how we handle the things at the moment, you know?

Because Jose was like a pretty big thing for us. And we would never kind of go away from like explaining people how good was Jose was and how impactful Jose was in a community and for the whole clubhouse and for the whole team about like you remember when when they started with like let the kids let the kid play MLB kind of thing I think Jose was that before let the kids play you know because he was a kid

playing baseball every single day and he kind of was the one who started everything the change and the revolution of baseball coming into the new baseball that we're playing right now. You know, it's, I have a picture of Jose. I think it's at the San Diego All-Star game in 2016 or whatever that was. And he was one of my favorite players, because you're right. I just loved the enthusiasm he played with. Heck, even when he was hitting, he loved it. You know, he was like, man, I'm going to go take somebody deep and occasionally,

he would. Like he could have been a statue guy there, Miggi. They could have built a statue based on not only his ability and his personality, but what he meant to the community down there. Yeah. I mean, when you look back, like his career and what he did, so the rookie of the year, all the all-stars and all that, nothing compares to what he did to the fan base in Miami. You know, in Miami, it's really hard to draw some fans because of like a different reason, you know, We haven't, we haven't, like, have, like, a winning culture over there at the time. There's a lot of things to do in Miami, you know, it's really hard to actually commit to a baseball season, which is a 162 games, 81 games at home. But every time Jose pitched, it was like 20% more in attendance or 25% more.

So, like, people want to see him. He's like, he was a kind of, like, person and player, you know? Like, it was a show, not just Jose pitching. It was like the show of like Jose can hit a homer and pimpe. Jose can strike out 14 today. Jose can do something that is going to be like all over social media. So I want to present that. So that was like the kind of person that he was.

And he was like pretty close to be like Levin Hernandez for the World Series. And I love Miami kind of, you know, experience. Was it Atlanta that he pimped the homer against and McCann told him to go run? Was that who it was. Yeah, I wasn't there for that one. Yeah, but he was against Atlanta. He hit against a lefty. I don't remember his name, but, yeah, I mean,

Mikein got on his face at the play. And the key was just, like, doing what everybody's doing right now. Right. Like, it was a different era in a different baseball, and that's what people kind of like sometimes forget that we used to have this kind of, like on writing rules that you can really break. And, you know, like they let you know.

And all the players kind of keep you accountable, you know, for your actions. And he was like a really young guy at the time. And in eyes of like all the guys, he was disrespecting the game. And he really wasn't, you know. He was just like doing something that nobody else is doing. but that's how the baseball used to get used to be played like people fight over a pin over like a bat flip people like drill other players just because you flip your back and that's the kind of stuff that I feel like you know like he didn't do much he just like through his

bat like stead at the homer he didn't even pimpe he just like enjoy enjoy the homer and you see reaction. That's how we started playing the game. That's how the game was played at the moment. Yeah, I mean, listen, I understand Brian McCann came up old school in an old school clubhouse, right?

Bobby Cox leading the way and all that sort of so I understand it. I mean, BMA's a good guy. It's just, I don't know. I think we've made a lot of progress and I've never understood that let's drill somebody because they celebrated too hard. It just think it is it's the most childish sounding thing I have ever heard. Nobody can ever convince me of it, but I know we've made it pass that.

At Dodger Stadium a few weeks ago, the Texas Rangers, the champions came into town. And it was the first regular season chance for the Dodgers to say thank you to Corey Seeger. How well do you know, did you guys play in the minor leagues together or anything? No, we didn't play together, but it was a big prospect when I was in the organization in 2013. So we got the opportunity to be like in an early spring training camp, you know, that they do with the Dodgers. They invited all the prospects and a couple of the new signing guys, you know, to get used to with the organization. And I got to meet Seeger at the time. He was in like low A or something like that. And I was going to play in double A. So we play the same

position and I always call me calling the prospect, you know, every time. and he went every time every time we went together I call him, hey prospect, a prospect. And now, yeah,

he was the big prospect for them. And after I made my debut in 14, I think he came up in 16 or 15 or 15. And he, you know, was a shortstop for the organization for a long time. And nothing about, nothing about Corey Seger

that is bad in this club hour or in this organization. Everybody talks so highly about the way that he plays the game, that he carried himself outside the field with the community, all the trainers. You know, one important thing that if you want to know about a player, I'm the trainers. The trainers always know best because in the trainer room is where there's no media there,

there's no front office people. There's nobody there that can actually like be in the, way of you being yourself, you know? And then the trainers got the best view of like players on the sense of like what kind of person this guy is. Then if you ask a trainer and those trainers, everybody in this organization with all the trainers got really good, good things about to say about Seeger and how good of a competitor he was. And everybody's like, was happy to having back. I also love it when the guys know the security people who are working.

You know, you know the clubbies. You're with them every day. But you care. Like it doesn't take much to say hello. And you can brighten somebody's day for, I don't know what they're making per hour. But a lot of the time, they're sitting there by themselves,

these security people, they don't have much interaction. But man, a major leaguer says hi or knows my name. That's a big deal, Miggie. Yeah, especially when they work over there, as hard as you're working on the field, they're working hours and hours and hours for you to be safe and for you to be comfortable, you know, like people who works in the elevators to get you down every single time.

You know, like, you know how hot it gets in there, and they have to be sitting in that elevator for like maybe 10 or 12 hours a day, you know, because they're there since, like 11.30 in the morning. And they're leaving when the last guy leave around 1 a.m. in the morning after a long game, you know? So you really have to appreciate what these guys mean for a city and for an organization. And, I mean, even though he's in a different thing now, you could never forget what he did for the organization. Good. That's nice. One last thing. What are you doing during All-Star break?

I'm not sure yet. I'm going to go to Miami and I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there with the family and I'm going to do that. But I don't know if I'm going to take a little bit of escape to maybe the keys or something like that, go to the beach with the kids before they go to school again and before I got to go back to L.A. I don't know if I'm going to go to Vegas. It's up in the air yet. I haven't decided. I might go to Vegas and Spain the four days in Vegas. Four days in Vegas.

Miggy, bro, that's too much. I love Vegas, but four days. That's a lot of poker for me. That's too much poker. Too much. I haven't really played much this year because I've been traveling and with the family here,

I can really go to the casinos. But, yeah, I might take it to Vegas and go play some poker. How are you doing on the poker playing on the plane? Oh, really good. This year, yeah, this year has been good. We have a really weak game. We don't have many players.

We need Kirchah back. We need, well, so Walker, Julia was back for a little bit. Now he's going to be down for a couple of weeks. But Walker, Walker was good, that he was back.

But we need some players back. I think we're getting softer and softer on the poker players on the plane, too, you know, with the time. But it's been good for me. Okay, yeah, good. Who's money you take in the most? I hate to say, but it's been a couple of rookies.

Miguel Vargas and Bobby Miller lately. So I'm not really happy about it or proud about it because, I mean, but it's been like open down. Last year I have my days where I was really bad and I gave up a lot of money. So, yeah, it's just paper like Jose Fernando used to say. We used to play this game of poker, right? So Sir Fernand is one of the craziest players of poker, talking about him earlier today.

He got to say that he calls every bet. And we play with chips or we play with cash, right? And whatever bad it was, like, it could be like a thousand dollar bet. And he said, I'm called, it's just paper. And someone trying to bluff him. We could never bluff him because he was just paper for him. and he just throw it out there and he like won a lot of money not just paper it's not a great it's not a great way to play i gotta be honest with it but okay so what

it's just paper it's just paper yeah micky road's always great seeing you best to you and your entire family uh continued success keep that hitting streak alive man that is it really is an incredible thing that's got you got some nice thank you it's always great Appreciate you. Always great to seeing you. And stay healthy, my friend, as we like to say. Big shout out to our amazing producer, Rami Chiraco, our intern, Tommy Young. For Miguel Rojas, your starting shortstop of the Los Angeles Dodgers. I am Chris Rose. We will see you next time here on the Chris Rose rotation. A production of John Boy Media.