The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Astros Manager Joe Espada Not Concerned About Altuve's Arm From Left Field

Episode Date: February 19, 2025

Astros manager Joe Espada joined "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" from the second day of full squad workouts at spring training to comment on Jose Altuve working with the outfielders, adding Christian Walker to the lineup, wanting to see more consistency from Jake Meyers and Chas McCormick, competition at certain positions and more.

Every Tuesday during the course of the baseball season, you hear from this man at 1230, give or take, depending on if he's going out to get lunch or something and forgets about us. And the biggest thing I just found out about our manager, Joe, is spotted Ross, is that he is personally responsible for the Rockets lost to the Brooklyn Nets. Absolutely. He's all me, yeah. I thought he was going to be an easy win, but things can go their way that night. I'm going to start going to y'all's games against the A's.

He's got a little revenge on that. You know what? I do. I do have to say that, you know, when I first start going, watch them a couple of years ago and where they're at now, it's a very much improved team. You know, those guys just, you know, they were young a couple of years ago. They're still young, but they're more polished and actually a pretty good basketball team. It's fun. It's a lot of fun. Let me ask you, I didn't remember anxious. What is your offseason like? I'm going to turn your microphone up a little bit.

There you. There is. There we go. What are you doing the off season? You know what? I do some traveling with the family, and I go and catch a couple of, a couple of sports events, you know, went to a few UH games, did the Rockets, you know, went over to Austin and watched the University of Texas basketball team, the women's basketball team. So, you know, my daughters, they like to do stuff like that when and watched the soccer games. So we, you know, we can't say no to sports events. So it's like DNA.

I can always find AJ. It didn't take me very long about an hour north. the town, if you know what I'm saying, but you're all over the place. Yes, yes, I do. I enjoy them. All right, we're going to hold this. I'm going to ask one question. Ross, you get one, and then we are done talking about. I don't even need one. No, I don't you need one.

Let's get to L2. Let's get it. I swear to God, we will not ask you about it again until the regular season. But if it's going to have to come up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he has to. I get it. He is the consummate pro. You've talked about this for a period of time.

You told us us all fair and it's worthy of mentioning on air. This is not something you just pushed upon us. Are you concerned at all? Not about him catching fly balls. He's a grown out. He's been around forever, done it. Are you concerned about that runner trying to score from third to home? It's that going to be something that you're going to keep a keen eye on when it comes to his work in left field?

I'm not concerned about it. I think he will figure that out and he'll get it. So as being as a middle infielder, you know exactly where you need to line up. You know exactly what the runner behind you is doing now. he's the one executing that first throw. So that's the transition that he needs to make. And I'm sure that he'll do that. So we're doing this by phases, right?

I think phase one was, you know, at Diking Park. We worked for almost three weeks, fly balls. We deal our work. We did some video. We work on his techniques. You know, we talked about how challenging our wall is. Now phase two is spring training. Now it's the elements, right?

some, the win, you know, now we'll, you know, it's the base runners, it's the strategy, it's running to go first to third, trying to challenge him. So we're going through all that for the next two weeks, but I'm sure that he'll figure it out. We're going to give it everything we got. You know, he's his mindset, it's where it needs to be. And I'm sure that we, if this works, it just makes our team that much better. He's such a smart player. He's got baseball DNA in his blood. I think this is not just for him. It's for anybody you put out left field. Baltimore is going to present some challenges. Detroit will pose some challenges. Cleveland a little bit. But if you knock down, if you're a, if you're a minute-made park, you'll know

the nuance of the cracks and how the ball lands off the fence. Diking Park. Excuse me, Dike me, hit me next time. Hey, got him. There we go. Yeah. That's what it is, right? That's not just for Jose, too, but that's for anybody. It's for anybody. You know, challenges. That wall is a challenge for anyone. Fenway Park is challenging for anyone. You could have 10 years experience to five-year experience. There's things that he's going to have to learn. But for us, we believe that he can do it. confidence that he can do it. He's an athlete. He shows the speed, the awareness to do, to do the things that we expect them to do. And, you know, we've got five weeks here to continue to work on this. And, you know, we're not going to completely abandon second base. But I think

by him playing some let field really opens the door for us, you do all the things on the baseball field. Yeah. Speaking of learning as you go, take us through how you're doing, man. Your journey, the last year, obviously, the start wasn't the way that you wanted to go. You make the playoffs. the early exit, and now the team retooled this year. How have you been going through this and now in your second year as the head man? You know what? So, you know, I had some time to, you know, sit down and kind of take all in, what, what, 2024 meant for me personally and for our team and, you know, doing that time of reflection,

you start writing down things that we could have done better, things that I could have done better. and, you know, when I met with our club yesterday, I think we, I told them that, you know, we need to be proud of 2024. You know, we did not finish the race in what we wanted to, but we ran a strong race. We did what we wanted to do, which was win the West. I, you know, I also told our club that, you know, our team was tested like never before. You know, our culture got tested. Our, you know, our commitment to winning got tested from the very beginning. And we prevail.

I think it was a good season. for us despite early exit of the playoff, but I think we did some things well. And as a manager, I'm proud of the way we battled back about the way, you know, I stay calm and have confidence on my club to get us to where we want to get it to. And I expected to be, you know, a better 20-25. We're ready for the challenge. And I think 2024 was a learning experience for all of us. If I went back and we went back and looked at the games and maybe talk to you right after

the deficit was 10 games. tell me at that point what you were thinking and does Dana come to you and say do we want to start selling because look he maintained the confidence you did as well but reality sits in that when that deficit gets to 10 that's as ugly of numbers it gets yeah Matt you know what one thing about you know you asked about Dana he never used the word sale never did that's a huge thing it's huge and it just goes to we really believe on our team and we always felt like we used still had 90, 100 games to fight back, right? We felt like once our guys came back and, you know, our offense was going to click in. We know that we had a push in there and we did. But, you know, the word sold never came in play. And I'm glad I'm glad that we didn't. And I'm glad that we had at Kikuchi, who was a big boost to our team during that stretch. How excited are you to write three Christian Walker in the lineup almost every day? He just about way he doesn't want to the age.

He's already told us that. After what happened last year at first base. You know what? D.H. is not an option there. You know, he's the best defender in the game over there at first. He will probably need a day off here and there, not many. But I think that what Christian brings to our club is this level. of, you know, leadership, his ability to hit the ball, the ballpark, quality of bat, something

that as a club, we kind of struggled last year a little bit. Our offense kind of up and down and how we chase some pitches, so him and Perretti's kind of bring that dynamic back to our offense. But Christian is a pro, and I'm excited to have them. Let's get to the outfield. Jake can cover everything. You're moving chance to right field. I don't want to say how long is a leash, because, look, everybody's got a leash of some level

to performance-wise. I would say if we took away the left field situation, what's the thing that are probably not alarming, but we're looking to see productivity-wise is what you're, not the guys can do defensively, but it's on the offensive end. What were some things you told to both those guys? Because we kind of joke with Jake a little bit about his mate was spectacular. We need that Jake Myers, not to be that OPS high number like it was,

but level out a little bit. Yeah, let's start with Jake, you know, and I had this conversation with Jake during the off-season, and we touch on here. a couple of days ago. Like, you know, it's not, you know, that may carry, you know, that's repeat May, June, July. No, it's just, you know, when there's a drop-down, which all players have that, it can be, you know, 200 points in the OPS, you know, there's got to be a walk.

You know, he can do things where he could lay down a bun. There's quality of back where the contribution is still there. Because I told him this, I said, listen, you know, when I'm looking at my lineup card and the game, it's, when the game is close, we have to lead. I want to keep you in the game because your defense matters. You meter, you know, your defense is game changing, but when the game is on the line and you're not swinging the bat the way you're capable of, I need to make a move. I need to try to create some runs.

And now I'm taking my best defender out of the game because I'm trying to, you know, tack the lead. And I don't, and I told him I don't like doing that. But I told him, if I have to do it, I will do it again. But I believe that he made the adjustment. He needs to. Same conversation with Mac. You know, you mentioned the leash.

And I told Mac, I said, Mac, last year I think the leash was long. And maybe this year the leash might not be that long. So it's early production. I want to see you contribute to our offense and putting some good at bats from the very beginning. And, you know, we brought in some left-hand of bats that could give me an opportunity to platoon if I have to. But I'm going to, you know, I want Mac and Myers to take over those jobs and do what they're capable of doing. What do you, man, it has to be a hard job because what do you look for when you win to pull the leash? Because, as you know, baseball is a game where Hall of Famers can struggle for 50 games or more.

So what are you looking for to say, okay, this is time to make a change? Is it conversations? Is it how the abats are looking? I mean, what do you do as manager? You know, it first starts with, you know, with a conversation in spring training. the players want to know their roles and how big that leash is, right? You know, you mentioned Hall of Famers. We have quite a few here that have a chance to be Hall of Famers.

So obviously those guys are in there and they're going to put their numbers. But these young players who are starting to figure out in big leagues and you've got to balance that out with wins and losses, they got to show you from the very first date that the quality of bats are there, that they're making adjustments, that they're not ignoring kind of the things that we wanted them to work on. But the abats got to be productive. You've got to hit the ball hard.

You've got to walk. You got to, you know, those abats need to mean something for you to be able to stay in there. Last question for you. Joe Spotted with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Skip, where is the battle? Because everybody likes to put out their 26-man roster, and it feels pretty much set. You may have some things in your mind. But where is the competition for the next month, would you say?

Well, you know, I think there's opportunities on some bench rolls. I think there is at least one or two. two spots there that I view as competition. And I mentioned some of those outfielder's left-handed hitters. There's competition there. But also middle relief. I think that's where we are going to spend a lot of our time, where we got some of these young pitchers who are there who we like.

Who can be that bridge to a braille and a hater on the ninth? Who can throw that sixth inning? Who can throw that seventh inning? Who's going to be the guy who's going to step up and hand the ball to a clean eighth inning to a brao that's that's where the big questions are we uh teased you a little bit last year about all the abray you oh goodness less a bray you less or or i got one for you less every game was close last year you had to or less uh hater going to the second inning oh boy dream world you want both those you know i'm going to start with it with the first one here it's

less of getting a brao up in the seven to finish the seven less of that. Okay. You know, less of he having to go in the seven to finish the eighth, the seventh, and then going back in the eighth, and then I potentially have to get up Hader to pick him up so he could, you know, I need less of that.

And that's for me where right now we are really spending a ton of time trying to figure that out. More offense. Yeah. That is more offense. That also helps. That also helps. But you still got to, you know, prepare yourself for, you well know, what happened last year.

left spring training feeling really good and sexy about our club and then all of a sudden you got I learned that very quickly you got to have a plan B best late plans yeah all right skip thank you very much for the time as always we'll see you tomorrow and then our weekly visits looking forward to uh you were great last year in good times and a bad and let's get away from this owen whatever was it owen four star i forgot oh yeah yeah and then ten games behind i forgot that's joe spotted with us here Matt thomas show with ross continues in a moment here from west palm beach on sports talk 790