The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Joe Espada on Hunter Brown's Return, Team Outlook, and What's Next

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

Joe Espada on Hunter Brown's Return, Team Outlook, and What's Next

We normally get the manager on Tuesdays at 1230, but today we're going to grab him before he is ready to help his squad to win the series against the Detroit Tigers. It is Joe Espada with us here on the show. Joe, first of all, good morning. Congratulations on the win last night. Tell me what it was like watching Hunter get to the mound in the sixth inning. I know there is a pitch count, quote unquote. I know you'd want to get him as long as he wants to go. He wants to stay out there as well.

What was that like? And then what was it like ultimately when you went out there to go? grab one out prior to the six inning. No, you know, we did have a limit on pitches, and obviously we were keeping a close eye on on how his work was going, listening to him. He actually seemed to be really fresh to those first four or five innings of work. And just watching him and Diaz work together, you know, how, how, how, sink they are and how they how well you know he threw the ball it was exciting just to have him

back on the mound and you just kind of fell the the energy and like in the dugout and and in the club so it was it was great it was great to have him have him back out there you know you are getting and look you don't have carl to the rest of the years sadly but you're getting you got your closer back you got your catcher back you got your number one starter back was there a moment in time that you just took a look at that dug out and went, okay, we're finally coming together here. And if we're going to make this push, at least I've got, you know, most of my key arsenal with me right now. Yeah. No, no, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, in a hobby, it's, it's getting better and hopefully we're getting back here pretty soon. But yeah, but, you know, just having Hunter back,

knowing that he is the pillar of your rotation, you know what you're going to get from him every five, six days, getting Diaz back, right, just offensively. And what he can also do with the running game, right? He's just, you know, it just feels more complete having those guys back. And also the morale in the clubhouse, right? Like, they are starting to feel, okay, here we go. With 80 plus games left, it feels like we're starting to build that team that we all expected to have out of spring training to make a push.

But it is funny, though, you are asking of guys, and you had that left with your third basement last night. I mean, you've had some folks. Lamont Wade, way before that. You had your new third basement in Delgado. I mean, this is really weird that there are guys that, frankly, Skip, I don't know how well you knew them. You may have introduced yourself.

You may have been able to see him once or twice in the backfields, but I don't think you had an intimate knowledge of what these guys could do at this point, right? No, but, you know, we work closely. with our front office and we get a good feel of what these guys can do well, right? Like you mentioned, Garado, we know about his defense. We actually talk to him in the offseason to sign him as a free agent

because we liked them for a long time. The versatility it gives you all defensively. He makes good swing decisions. He puts the bat on the ball. So there's qualities that we like about the player. So we are familiar with the skills.

And, you know, and before we acquire these guys, so we have intentionally acquire some of these guys. We call around and we figure out, you know, we talk about the makeup of the player. But, you know, this is the players that we have right now due to some injuries and we have to give these guys opportunities. And hopefully some of these young kids step up and take some of, you know,

take over some of these jobs. Feels like somebody's been making their major league debut. I mean, about every other week the last couple of years, Joe. Do you have that speech down pat at this point? Yeah, yeah, yeah, we, you know, it's, I always, I like to remind those players, you know, it's, they all had that dreams. I'm getting that call. I don't want them to not enjoy that moment. You know, the phone call, we talk about the phone call, who they call first, you know, what the role is going to be here. And, you know, I like to be transparent and very specific. So they know, what, what is it going to be like here, right? that there's all these emotions, but also there's a job that they need to do and being very specific about their roles and when to be ready and what the expectations are. So they know, okay, now I could take the field and play like that kid that once dream of being in the big league. But they're a bunch of good kids and they, you know, a lot of first, a lot of major league debuts.

But I really enjoy having that initial conversation with those players. Astros manager Joe Spotted with us here on Sports Talk 790. As we mentioned, you're getting some guys back. Hunter Brown's been back. Josh Hayter's been good. What is kind of the sense in the clubhouse and your conversations with the guys to where you have some teams under 500 coming up in the schedule and in town right now with the Detroit Tigers? And you're getting your guys back.

Is there kind of a sense of urgency or are you guys trying to play it cool? What is the mood in the message? No, no, no. there's definitely there's definitely you know we we have to win some wins we need to win some series that's just that's just a message we need to be consistent day in day out you know we we need to get to 500 we need to play the quality of baseball that we know we can and start with you know our pitching setting the tone allowing our offense to stay in games and come back and be productive.

Like we could do that, right? But we're getting close to that, that midpoint, and we need to make a push. We need to start showing quality after quality of games in a row where we know that we can roll out there and win some games in a row so we could get to 500. But the guys know, they know where we at. They know what we need to do,

and we just need to get it done on the baseball field. Joe, it is being reported that you're going to skip Burroughs in the rotation here. Take us through that, if you don't mind the decision on that. And what's going through his mind is he tries to kind of live up to the expectations of what you saw down in spring training. And it just hasn't been consistent enough for you this year, at least at the major league level. Yeah, so we, you know, we are about to go into a 13-game stretch. and we were putting our rotation together and trying to at the same time give some of these guys

a blow and I think Mike can use it. Also having someone that could give me length in bullpen doing this 13-game stretch is also something that we are taking in consideration and for now, for that series against the Guardians, we are going to have Mike pitch out of the bullpen. And is that a quick conversation? And I don't know if you want to give away too many details,

but what does that like to go to a player? And you can just mention a generic player. They could be moving a guy in the lineup down from third to seventh. That could be a guy moving the bottom. What do you do to maintain that we need you, but yet we are kind of seeing some things that may need a little bit of a shift here? No, you know, the best, you know, you want. it's a long conversation even when you drop somebody down you want to hear you want to hear

from them it's not only a managerial move we doing what's best for the team you know I've given my thought process and I want to hear from them I think you know the players have to be in power and and have a say in this process and and I want to hear from them you know with Mike in this case we all you know we take in consideration the fact that that he had 90 pitches last year in the big leagues. He was used as a reliever also. So we are midpoint and he's almost close to getting the same amount of innings, pitched the same amount of innings that he did last year.

So we have to be conscious about when to give him a breather, when to how to use our bullpen. We're trying to win games together. So this is the best thing for the team, but for him also, you know, getting him ready to pitch, you know, either in Toronto or Detroit, wherever we decide to do what's next. But it's a conversation between both sides. And the player has, I always want to hear what the player has to say.

Last question. A little surreal for us that have followed your team the last handful of years, having AJ wearing Detroit gear, we're kind of used to that, but Fromber. What was the intelligence with guys in the clubhouse before the game going, all right, we've seen this curveball be so nasty for us. Now he's doing it with Detroit uniform on. Yeah. But we know he's stuff, right?

And, you know, the sinker and, you know, he's going to go to that curb. But when he wants to punch out, you know, he did use his change up more last night against us, which he got some quickouts on it. But we made him work. I think we did a nice job trying to get him up in the air, trying to get some hits. but he's a tough competitor, man. He's not easy to beat since he's got a really good repertoire. And he knows he always got that two-seamer that you, you know,

it forces you hit the ball around. But I thought we did a nice job, but it was strange watching them, you know, watching them, you know, with a Detroit uniform. Skip, thank you for the time. Good luck this afternoon and good luck this weekend. And we'll do this again next week. We appreciate it. And congratulations.

Bye, fellas. Thank you.