Brandon Nimmo reacts to being traded to the Texas Rangers

Longtime Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo shares his reaction to being traded to the Texas Rangers, why he voided his no trade clause, and how excited he is to be teammates with Jacob deGrom again.

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Hey Brandon, this is a Sean
McFarland, the Dallas Morning News, I think you could, you just walk us through?
I guess what? This trade was like, from your
perspective, the decision to waive, the no-trade Clause, any, I guess what? These last few
days or weeks have been like, for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I guess I’ll
start you at the beginning, it was Thursday night. I received a phone call from,
David’s terms. Which is not that unusual. And so I picked up the phone, you know, asked him how he was
doing what’s going on? And he mentioned to me, that they had a trade in place with the
Rangers if I was if I was willing to
waive my no-trade Clause so it definitely took me as a
shock, you know, I was I used to hear that, I went ahead and asked him some
more questions. Basically evolving into. So the final question was like, am
I basically the only thing that’s standing in the way of
this leg? Is this already a done deal? I just, I have to
approve it and he said, yep, pretty much
like it’s, you know, it’s just not enough, you know, dot the
I’s and cross the t’s would pretty much be this at this.
Point. So I was obviously you know taking
them back from that and I said, okay, well this obviously
a huge life and career decision. So you know, we don’t want to make
any decision, you know, off the cuff. So we
need to go ahead and deliberate on this. I need to talk with my
family and we need to have some time
for this. They were very accommodating with the time
said, no problem. I also had let them know that my daughter’s first birthday was
tomorrow and you know that would be
encompassing a lot of my time that next day and so they were they said that’s
totally fine. Go ahead and do what you need to do. So with that information, we celebrated my daughter’s
birthday on Friday, but then once we finished and it was kind of, you know, night
time like I pretty much got on the phone from that night on.
Until basically Sunday afternoon. So, you know, when I went to
bed, I was on the phone and then, and then when I woke up, I
got back on the phone and was trying to get as much
information as I could possibly, get to make this
decision. What we ended up coming up with
was that the Mets would not have brought
this trade? If they didn’t feel like it, put the Mets, In the
best position to win going forward. They made it very apparent that
they weren’t actively shopping me. But that the Rangers really,
really, really wanted me. They made it extremely apparent
and they, you know, we’re persistent
enough that they got to the point where a trade was to
be had. So, from my perspective, when I
talked with Cy, we talked for about an hour and
a half going and over, you know, different things and
processes and where the team was at. And I tried to
familiarize myself with the Rangers and where they were
at, because this was going to be,
you know, a huge, huge decision for me. Spring trainings in Arizona, we
live in Port. St. Lucie Florida. We just finished our
house that we’ve been working on. And, you know, it was meant to,
to host, and it was meant to, you know, like have spring
training party. You know, team get-togethers and and so we had
kind of, you know, built this life centered around that we
were going to be New York Mets until the very
end. And so there was a lot of logistical things that we had to
to try and get over those hurdles in order to try and make
this make sense. But then also we wanted to know that
there was a willingness and a Want, you know, for if we went
to the Rangers that they wanted to win and they want
it because that is my ultimate goal, like the personal
stuff, that’s all great. And I think it’s evident
by this decision that, you know, there’s a solid chance that if I stay
healthy, if I just kept producing that, there’s a chance that, you
know, it would have been, you know, me and David Wright
would have been pretty much the only ones that had started
and finished with, with the Mets and and I could have had a pretty
good chance of Having the numbers in the rafters but but that’s not, that’s not what
it all means to me. I would, I would honestly rather win a
World Series and I thought, you know, that was in a good position was
trying to do that with the Mets, but they had, they had made it,
you know, apparent that like they felt like the best way to
move forward for the Mets, was this trade? And so I needed to know that the
Rangers were committed to trying to win a World Series.
Trees as well. And that this wasn’t a rebuild that I was
coming into that. This was somewhere that that one I was
extremely wanted and they made that abundantly clear and to was somewhere that I felt
like in the next five years, we would be competing for
World Series titles year, in and year out. And Chris
made that very, very apparent. He, it’s great when I don’t know
if anybody knows this but I actually was in Big League
spring training. As a minor minor Leaguer when he
was with the Mets. And, you know, I’ve been able to
see him from afar a little bit. But now I’ve had been able
to have some really great conversations with him and he is just as competitive if
not more competitive than me. And so I got the feeling from him and
from his support staff that that this was not a rebuild,
this is just a restructuring and You know, both sides felt like
this would be really beneficial for each side and that both sides would still
be in a very good position to win, actually an even better position
to win. For each side coming out of this trade. So, so after getting all of that
information and kind of checking my boxes, you know, we went ahead and wave
the the no-trade clause and that brings us to now when
you know, in the matter, You know, 72 hours or so, you
know, life completely changes and now your Texas Ranger rather
than a New York Met and I couldn’t be more excited
about everything that I’m hearing, you know, from Jake, I knew Jake
very well. When I was in New York, have stayed in touch
with him, and he has nothing but amazing
things to say about the Rangers. He’s been on both
sides and he has absolutely, you know,
thrived in this in this environment. And thinks that we are capable of winning a
World Series. And, you know, he is really, really excited
about this. And so, talking with him and talking with with many other
people inside the organization, including skip, you know, all I
hear is that, you know, they’re very, very excited about. You
know, this next season. They are not, we’re not in a
rebuilding mode like we’re going for it. We think that you know, this next season is a
very exciting time for the Texas Rangers and so it’s gotten me very excited for
the season and obviously I would not have waive the
no-trade Clause if I did, not think that I could come here and
win and be a part of, you know, chasing that World
Series Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Of course. Hey Kennedy. I Kennedy Landry with mlb.com.
Welcome to Texas. Thank you. What is a? You said you were a
familiarizing yourself with the Rangers obviously, you know,
you’re in the nationally. You don’t see them as much. What
have you learned? I guess about this organization over the last
couple of days of did you come to terms with this? Yes. Well, one of the one of the things that really
stood out to me was how well their pitching and defense did. Last year and how you know
offensively there was a little bit of a letdown but that a lot of the tools are
there offensively and you have a lot of young guys that are
extremely extremely talented. And so what I saw was a lot of
Promise, a lot of promise from the offensive side of things.
And then honestly, one of the biggest things that you have
to have in order to compete for a World Series is pitching. I mean, you saw, you know that
the Dodgers pitching In order to win the World
Series. You saw Yamamoto. Go complete Game twice. You saw
Snell going into seventh inning, like you see, the
pitching is a is a huge aspect to winning the World Series. You
could even say that the Dodgers, you know, in that World Series probably, you know,
they weren’t as hot as they were with like the Brewers
and so you know the pitching is really
the first thing that you need to have. And some guys like to call it
run prevention and when you can when you know Combine the pitching with the
defense. And what I saw was that is
already there and you’re not, you’re not losing a lot of
pieces of that. And I think that that’s something that Cy
really Prides himself on. And so I didn’t realize that
they were like there when I went and looked like they were
number one in a lot of things. And, you know, that’s really, really impressive with the type of pictures that are
out there for all organizations. Now, I think the pitching is in the
best spot. It’s ever been. Since the game is started, and to be number one. In a lot
of those categories is something that is something to
really be proud of. And, and honestly, it’s something
that I didn’t know. And when I looked at these pieces, I
saw that they really weren’t that far off from from being a World Series
Contender because something that I’ve always said,
is, you always just have to get your foot in the door,
right? You just have to get, you know, oh, to the party. You
got to be in the dance and once that happens, it really comes down to whoever is the hottest and
whoever is playing the best baseball in October, for those,
you know, four of those series because you have to get through,
you know, a three game series or a five-game series,
where things can bad luck wise or good
light. Look wise, like, bounce one way or another, and
it can happen really quickly and that can be the series right
there, and I experienced it in 24 when we made it to the
too, Cs and you know, for me the biggest
thing is just worrying about getting your foot in the
door and then if you have extremely good pitching that
really helps with once you’re once you’re in the door. So so for me, I see, you know, a
lot, a lot of promise from the young guys and then
obviously, you know, Corey
Seager his his career, speaks for itself and you know you see guys like
Wyatt Langford coming up that You know, he’s going to be a
real impact player and he has a really high ceiling and I’m coming in here to just
to try and Mentor someone that it’s really
unbelievable to say this. Even for myself. Like, you know,
I’m coming in my 10th year in the major leagues. I’ve been able to, I’ve been
through a lot of different regimes, a lot of different
hitting coaches. There’s a lot of different ways
to stink to skin the cat and I, you know, have been able to Kind
of threw my career. Be able to make adjustments, be one kind of player and then
realize I like there’s maybe more in the tank over here and
when you gain something you usually give up something. So
how much of that do you want to do? So really, one of my jobs coming
over here is to impart as much wisdom as I can on these younger
guys with so much talent and really kind of step into
this role. That like Jay, Bruce and Curtis Granderson, and David
Wright were for me. that’s my role with these guys
and I think I can relate with them a lot you know even down to I was
known as being a little bit injury-prone, early in my career and then we’ve been able to make
a lot of adjustments and be able to put put up four
years of 150 plus games the last four years and that’s
taken you know being very introspective looking at yourself and saying
what can we do better, you know, nutrition wise hydration
while And also, you know, preparation
wise for the game and the season. So I’m here to be, you know, a useful source, and a mentor
for a lot of these guys, on the offensive side of things. And then to, you know, obviously
a dad, I think I’m a pretty pretty good player. So
obviously to add what I, you know, what I bring to to the the
playing side of things as well, but it is one thing that the
Rangers made very, you know, abundantly clear when When I was
being courted by them was, you know, we love the player, we want the
player, but we also we’ve done a lot of
background on the person and we want that
person here and we want you to impact these guys by being yourself and by
imparting your knowledge. And so I’m really excited about about
that Journey. Thank you, Brandon. Yep. Go ahead, Jeff. Hey, Brandon. How did the daughter do? If the
Crush cake? Did she get all over Facebook giant? Yeah. So she, we, we were one of those
crazy families right now. We’re where we haven’t like,
introduced the sugar. Yeah. And, and so, we kind of made like
this healthy. My I say, we, my wife made the made the, like, healthy cake and
she did get it everywhere, and she was eating it. But Most of it ended up on the
floor. Will have some pictures to share
with that. It’s just, it’s been. It’s been a weird, you know, last 3-4 days. Yeah.
And been trying to get all of those bases covered
before we get to the, you know, sharing the pictures of the
Crush cake and all that stuff. But but we did. We did it at my
parents house. My parents live down here and say, Lucy, now, as
well. And Chelsea’s mom came over and we put the the paper. The floor and had her, you know, get all
into it and just, you know, get it, get all the mess everywhere.
And we just, we had an absolute blast with it. But
we also took her to the zoo and so, it was a big day for her again. Yeah. Sheshe needed. Extra naps
the next day. So but we absolutely enjoyed it and
she, she loved it as well. Awesome. So the 2023 Marlins skip
Schumacher was the manager, what are you Member about those
teams because they, they were pretty pesky. That’s what I
remember. That’s what I remember. I remember them
playing, hard-nosed baseball. I remember them, you know,
trying to figure out like, you know, not everybody can win
the same way, you know, you have to find out
what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses and and
figure out, okay, so what’s the other side strengths and
weaknesses? And how do we expose that? And to me, it
seemed like they tried to expose that every, every single
time we always hated playing the Orleans for ought to be honest
with you because they were so pesky. They were so athletic and just like they
wanted to they wanted to win. You can sit,
tell there was like a chip on the shoulder like they wanted
to win at you know, whatever cost it was. If that
meant Bunning, the guy, you know, that men doing a sacrifice
bunt or even doing you know, a safety squeeze you know and getting the guy in
it’s just it was all about putting pressure on the other
side and you know that’s what I get from skip. As well, when I
was talking with him is there’s not one way to win a
ball game, but we need to use, you know, our mind and not just
have say, well this is the way that I’ve always done things and
so we’re going to just try and win this way. It’s like no you need
to. You need to look at yourself,
you need to look at your team and you need to figure out what
are our strengths and weaknesses. How does that match
up to the other side? And how do we hit expose their
weaknesses to our benefit? And that’s, that’s what I always
remember from. From Skip and his team’s was
that competitiveness being there and that willing to win it
at whatever cost and I relate to that a lot
because you know, I haven’t I’ve had a
lot of different ways of succeeding in this game and it’s
not always been the same way, but when it comes down to it on
the field, I don’t really care. You know,
if we win by one run or if we win by 10, like I just want to
figure out some way to beat you, you know? And so For me, I resonate with him a
lot on that and just being, you know, being Scrappy and and
just fighting tooth and nail on the field to be able to figure
out how do we win today. You know, I know that in
baseball, you can’t win every game. But I’ve seen how
important it is when you know, I mean, three years I
think I’ve either made the last 3 years of either made the
playoffs or lost the playoffs by one game and it’s even been less than
that sometimes. So I see how important every
single game is and Skip those as well. And we want to, we want to, you
know, be known as very, you know, Scrappy and
fight tooth and nail kind of
guys, that doesn’t mean that you
aren’t extremely talented. We, we can have very, you know,
extremely talented people, but you want to make sure that,
you know, you’re you’re felt like people hate playing you.
That’s kind of, that’s kind of the way you want to be know, okay. And then You haven’t played right field
for a while, but there’s a chance, you’ll have that
opportunity here. How do you feel about that? The biggest
thing for me is getting reps in spring training, right? So, like wherever we decide upon, and that’s still to be talked
about right field or left field, because I want it. What we want
to do is, you know, we want to make sure that the other guys
are comfortable as well. Carter and Langford and like, you know,
wherever we decide on, we want to make sure it’s best for
the unit because you work well like your unit out there, you’re covering ground.
As a unit it’s not just let me cover my ground in right field
and what not like we need to move together as a unit so that
we can cover as much ground as possible in the Outfield. So we want to make sure that
everybody’s comfortable with
that. But for me I have had, you know
the pleasure of playing all three positions. And for me, the biggest thing is
just getting getting the Reps out there in spring
training. As long as long as I can do that, you know, I feel
good about making a transition over there if we need to You know, it’s just different
angles and you know the corners are probably as far as getting
used to them and those angles and like the side Spin and you
know, when when a righty or a lefty hits it Opposite handed,
and it’s a Fly ball. It’s going to come back into the
field and just remembering all these little cues. It’s all
definitely stuff to pay attention to, but all stuff that
can be remedied by the Reps in in there. And I’m
not just talking about, like,
game reps, like, you know, getting out. Batting practice and getting the fly balls, you
know, and we’re just working on that in spring training. So I do feel good about it. You
know, once you kind of get on that routine, it becomes like
riding a bike but we’ll just, we’ll just make
sure that we’re getting the Reps out there, so your
Outfield code, says, Travis Jankowski, you know? Yeah, yeah.
I know. Django Django is former teammate of mine. It’s so it’s so crazy. You know, the funny part was If
I Stay Ed with the Mets. My he was my the guy who was going to
be the Outfield coach was the was a teammate of mine in the
GCL and, and the Sally league. So either way, I was going to
have a teammate of mine, but being my coach now, and that’s a
weird feeling, but it’s something that I’m very
proud of because, you know, hey, not many people
get to this point and it’s very, it’s very
difficult to keep playing this long, so I’m very proud of
that, but I also know that Janko and eyes relationship. Will flourish from this. It’s something that we can
already be honest with each other on and until each other,
you know, this is what this is, what I see, this is what I’m
thinking, you know, what about you? Let’s have, you know,
constructive criticism. I had that with my prior,
Outfield coach in Antoine Richardson, and it’s something
where, you know, we don’t we don’t want coaches in someone
that will just tell you exactly what you want to hear, right?
You want to be, you want people to be honest
with you. You and when they’re you’re there your coaches you
want to have Fair assessments of where you can get better and
how we accomplish that. And so for Janko and I that will
already be, there will be able to have open and
honest conversation and respect each other at the
end of the day, but it’s awesome to have a guy that I’ve
already played with and already started a relationship with as
as a coach especially in such proximity as far as base running
and Outfield go, but I’m excited to work with
him. Him and he’s an amazing person. So that just makes this
transition even easier. Great well, looking forward to having
you here. It’s a greater key. Good. It’s a good beat crew. Yeah. All over than you’re used
to. So you’re good at. You’re gonna
enjoy. That’ll be great. I’m looking
forward to working with everybody and yeah, it’s going
to be. It’s going to be a lot of fun. Thanks man. Yep, thank you. Wei Brian Stephen Hawkins with
the AP. You kind of answered everything
was going to ask about the office so I will ask, are
you going to buy hosting house
in Surprise Arizona? Now let’s say
yeah, we got away. Work. Yeah I know it’s it’s it’s so
weird. We you know we were trying to get
that all set up here and it’s been three years in the
making so I don’t I don’t really have the three years to
get that. In the making here. We will definitely be setting
things up. I don’t know if it will be at a house. I don’t
know. You know, we did like pop stroke a few
years with the Mets, something along the way, I will
definitely be getting the team together. That’s that’s a big Part of, you
know, being a team and creating the chemistry is I’m going to be brand new to a
lot of these guys. I want them to be able to get comfortable
with me, to get to know me as so that we can have you no
good constructive conversations and that we can become, you
know, great teammates and and push each other to be better.
So, in order to do that, we will definitely be doing
something. I haven’t narrowed that stuff down in spring
training yet, but it’s the Big part of what my
mentors did. And it’s my role, you know, as a mentor now, to be
able to, you know, do dinners to be able
to get bring guys out to events to create that camaraderie. And that will, that will
definitely be a part of it. I don’t know if it will be at a
house in surprise. I don’t know if it’ll be at, you know, some
event space that we get, but we will get that somehow is the one-year-old, your only
child, my only child right now,
yesterday, Adam my daughter, she just turned one on Friday. She’s an absolute joy. And, you know, so blessed to have her, but yes, the only one for right
now, you’re having babies. I’m having grandchildren. So the man. Well, congratulations.
That’s such a blessing. All right, thanks man. Thank you. Laura, go ahead. Hey, Brandon is Laura. Hey, how did you see you again from a different light? 100%, I
just wanted to ask over the last 24 hours, there’s been a huge outpouring from fans just in terms of appreciation,
with their interactions with
you. What’s your reaction to that and
also, you know, how do you think they’ll translate to your
new home? Yeah, yeah. No, I will, you know, I put a post out probably about an hour ago now
or so and just trying. You do the best that I could. Again,
I think the way that I started it was there really
are no words to fully Express,
how the like all-encompassing love
and support that. I always felt from the New York Mets fan base. They always appreciated,
whatever the results were. They always appreciated. The way that
I went about the game, the way that I hustled and the
person that I was, and And that will never go away.
And, you know, it was 14 years that I spent in the Mets
organization, developing relationships, there are fans that I met in
2011 that, you know, I still interacted with, you know, all
the way up to the end of last year and it’s just it’s something that I
will definitely miss. It’s one part of my life and a chapter
that is is over and that’s always
sad. I will always. Remember the Mets
fans fondly? One of the, you know, coolest experiences I
had was after we won the NLCS standing, you know, on the field and enjoying that moment with a
pact, you know, a sellout crowd at Citi Field and being part of that first
like clinching game at Citi Field and kind of having that come full circle. I wish, you
know, I obviously I wish could have brought a World Series to
that fan base, but having that come Like full circle moment
from being drafted in 2011, you know, just this kid from
Cheyenne Wyoming to, you know, standing on Citi
Field and having you know us going to you know, the Cs. And I’m I said to see us, I
meant the DS but having us go to the Cs and
you know and do it in front of the the Mets
fans that I had always wanted to win for. So for me it’s sad It’s
the ending of one chapter of my life and the beginning of
a next I will always remember the Mets fan base fondly. I absolutely love them. And you know, I tried to leave everything that I
possibly could out on the field for them. But I do know, you know,
ultimately the goal was to bring a World Series, you know,
fell short of that but hopefully and it seems like from
the outpouring support that I’ve been getting That that the fanbase remembers, you
know, me fondly as well. And that’s always a great feeling to
feel like you are appreciated for what you did,
for the organization and the effort that you put out on a
daily basis. I have definitely felt that
support and I felt that love and I cannot thank the the Mets
fan base enough for that. Awesome and good luck in that in
Texas. Thank you so much. Jared Sandler. Brandon Jared Saint Louis
Rangers TV and radio. Welcome they secured a couple questions one. What was
it? Like growing up playing baseball in Wyoming. I
understand. So high school, baseball wasn’t and options. He
played Legion ball and yeah, it’s obviously not a baseball
hotbed. So what was that like? Yeah, it’s not like Texas, you know, it’s such. There’s so
many players so many great players that come out of Texas. Wyoming was like you said a little bit of the
unconventional. Um, you know, we’re trying to make it more
conventional. Now, we’re trying to, you know,
the program has really taken a lot of strides even
since I’ve been there and and one thing was, you know, that’s weird to people
was that you didn’t have high school baseball. So for me, it really wasn’t that
big of a deal. It was kind of a bigger headline than what I
felt like it actually was. But I still played baseball wasn’t
like they saw me, you know, out in in you know, throw In an ice
fishing pole and they’re like, oh he’s you know he’s got good
hands like maybe he’ll be a good baseball player like we
still played 80 games a year, you know which is not full
year-round kind of like how is done in Texas or California or
Florida now, but but for me, I’m glad that that I
didn’t play around because I learned a lot of things from
other sports that have, you know, really helped me to become
the player that I am in Major League Baseball. I learned a lot from football. As far as the weight room went
and as far as two days and, you know, kind of like, you know,
just the mental toughness of football in the team,
camaraderie of it. And then I also learned a lot
from from tracking, the factors like running mechanics and like,
you know, all all those things as far as how to push your body in, like,
how, you know, I you could push your body to limits that you
didn’t, you didn’t really know and how to, you know, get ready for
like one performance, you know, one performance once a week, you
know, baseball you. Play every day. And, you know, that’s
a little bit different than when you’re trying to it’s more
like playoff baseball when you’re trying to just get ready
for like one game. And this one game is super important, you
know, so there’s a lot of things that
I learned from, you know, not just playing baseball year-round for me personally but also, you
know where I grew up. It’s just, it’s always home for me, you know? When I go back there
and I go back to the big Skies, you know, which is something
that Texas has that I am. Excited about. But you know, I go back there
and you know, I’m very grateful for growing up there, there’s a
lot that growing up in Wyoming taught me that that I use in Daily
decisions today. But growing up there and playing baseball was
was unconventional. But my dad he just he always told me if
you’re good enough, they’ll find you. And, you know, I just
kind of helped me to be motivated to try and do whatever it took and
kind of just look at myself. Both in the mirror and say, am I
getting the most out of myself rather than trying to
like look to the sides? And compare myself to other players?
Because I always just felt like, well, there’s someone out there
that’s better, so I need to keep getting better and you
know, there’s someone out there that, you know, their
livelihood, depends on this, you know, and and they need to
get out of, you know, whether you know, in the Dominican they
say, what you hit your way off the island, you don’t walk your
way off, you know, that kind of deal like you know, for me. I was always thinking there’s
someone else out there that’s trying to get better right now.
And so I need to be trying to get better and that was really
that was really important for me and my mindset, you know,
coming coming into pro ball and just trying to to look at myself and ask
myself, if I am I getting the most out of myself. And so I I really loved growing
up there. I, you know, it’s something that I’m very proud of but it was the unconventional
route. And, you know, I’m trying to
give back to that community and, and, and help them to make
that an easier process. But, you know, I did kind of in call it when I was looking at
colleges, I kind of was like, you know, I’d like to be
south of the Mason-Dixon Line because I was, I was kind of tired of playing
in cold weather and, you know, playing in the dome.
I’m not, I’m not unhappy about that down in Texas. So, you know, they’re there were
things About it that, you know, playing in that cold weather and
whatnot where I’m like, hey, you know this is this is a
nice added benefit but but I really enjoyed enjoyed
growing up there and kind of going the unconventional
route. But I do think there’s a lot of
similarities between Wyoming and Texas that that will feel like going home. I appreciate that then one more
specific question. You’ve never really I shouldn’t
say never I’m sure there’s a growth part of this but you
hit lefties and righties really a lot of lefties and again who maybe you know they platoon or
they struggle against lefties. You don’t is that always been
natural. What’s that notion been like for you? Yeah, no it’s um, it’s been something that I take
a lot of pride in it was something that was Was kind of a career. My
career was going to go. One of two ways. I was either going to
start becoming one of those platoon guys, or I was going to start hitting
left-handed. Left-handed, hit it pitching better and I basically and he was around
2020, I think it might have been 21.
We, we ended up having. All right handed, BP throwers
when we were with the Mets and I basically got this idea that I
was like, you know, if I never really see it then I’m
not I’m not going to get better at it and so I asked our GM at the time. If
we could get a left-handed BP thrower and he said, you know,
you asked why, and what not? And when we brought up the
reason he said, okay, we’ll try it out and that brought up Rafael and we
called him, izquierdo obviously and And Rafi came up from the minor
leagues and started throwing throwing us. Left-handed BP, but then I took it to another
level after talking. I got this really fortunate opportunity to
talk to Todd Helton on the phone. It got set up where I
said in the media somewhere that like, hey, I’d love to pick Todd
Helton sprain because he was a Colorado Rocky when I was
growing up and it was so good at hitting, you know,
left-handers and right-handers. And he told me, That he would, he
would have his strength coach at the time who was left-handed,
like, actually pitched to him and try and get
him out. And he said, it really helped
him a lot with hitting left-handers. And
so I basically stole his idea and I
said, Rafi, you know, can you throw curve balls? Can you throw
sliders can throw two seams and and whatnot and like will change
ups and whatever you got like get me out like make me look
stupid, you know. And that was one of the turning
points for me, was when I decided, I don’t really care
what I look like in the cage or anything. Like I want you to make me look stupid,
I want you to get me out. And I want this to be as
game-like as possible. And from there on out, we
started to see my numbers improve and and I started to get
better and we would close the distance and make it even
harder and We try and figure out whatever
way we could to to make it as game real like as game like as
possible and I had such success with it that I continued it into
the offseason. I would have you know like the Mets
Clubby he was in the minor leagues and
he was left-handed and you know I would do it in the
offseason. I’d have him pitch to me and and then I just continued that
all the way. Way all the way till now and it’s been something that has really helped me to stay on
top of it. But it was a big. It was a big
turning point in my career that made me much more
comfortable against left-handed pitchers and we’ve continued that ever
since Well, what’s rafi’s last name?
Brandon, Raphael Fernandes Hernandez. Sorry, got it. And he is. Yeah, he
actually texted me enough not too long ago, but he’s actually they’re
hitting coach now, he’s one of their hitting coaches, which is
such a cool story for me because I when he got brought up, he was
like, I don’t like I don’t really just want to be the BP
guy. Like I want, I want to be a hitting. Coach, you know? And, and I was like, okay, well I get
that, but like, you’re going to get a lot of Major
League experience up here and, you know, like, like will compensate, you know,
like, we’ll figure out some way to make this comfortable
because, you know, BP, guys don’t get paid that much. So I
was like, let’s fill, you know, let’s just figure out a way to make this comfortable. Like,
I’ll help whatever it can be, like your you’re indispensable
to Like, My Success. So like I, you know, I need you and, and
then It’s really cool because it’s come full circle where he
was like, no I want to go back down so that I can become a hitting coach and then work my
way up to this year. He was promoted to
be one of the hitting coaches and now he is a hitting
coach in the big leagues for them. So for me, that was a
really cool First full circle moment and he deserves every bit of it. Awesome. Thanks so much.
Brandon? Yeah, of course. All right. It doesn’t look like
we have any more questions so we will end it. There
Brandon, we really appreciate the time today and I think it’s
safe to say we all look forward to more time with you in the
near future. Yeah, of course. Thanks. Thanks
for having me on. Sorry for the delay was having some
technical difficulties with the microphone on the iPad. So
thanks everyone for being patient with me. And yeah, looking forward.
Looking forward to creating relationships with all
of you.