Mark Kotsay shares his advice to Athletics players as MLB trade deadline nears
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay speaks with the media before his team's game against the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday at Sutter Health Park.
Mark Kotsay shares his advice to Athletics players as MLB trade deadline nears originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
So JT get thrown, out today.
How did that go for him?
It went well.
You know, the biggest thing is just stressing the, the finger, seeing how it responds.
You know, I think, overall it looked good.
He, you know, probably was a little less confident, you know, just in getting after it per se.
But that wasn't the importance of it.
It was really about just, you know, getting him on the mound, throwing 30 pitches and, and, and seeing how the finger responds.
It looked good afterwards.
He was confident.
He said he didn't feel anything.
You know, it, it, it So that's a good sign.
We'll have him throw a bullpen on Saturday and, and make a decision as to, you know, how we deploy him into the rotation.
I know tomorrow is TBD.
Is that just something that's kind of dependent on how today goes, or have you decided what the plan is for that?
Yeah.
you know, there's always an, the, the option.
I think, you know, Barnett is in line to, to be a bolt guy.
You know, and, and we'll make a decision post game as to how we align him, whether he goes out and is the starter or if we, use an opener.
I know in your career, I think you were traded at least once or twice.
The deadline's coming up less than a week away.
What's kind of your, do you have any, like, broad advice for guys that maybe see their name coming up in a lot of the articles and buzz, kind of to stay focused?
Or, like, what's your advice for those guys?
You just, you just said it.
There's nothing out of their control as to the deadline, so there's no sense in worrying about it.
You know, for a lot of our guys, you know, that are young and haven't maybe been traded, you know, been through the process, you know, there's no real reason to worry about it until, you know, you have to make plans to, to move a family and, you know, make adjustments in life.
But, outside of that, my, my, my message is just go, go play.
Don't worry about it.
It's nothing in your control.
You always ask about the challenge of competing and also have to educate the young guys, especially the pitchers.
So how satisfactory it was for you that the last two days, two of the young guys that don't even have a whole year of experience in the majors came through with such solid games?
Yeah.
I mean, you're talking about the starters.
Mm-hmm.
So it's, it's really important, in their, in their development and in their future that they can stack small victories when they go out there and continue to build on those.
You know, we talk a lot about, you know, going out and competing and focusing just on one pitch and execution of one pitch, one inning, one out, you know.
And I think that, you know, we're doing a better job with that, and the results have obviously shown up the last two nights, with both of our starters, you know, going, you know, into the sixth inning and one completing the sixth inning.
So we're just looking on those small victories and building on those.
Yeah.
What's the next step for Zach Galef?
Zach is, took some, live at bats off JT today.
He'll stay with us through the weekend and if, you know, things rehab goes in accordingly, he'll go out for a rehab assignment on Tuesday.
Talking about the, the trade deadline, there obviously with Wengert out, Hine's getting a lot of the time behind the dish.
But, and he's obviously a free agent at the end of the year.
He could be a name that gets brought up or would draw some attention.
But how important is he for just helping to develop the young pitching staff for you guys these last couple of months?
Yeah, I, I spoke a little bit about it, I think post game.
You know, he's, has value for us here.
Now you always have to assess the value of what you get in return when you trade a player.
You know, but at the current state with, you know, our, our catching department right now, you saw Serving come up from AAA, have a great game.
You know, we've got two other guys down there.
Chad Wallach's got some big league time.
Lavastida does not have, very much, if at all, if I can remember right.
So, you know, obviously Jonah's providing that experience.
He's, you know, a solid guy to have with this staff, especially as young as we are, to help navigate games and, you know, continue to, continue to teach them, continue that learning curve.
And, so again, it's, it's an assessment of, of the value here versus the value that you get in return.
And for JT, would he be ready to just jump back into the rotation?
Yeah, I think the live, you know, 30 pitches today, you know, it, it, it will be, we'll have to gauge kind of, you know, how he feels if he, he goes right back into the rotation, coming off the IL and in terms of a pitch count is in, in terms of, you know, how, how physical he can get, through a game.
