Winter Meetings interview with Torey Lovullo

Q. Do you have any sense as to are there any spots in the lineup that are locked in in your mind?TOREY LOVULLO: Well, I’m still trying to get my hands around a lot of different things, but we have a really good sense as to what’s going to happen with guys in position, a lot of positions they were in last year. We’re still talking about that lineup. We’re upstairs talking about lineup construction, and we haven’t quite got there yet. We want to put guys in the best position to be successful at all times and have built-in versatility and see where that takes us.Q. Do you see [Brandon] Drury getting at-bats at second?TOREY LOVULLO: You know, that’s something that we’ve talked about. I think that could be something that we explore. I think he’s going to focus on being an influence in the discussion I’ve had with him over the past 24 hours. I want him to know that while he’s preparing this offseason that he can make most of his thoughts around preparing himself as an infielder. We know we asked a lot of him last year and we asked a lot of him to shift over to the outfield, and he did a great job, but we want to simplify things as much as possible, and I think that we are going to head in that direction.Q. Did you get a sense from him that that’s what he wants?TOREY LOVULLO: I think so. I think he’s a built in infielder. My conversations have been very limited with him as far as what he wants and needs and some of the things — I want to make sure he know what is some of the guidelines are moving forward. He’s a great infielder and he’s an athlete that we asked to move to the outfield.Q. What are some things he can do to make himself better?TOREY LOVULLO: I know in talking to him, I think he talked about a little bit of flexibility. I know he is working on that. In fact, he just got out from the gym, worked on not so much the overall lifting of the weights, he wanted to maintain a lot of flexibility. And I think the first step, quickness for an infielder is vital, and he’s going to come prepared.Q. What about [Jake] Lamb?TOREY LOVULLO: I think we are going to look for the primary third baseman to be him at this point in time. In a fill-in situation, if there was an extended injury or something, we might explore that. We want to have guys established in one spot at one point in time.Q. More at-bats for Jake than in the past?TOREY LOVULLO: We haven’t finalized that, but he’s an everyday player and we know some of the limitations that he had over the past year against left-handed pitching, but we are going to address those needs. And that’s something we are going to do as a coaching staff. We want to work and teach and make Jake an everyday player. We are not looking to platoon at this point.Q. Watching the AL East, the Yankees did that with a lot of success with Didi [Gregorius]. You’re going to have to do that with Lamb at some point to see what he can do over the course of a whole season.TOREY LOVULLO: I think so. What you have to do is practice patience here. And the more patient you are with a young player and the more patient you are with some of these players that are trying to prove themselves, the quicker they are going to respond. If you are not patient and giving guys an opportunity, they are not going to learn. In Lamb’s situation, he had a heck of a year last year. And if you look at it, he’s one lefty that teams were matching up against. And we want to make sure that we are giving him an opportunity to work through it and be patient, because he can be a pretty special player.Q. How do you see the middle of the infield shaping up, second, short?TOREY LOVULLO: I think in the situation with the surplus of middle infielders, we’re in a really good spot. You have Nick Ahmed who is a guy that played there. We have a surplus of guys that we know can go out there and be successful, and that’s really what we want to do in Spring Training, is know guys and make sure we are putting the right guys out to help us win baseball games. It’s going to be a competition, and nothing is going to be given to anyone.Q. So it’s competition for (indiscernible)?TOREY LOVULLO: Yeah, at this point in time.Q. What’s been the homework like for you as you learn the rosters and make decisions with the new players that you have not gotten to see firsthand?TOREY LOVULLO: It’s been a semi-uphill battle. I think the first two, three weeks have been a little bit of a grind for me to get to know the talent, get to know the guys, what makes them tick. But it’s slowly getting to the point where it is slowing down. I’m here today to join in on conversations and make sure that I’m aware of what’s happening inside of the war room, being able to contribute, and taking a little bit of time for me to get to know guys and it definitely was uphill. Took me some time to get that certain comfort level, understand what’s going on within the organization, but I’m there now.Q. How much of that comfort level did you have to have before you took the job versus coming in once you were there?TOREY LOVULLO: I don’t think it was a requirement before I got there. I know in talking to [general manager] Mike [Hazen] in the interview process, it wasn’t a necessity that I knew so much of what was going on inside of the organization. I knew some of the players and some of the players from playing against them, but I think once it was established that I was going to be the manager of the team, I started laying my hands on this entire organization the best that I could. So right now I’m focused on the 40-man roster. I haven’t gone as deep as I need to, and I’ll get there, and I’ll need to see the guys in system, but I’m focused on the 40-man roster at this point.Q. How do you see the catching and playing time being divided at this point?TOREY LOVULLO: Well, we all know that we signed Jeff Mathis to a two-year deal, have a history with him, great teammate and great game caller and solid player. Herrmann, on the other hand, is the other catcher that we have, and I think that between the two of them, we’re still trying to figure out the playing time situation. So nothing has been determined at this point. There’s no clear-cut No. 1 guy. I think when we were talking to Jeff through the process, we were talking about a guy that’s going to probably catch 60 games and we’ll fill in from there.Q. Obviously it’s …

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