Winter Meetings interview with Scott Servais

Q. Scott, Jerry talked about getting more versatile with the roster and he made some moves to do that this offseason. How does that help and how do you see that being different for next year?SCOTT SERVAIS: I think looking at our club, where we are at the end of ’16, where we wanted to go forward, the core of our club is what it is, it’s very good in the middle of our lineup but getting a little older there, trying to infuse a little bit more younger talent and guys that are more athletic. I think our outfield is going to have a much different look to it with us acquiring Mitch Haniger. We’re going to give Ben Gamel a chance to play. We still have Seth Smith. Trying to go that direction a little bit more and hopefully it will pay off.Q. Did you feel hamstrung at this time last year by the roster?SCOTT SERVAIS: In September, when we had the extra players, you saw maneuvering late in games when we had leads and putting some of those younger guys in the game just to cover more ground, especially at Safeco. So hopefully it will afford us to leave guys out there and let them play the whole game. You just don’t have the flexibility without the guys in September. I think it will definitely help our pitching, and a big improvement with our outfield defense.Q. What does Segura at top of the line-up do for you?SCOTT SERVAIS: He had a phenomenal year last year, he might have led the National League in hits, if I’m not mistaken. Excited to have him. I understand he played second base most of the year. He will play shortstop for us. We’re okay at second base, we like who we got there. He’s kind of in the prime of his career, when you look at where he’s at age-wise, experience-wise. I think he’s ready to take the next step as far as getting in a playoff-type situation and helping us to get to the playoffs. The fit is really good. Obviously we had to give up good players to get him, and we got some other ones in the trade. It’s a nice fit for us. He’ll be at the top of our line-up and we’re going to let him play. I think you have to let guys play and be who they are. Had a great year last year, and looking forward to him adjusting to Seattle real quick.Q. With Vogelbach, Haniger, you’re going to have young kids playing. Is there any secret to maximizing success when for young guys when you are managing them like that?SCOTT SERVAIS: I think patience. Patience is probably the secret and the fact that they’re going to make some mistakes, it’s going to happen. There are going to be hot streaks and it will be fun to watch and times when they struggle. But we gotta be patient with it. All of those players have done what they need to do at the Triple A level and I think it’s up to us to give them an opportunity and see how it plays out.Q. You get Valencia, and it seems like if he plays to expectations fills a lot of holes for you?SCOTT SERVAIS: Very important player for us. No doubt, the right-handed bat. We saw so many left handers last year with Cano and Seager and how our line-up was put together and Smitty in there. So getting Danny, the right-handed bat, and he hit well against righties as well. So having his versatility, hopefully give Seager a few more days off. We will put him at third, he can cover first, he can run in the outfield but it’s a good fit or our ball club.Q. Felix said you challenged him at the end of last year to come back stronger, and what do you expect from him this winter?SCOTT SERVAIS: Last year is the first time Felix ever had a significant injury where he missed time. Leading up to that wasn’t the same Felix you guys are used to seeing, the production. The fastball has backed up a little bit. The change-up is still outstanding, the curveball, everything else is still there but with velo backing up, the command of the fastball was a little off some nights and it got him in trouble. All great players are very prideful and Felix is no different. We talk a lot. Very close to the playoffs last year, Felix has never experienced that and I think he desperately wants to, and be a contributor in that type of situation. So he’s going to pitch in the WBC for Venezuela. We’re going to limit his innings. He’s not going to go out there and throw six innings multiple times. But based on where we are at, I’m excited, I’m glad he’s pitching. I think he’s ramping up his workouts earlier and got more behind him than what he has in the past. It’s going to help us out once we get going.Q. How do you see Zunino combination?SCOTT SERVAIS: Carlos Ruiz is a great pick-up for us. Having the veteran players on your club that have been there before is very valuable especially in that position. So what he’s going to be able to bring to our pitching staff, helping Zunino out, will be very valuable. He understands where he’s at in his career. He’s transitioning into being that part-time player, back-up type catcher. But understanding that if Zunino has an injury for a little time you can fire him in there and he’s going to be fine. He can still hit a little bit, too, I think that gets overlooked. It’s a nice pick-up for us. I like everything I’ve heard about him. Talked to him a couple weeks ago, he’s down in Panama, catching up with him a little bit. He’s excited to get an opportunity with another ball club. Gotta learn a whole new pitching staff, he’d been in Philadelphia so long. He made the transition with the Dodgers very nice and fit in there well and he’ll do the same with us. I think it’s going to be a really nice fit. Playing timewise, there are not too many catchers that catch 120 games anymore. It doesn’t happen. So we will mix and match with how Mike is going and feeling and that will depend on how much he plays.Q. Lefty in the bullpen last year was an issue, do you feel better about your balance?SCOTT SERVAIS: Really do. I think it’s very valuable if you look at what other teams in our division have done or what they bring out there. With Houston picking up a couple of (indiscernible) very important. We have got a lefty to combat that.Q. You gotta feel better about your bullpen in general. Leading up to the first day of the season last year you were still adding pieces.SCOTT SERVAIS: Edwin Diaz has been huge. For him to come in and do what he did. Cishek may be slow to start the season with the hip surgery that he had. Huge year, really nice year with Nick Vincent. Scribner came back and was outstanding at the end of the year. Love what I saw with Altavilla. Curtis is another. We’ll have better options there.Q. Jerry has made no secret that he’s been looking for a starting pitcher. How much if you could get a man in the starting rotation would help you guys right now?SCOTT SERVAIS: It would be very valuable. You’ve got Felix, you’ve got Iwakuma who his career high in innings pitched. Paxton really took a step forward. Behind that you’ve got Miranda and Karns, and other guys we filled in behind him. But if you could find another guy you could plug in there, I think everybody here is looking for more pitching. You can’t have enough of it. It would be nice to get. But to get, you have got to give up. To see how that mixes and matches. Our front office guys have done a great job this offseason trying to improve things. And we had goals we tried to hit on and get younger, get more athletic. With the pitching, we gave up Taijuan we are looking to plug that hole, too.Q. (Inaudible)?SCOTT SERVAIS: Well, I think consistency. We did get some lulls last year. We had some tough road trips. You look at our schedule this year, we have a couple of tough ones, too, in August that could catch us. We used a number of pitchers last year. We had some tough injuries on our club but I think the depth we had is going to serve us well and just stay away from those lulls. I talked about it last year, you can’t win the division in April, but you can lose it. So hopefully getting off to a decent start is going to be important.Q. What is Karn’s status?SCOTT SERVAIS: He’s healthy. He feels good. I talked to him about ten days ago, feels good, healthy. He was shutdown at the end of the year with the back issue. He’s working out, full go, started his throwing program. He will come into camp competing for the rotation spots.Q. When I looked at his numbers last year, he had the second lowest depth among the roughly 30 pitchers. What does that say about how he performed last year and going forward?SCOTT SERVAIS: Didn’t have a lot of luck, that’s what it says a little bit. But the thing with Nate, his stuff is there, good fastball, really good curveball, strikeout numbers are up there. Obviously he had some walk issues and just running deep pitch counts. So you are looking up a lot of times in the fifth inning and you’re sitting at 90 pitches. Hopefully he will get more pitch …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com