Get to Know Jaden Woods | Pirates Pitching Prospect Heads to the Arizona Fall League

The Arizona Fall League has kicked off and today we get to know Pirates pitching prospect Jaden Woods who’ll be one of the eight players in Scottsdale. Stay tuned as you’re listening to the Nor podcast presented by FanDuel. [Music] All right. So, we’re we’re welcoming uh Jaden Woods to the show. Uh Pirates pitcher heading to the Arizona Fall League uh just in in about 24 hours or so, 12 hours. So, so Jade Jaden, welcome to uh welcome to Northshore 9. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. So, I was looking at your Instagram a little bit and just just kind of kick things off here. Um looks like you play a lot of golf. I do. I play golf every Monday. Um, it’s almost like a routine. I do the same thing every, well, during the season at least, you know, Mondays are typically off. So, I’d have the same group of guys. We’d always go play, you know, but two or three tea times and we’d all go play together. So, it was always a good time, you know. So, so how excited are you then to spend like a month in Scottsdale basically? I mean, it’s like the golf capital of the world. Exactly. Exactly. I’m super excited. um you know, super excited to get going in all, you know, all facets, you know, fall league, you know, golf, everything like that. So, it’s going to be a good time. Looking forward to it a lot. What do you What do you shoot? What’s your handicap? Um, I say I don’t I don’t have a necessarily handicap. I could just tell you that it’ll be anywhere from the 84 to 90 range, you know. Solid. Oh, yeah. Play nine could get, you know, probably four over maybe. That’s a that’s a good day, I’d say. So now, do you swing do you swing left-handed as well? I swing I swing right-handed. Swing right-handed. Thank you. Thank you. I’m the same way. Well, you you spent a good bit of time there in Altuna this year. Yes, sir. Not as nice of golf courses, I’m sure, as Scott. I mean, it’s a couple. It’s about three golf courses we go to. You know, they’d hook it up for us. So, you know, it was it was it was nice. It was nice. I see. Yeah. But just what’s your biggest takeaway from DoubleA Altuna this year? You know, um the Eastern League. Um you know, I always joke around with my friends, you know, I say the the Eastern League might be the hardest league in in minor league baseball to be honest with you. You know, just the locations you go to, the competitions you the competition you come across. Um you know, overall I’d say, you know, it was good. Um it builds character for sure. Um you know, you really learn who you are as a person. You know, you you face adversity. You have to figure out how to fight adversity. Um, and I think that’s really the biggest thing, you know, just, you know, you you have to face adversity. You have to get back up, you know, at any point in time to keep going in this game. You know, this game is a game full of failure. Um, so, you know, it really teaches you just to get back up and keep it going each and every day. It’s a long season. So, it is a long season. And I I feel like I know when we’re talking about prospects and and we always get really excited about, you know, the guys in Bradenton, the guys in Greensboro, but then it’s like once you get to Altuna, then it’s like, all right, this is this is where for sure. I mean, you’re one to two calls away. Um, you know, and and every each and every day, you know, you just have to go out there and do your job. Yep. What did you learn um early? I because facing advanced hitting pretty much every day uh you know day in day out. What did you learn about really just like attacking upper level hitters as opposed to you know facing guys in in high a and the SEC even? Oh yeah, for sure. I mean definitely, you know, in the SEC, you know, you give up a free pass, you know, there’s still a chance, you know, you can get out of the inning, you know, with putting up a zero without a guy touching home. um you get to high, you know, you could you could walk the first guy, you go three on the second guy, you can still get out in the inning. But I feel like once you get to double, you know, once you give up those free passes, you know, that that guy is I mean, I think I read something the other day, once a guy reaches first with no outs, they have 80% chance of touching home. So through through free passes, you know, so I mean just honestly just staying ahead in the count, winning your one-1 counts. Um, you know, just just being able to also almost, you know, finish guys, you know, throwing sometimes you can’t get the strikeouts you want, but as long as you’re in zone put executing your pitches, you know, everything could work out for you for sure. That um that curve team was pretty fun to watch, especially blast. It was a blast, you know. Yeah. Especially down the stretch. Yeah. Like like how Yeah. like how fun was that to just be a part of? I mean, honestly, I last year I did say Greensboro was the funnest baseball I’ve ever played. Um, you know, and I could I could put it right up there with the curve team this year. You know, we had a guys just lineup full of just guys that could just hit, you know, studs. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I told we were we had catch play one day. You know, we typically shack BP at least twice a week and I was talking to I think one of my teammates and I was like, “Do you want to know like out of the whole Eastern League, the one team I would not want to face is the Curve, you know, because it’s there’s no one through nine, you’re you’re going to have to, you know, execute pitches and and and do something. I wouldn’t say do something special, but, you know, all all love to the guys in the lineup, but you it it was a hard lineup to face for sure.” Um then even on the pitching side, you know, we had we had guys, you know, come in, you know, such as like Bo Burroughs, um obviously like Cam Sanders, those type of guys, you know, you know, they added, you know, I guess you could say, you know, those are older guys, so you know, they they knew a little bit of things. They’ve been up and down the rope like, you know, they so those guys that come in, you know, and and tell us young guys, you know, like the the way to do it, you know, just the plan and everything. So all around it was a great team, great staff, you know, Andy Fox coming from the Red Sox, you know, I was a great manager, you know, he’s he’s top three for me for sure. Um, and then obviously the the the other guys, Matt Ford, you know, all those guys. It was it was great all around. For sure. So, take me back to Georgia here. You spent your first couple years coming out of the bullpen primarily, then I think your third season, you got a good bit of starts there. Um, what’s the mentality? Yeah. What’s the mentality change for you between coming out of the pen versus being a starter and now that you’re primarily coming out of the bullpen again? Is there a mentality change? For sure. Um, it’s definitely a mentality change. You know, when you’re a starter, you know, you have, you know, the day you’re pitching. Um, there’s a lot of certainty in life in the season if you’re a starter. You know, you know the day you’re going to throw a side, you know the day you’re going to pitch, you know exactly how many pitches you’re going to throw basically. You know, basically the the inning count and everything like that. So, I mean, you know, as a starter versus a reliever, a reliever, if you’re available that day, you know, you have to be geared up to go any moment your name is called. And, you know, that’s one of the parts that I love a lot, you know, is, you know, being geared up to go each and every day. You know, you hear the radio, woods get hot. You know, it’s a, you know, the rush of adrenaline through the body. You know, you get to get to the mount and go do what you do best out there. So, I think that’s really the biggest change is just, you know, uncertainty rather than certainty. Do you have to be a little bit of a crazy person coming out of the pen? You do. Yeah, you do. For sure. turn into a little bit of a crazy guy. I definitely say, you know, and I mean down the stretch, you know, there’s some guys that are just straight unhinged. So, you know, just Yeah, you do have to be a crazy guy, you know, to be independent, you know, succeeded. Basically, you have a a clip of maybe from 30 seconds, you know, all the way to like three or four minutes, you know, to get ready for the game. You know, I don’t think, you know, the typical the average the average cat could, you know, hear their name be called, next thing you know, you’re in the game, you know, like it’s it’s fun, though. It’s fun. It’s one of the reasons we play the game. So, yeah. Love that. Where where do you feel that, you know, your your game has improved the most since since being drafted? Since being drafted, I definitely say, you know, probably facing adversity, to be honest with you. I say, you know, in college, you know, you you have that bad outing and, you know, you probably sit on it for a couple days, but once I got to Pro Bowl, I realized that, you know, you had to really, you know, flush it. I mean, I have, uh, three tiers of, you know, flushing it. I mean, you know, so one of them, you know, once I put my street clothes back on after the day at the field, you know, it’s gone. Um, if that doesn’t happen, you know, well, the first one, if once I shower, you know, I washed it all off my body, we’re good. Um, the second one is once you put your street clothes on and if it gets to the third one, it’s once it becomes 12:00 a.m., you know, it’s a new day, so you can’t be mad at it anymore. So, you just have to keep it going. I’d say that. And also, you know, just just being being a sponge, you know, being coachable and also just being available. Um, you know, you can’t you can’t navigate through a I guess we played 130 something games. You can’t navigate eight months out of the year and not be coachable. I mean because everyone goes through situations where they have to, you know, refine their stuff, you know, maybe even make a make an adjustment. I mean, it’s a game of adjustments. It’s in the name. So, I mean, you know, just making adjustments and making adjustments quick. You know, in college, um, you make an adjustment, but it may be an inning later, but you know, that ending later is an ending too late in some situations. So, you know, making adjustments and facing adversity. I say those are the biggest two things. So, jumping ahead here to the Arizona Fall League other than golf here because we know about the beautiful golf courses out there. Oh, yeah. What are you most excited about? Is it competition? Competition, the environment, just a new challenge here. Oh, yeah. I mean, I actually I was actually thinking about this, you know, the last couple of days. I’d say really everything, you know, obviously new environment. You get you get to face guys from all over. You know, you know, when you play affiliate ball, you know, you don’t get to face every team out there. Um, so other than the teams you’re with, you get to pretty much face the all the rest of the guys. Um, you know, the competition will be good out there, you know. Um, and also, you know, just hanging out with the guys that you don’t see often. You know, there’s there’s a lot of guys it’s almost like everyone’s coming from every team and just coming back together. You know, some of these guys, you know, played with way down the road in high school, you know, the events, East Coast Pro, those type of events you you’ve played with guys from back then, you’ll finally get to see them again, you know. So, and just also just, you know, just Arizona, you know, that’s pretty cool spot. So, for sure. Nice. And with being a Florida spring training team, you know, going out to Arizona will be pretty cool as well. True. Kind of a a new a new environment there. What are your goals for the Arizona Fall League? Like, is there anything specific that that you’re going there to to work on or sharpen kind of going into the off season and rolling into spring training? For sure. Um, you know, first and foremost, you know, going to the fall league, it could really set you up for the next year. So, you know, just going out there, staying even killed. Um, and really just, you know, being convicted to each and everything I do. That’s that’s my biggest thing. You know, going out to the fall league is just, you know, the word conviction. I think that’s that’s my theme of, you know, the next six weeks upcoming is, you know, being convicted and, you know, everything from being on the mound to, you know, even the the pre-workplace stuff, you know, and just dominating each and everything, being where your feet are, being your best self in each and each and every way possible. Love it. Oh, yeah. Some fun questions here. Okay. Okay. What is your go-to pregame meal? my go-to pregame meal. Um, we had we had a lot of grilled cheeses this year. It was uh we had a it was a Greek place. Um, I think it was called Athenian Cafe. Um, we’d have uh, you know, chicken bites, you know, grilled chicken bites, uh, steak bites, grilled cheese, and some type of rice. I’d say that for sure. Um, I was a big Chipotle guy this season as well, though. So, I mean, I probably had Chipotle three to four times a week. So, I probably said Chipotle. Yeah. Say rice, steak, and just queso and that’s it. That’s it. Yeah, that’s it, man. We got We got to work on that Chipotle order here. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Chipotle. You can’t go wrong. Can’t go wrong. You can’t go wrong with it. You can’t at all. You can’t. But, I mean, like, we’re going to spend that on a bowl. Let’s I I could add a little bit of flavor to it. I could. I’m good. No beans. I love that. No beans. No beans for Yeah, I’m with you on that. Oh, yeah. You mentioned one of the things about the fall league. You kind of get to to see a bunch of guys that you you’re not used to playing all the time. So, take take the Pirates out of the equation. Who’s who are you most looking forward to playing with this fall? Playing against or or with? Either or, I guess. Okay. Um, so my first one I’d say, you know, I played with him in college at Charlie Khan and we’re on the same team. So, I think, you know, just re getting back with him, you know, being on the same team as him, it would be super fun. You know, we we were pretty good teammates back in college, you know, just to, you know, hit the ground running and get right back where where we were, pick up where we left off. Um, and then I guess you could say against is probably my guy Braden Montgomery. I say for sure probably that’s probably the mo the guy I’m most excited, you know, play against or, you know, even just see. So, yeah. Yeah. Good stuff. Yeah. All right. Next question is, who’s your favorite music artist out of Atlanta? out of Atlanta. Um, I’d probably say Ghana for sure. For sure. Can’t go wrong with that one either. We can’t We can’t. Um, so spending some time in Altuna. Have you tried the Altuna pizza? I have not. I have not. I looked it up one day and I just I couldn’t do it. Couldn’t do it. Your Chipotle order looks good compared to that. Have you guys tried it by any chance? No, I have not. I’ve never tried it. Yeah. I I have no uh no no interest in trying it either. I think I’ll trust the I think I’ll trust Scottsdale pizza over the Altuna pizza. I would for sure. I would. No, no, I’ve been to Scottsdale, too. I don’t think their pizza’s all that great either. That’s what I mean. Yeah. Um so, so we um we actually just got we just talked to to Derek Diamond and and he mentioned this. Uh, I don’t know if you looked at the schedule, but in two weeks, Georgia plays Old Miss. Yeah. Yeah. So, is there any sort of friendly wager, any sort of trash talking going on between you two? Hasn’t started, but you know, we’re living together out there, so it’ll definitely, you know, heat up come come that time. Um, it’ll probably have a, you know, pretty definitely some trash talk on the day of the game for sure. Probably be something of where like whoever wins, they have to wear the other person’s gear into the clubhouse the next day or something like that, you know. We’ll definitely do something for sure. Good stuff. Good stuff. Um, you guys are you guys dropped one though last week. It was a little rough. What’s that? Georgia. You guys lost. Oh, yeah. Against Alabama. Yeah, that was that one. That’s I think that’s the one game Yeah. that I’ve watched as a Georgia fan that kind of really stung, you know, just because of the fact it was a 21 24 game. It wasn’t a blowout. Wasn’t a shootout either, but, you know, on to next week, I guess you could say, for the dogs. Yeah. Yeah. You beat Old Miss and it’s all it’s all good. So Oh, yeah. Appreciate. I mean, if that doesn’t happen, I don’t know. I really don’t know. Yeah. Don’t lose to Georgia Tech. Can’t. Yeah. No, don’t do that. Overtimes last year. That was one of the funnest games I’ve ever watched. I’m being quite honest for sure. Yeah, those are That’s always a good one. Even though sometimes it shouldn’t be. I feel like it always is. It could be this year. Could be. Could be. Could be. Georgia Tech’s pretty good. H King’s a good quarterback. I will I will throw that out there for sure. Yeah. Yeah, he is good. Um but appreciate you hopping on here. Best of luck in the Arizona Fall League. Yeah, I mean said we’ll be we’ll be rooting for you. Um so we’ll we’ll see you down there. You know, we’ll be down there a few days. Um where uh if people want to follow you, social media, wherever, what’s what’s the best place to for for fans to follow you at? Um probably Instagram. Um Jaden Woods, no E. So J A DN Woods. And then I probably Yeah, probably to be honest with you for sure. Yeah. Awesome. Well, Jaden, thanks again and uh yeah, safe travels tomorrow. Thank you guys. Thank you so much for having me on the show. Appreciate it. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. You guys have a good one. All right. You too.

Pittsburgh Pirates pitching prospect Jaden Woods joins North Shore Nine for a laid-back “Get to Know” interview as he gets ready to head west for the Arizona Fall League.

The left-hander opens up about his routine on and off the field, from playing golf every Monday with teammates to learning how to face adversity in Double-A Altoona. Woods breaks down what makes the Eastern League so tough, how he’s embraced life as a reliever, and why conviction will be his theme heading into 2026.

We also talk fun stuff — Chipotle orders, golf handicaps, favorite Atlanta artists, and even a potential Georgia–Ole Miss rivalry with fellow prospect Derek Diamond.

🎯 Topics include:
Adjusting from starter to reliever
Lessons from Altoona and facing Double-A hitters
His mindset heading into the Fall League
Favorite meals, teammates, and golf talk

Watch the full conversation and subscribe for more Pirates prospect interviews and coverage from the Arizona Fall League!

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