Marlins Manager Clayton McCullough Kicks Off The First Marlins Hot Stove Show!

Marlins Manager Clayton McCullough Kicks Off The First Marlins Hot Stove Show!

And it’s a walk-off winner for the Fish on opening day. And it’s cut on and missed. That thing is back. And it’s gone. And this team is electric. [Applause] Welcome into the first Marlins Hot Stove show on this second day of December. Stephen Stum, my good friend Jack McMullen, the radio voice of the Miami Marlins. We’ve got one of, I think, eight or nine shows. All shows will be on the Marlins YouTube channel along with our Twitter, Marlins Radio. And Jack, how long has it been, man? It feels like it’s uh I don’t know. Does it feel long ago that we had that last game against the Mets? I don’t know. But here we are, post Thanksgiving. Hope it was a good one for you. We’re off and running now, baby. Hot stove show season has officially begun. It’s amazing, man. Uh, it was a good Thanksgiving. I grew a beard. I shaved it off for this. It’s time to get back into baseball mode. You know, people do the offseason beard. I’m excited for you guys to see Clayton McCulla’s offseason beard, but it kind of looks like what he’s got going during the baseball season as well. I I view that as my time to kind of like let it go and then I, you know, cut it off and I get ready to go, get back into baseball mode. You have an issue with that, though. I have a huge issue with that. I got my soul patch. If you really zoom in, if you put your phone close to your uh eyes, you could probably find a little bit of a soul patch for our visual audience, but for our audio audience, it doesn’t matter. I can tell them that I got a beard like Santa, and they could believe me, but I don’t. And that’s okay. You mentioned Clayton McCulla. he will join the program. I I mean it was an awesome conversation. We actually got a lot from him as far as uh positional changes or if guys are going to see if they can add to their arsenal around the diamond. We also will talk a little bit about some extension stuff. We’ve heard about Kyle Sters and Yuri Perez. We got a ton to get to, but a lot has changed, Jack, since we last chatted. We’ll do the 40man stuff. There’s been some changes there. Coaches have departed. coaches has been added. We got a gold glover in Javier Senoha and some promotions within the front office. So, let’s do some knee-jerk reactions. You have the floor, my friend. Where do you want to start? I want to start with some of the player departures. And I just want your knee-jerk reaction. Uh, what is the first thing you think of when you remember this guy’s tenure in a Marlins uniform? And I want to start with one of the guys that was claimed off waiverss, this one by the Baltimore Orioles. You saw a lot of George Soraniano over your three years as a Miami Marlins broadcaster. What are you gonna remember about Soraniano? Well, I remember his first year in 23. He came out as as a real weapon out of the bullpen. We didn’t know a ton about George, but he had a really good slider. And I think sometimes we’ve talked about this with so much of the young players that ignorance is bliss and some of these guys have that. And I think that may have been a situation where George Soraniano may have not realized this guy was pitching at the big league level and was more just playing instead of thinking. He comes back in 24 struggles. Then we saw what happened here in 25. I want to think from a positive standpoint, Jack, about that 23 year, but I think it was time for the Marlins to move on from someone from George Soraniano. It was a long road to the big leagues and it was a really exciting big league stint for this guy who was claimed by Colorado, Troy Johnston. Troy was claimed by the Rockies. He will be with the Rockies. He will in all likelihood be making the trip to Miami for opening day. It was cool to see this come to fruition with this organization in Troy Johnston in the back half at 25. What are you going to remember most about Troy? The walk-off home run. Yeah, the walk-off home run to me. He had his Marlins moment, which is really cool. But I if I want to play GM here or president of baseball operations, he was 28 years old and it just it got too late for Troy. It was unfortunate. He tore up in the minor leagues. But, you know, it felt like there was always some hesitations to bring him up or people blocking him up the way. But I think for Troy, I’m going to remember him as someone that was um incredible to have around the clubhouse. He had over 270, but it was his personality that I really enjoyed being around Jack. But I think we will both agree that, you know, again, this is one of those situations where you can understand why the Marlins made this move. Of course. Yeah. You feel like you could have a little bit more power at first base or in a corner outfield position from the left side and you know then what you got with Troy Johnson. I do love that you singled at a moment with that walk-off home run. It was great. I’m going to tell you, I think his first base hit in St. Lewis was the moment that’ll stick with me because he had that fist pump heading to first base. That was clearly a moment that he’s thought about for his entire life and worked so hard for. So that’s the moment that jumps out to me. Couple other guys, Joey Wemer was purchased by San Francisco after he was designated for assignment. Other departures, Jesus Tanokco, Freddy Tarnick, Valente Beoso, Brian Navaredto, Christian Row, Jack Winkler. They all elect free agency. Is there someone in that bunch that jumps out to you? because I have a note on Tarnic after you go. Oh, well, you’re being so nice with being the point guard here. This is supposed to be my job, but I’m going to continue to uh give you some takes because this is the take master. Honestly, man, like the two that jump out is Tanokco because we got him in 2024 and he was nails. He was awesome. And then had an up and down year last year, but a lot of it, Jack, is because of injury. Couldn’t stay healthy and his year pretty much being uh, you know, ended up being wiped out. The other one, man, is Beaoso. Like Beoso I’m always gonna have a soft spot for. Remember his debut in Kansas City. Pitched to a three erra in 2024. Came out of the bullpen, was up and down for the most part of the season as far as AAA to the majors and really struggled, I thought, to end the 2025 year. Look, the Marlins have a surplus of pitching. Again, I I feel like a homer saying this, but I I understand why, you know, someone like Valente Beayooso was outrighted and eventually, you know, released. So, those are the two that jump out to me. You had mentioned Freddy Tarnick. Why? I mentioned Tarnick because he’s pursuing an opportunity overseas. He signed to play in Japan with the Hiroshima Karp and I I just look at that as such a cool opportunity for these guys and to up their earning potential a little bit. The reported number is over a million and a half for him, which is great. So really happy for Freddy Tarnick, who’s going to play for the Hiroshima in Nepon professional baseball in Japan. That is in all likelihood the second best league in the world, only behind Major League Baseball. It’s probably on par with AAA baseball. It may even be better. So congratulations to Freddy Tarnick on pursuing that opportunity, but I’m totally with you on on a couple of those guys, you know, really cool to, you know, think back on their time in a positive light. We do have some ads and I want you to try saying the pitcher’s last name. You got it. B R Z Y. How do you spell it? No. No. Don’t do this to me this early. I mean, I know who was selected to the 40man. He was selected to the 40man. No. Uh, yeah. He was acquired. They claimed him off waiverss from Washington. Zack. No, no, no. I I’m not I’m not even going to try to do it. I’m not trying to do it. Bricsy. Not brisky. Brics. Bricsy. That’s really hard. Like like it’s brick outside. Yeah, kind of bricky. Like you’re seeing a brick. I’m trying to find the correct spelling of it here, but I’m Yeah, I’m butchering it so much that it’s not even populating on baseball reference. Here we go. B R Z Y KC Y. Zack Brixie is coming over from Washington. He was claimed 26y old was with him with them in the big leagues. Parts of 24 and 25. I’ve got 32 earned runs in 28 and 2/3. Not great. Struggled erra wise with Rochester in 25 which is their AAA affiliate but in 24 really good erra just over two in 35 innings of work. Four seamer curveball. He’s that north south guy. So an interesting reliever to add to the fold. Okay very good. We have some also uh big addition Joe Mack. Welcome. Welcome to the 40man. We should do Hold on. I have that round of applause thing. Give me one second. We had this earlier in the Clayton McCulla interview. So let’s do it. Here we go. Joe Mack, congratulations. I like phenomenal different things. Hold on. There’s a gong. That’s good. What else you got? Drum roll bongos. Like a hot take. This is for a good hot take. It’s not your typical drum roll, but it’s unorthodox and I like it. Uh yeah, Joe Mack obviously represented the uh the Marlins in the Futures game. He and Thomas White. Can I get another round of applause for William Kempner and Josh White? There we go. Uh, two right-handed relievers. Kempner 24 years old, Josh White 25 years old. They were some of the best relievers in the minor leagues outright, not just with the Marlins organization. Kempner acquired from the Giants a year ago for international bonus pool money. Really strong year. Spent it pretty much evenly spread out between Bo, Pensacola, and Jacksonville. So, high A to AAA. Will Kempner 2.26 ERA in 68 innings. He punched out 95 fast ball slider cutter. It’s a weird looking delivery. It’s almost sidearm, but it’s super whippy. And the fast ball gets into the mid90s. He can really attack lefties and righties. Lefties are harder. They’re they’re harder, I guess, for them to see Kempner than righties would. He succeeds more against lefties than righties, which is a touch out of the ordinary. Reverse splits. Reverse splits. opponents hit 137 against him. Uh, and then Josh White, 25-year-old, fifth round pick of the fish in 22 out of Cal Berkeley. Great season in 24 between high and double A. Almost better in 25 between double A and AAA. Er, RA went from 302 to 1.86. And in 68 innings, this guy ced 107 and walked just 23. Right-handed hitters, a 450 OPS against Josh White. So Kempner, White and Mack are your 40man ads. Okay, congratulations to them. We do have to get to some news on the coaching front. We did see a couple of individuals leave the organization. They were poached as they say now in 2025, meaning other organizations saw their work, they liked it, and they said, “You know what? We’re going to offer you X, Y, and Z. Come work for us.” Derek Shman, Tyler Smarzlock, uh just some of the individuals. Joe Singley, Chi-Chi Gonzalez, but I I don’t, you know, we don’t have time to go through every single one of them, but you know, from the top, Derek Shman, uh, incredible, incredible dude. He had so much success with the Marlins offense, ninth in team batting average, six in hits per game, six in doubles, the fourth lowest strikeout rate. If you ask Kyle Sters who his biggest influence was from a coaching perspective, it would be Derek Shman. Tyler Smarzlock, another guy, you know, worked with now a gold glover, Javier Senoha, second shout to him. Good job. First base coach. He had a ton of um uh, you know, responsibilities on this team and he handled it incredibly well. Joe Singley worked with Nick Forez before he was traded. Liam Hicks, Augustine Ramirez, both would say were projects and he was poached to Baltimore as well. And then Chi-Chi Gonzalez, I mean, everyone has uh so many great things. I haven’t heard anyone say a bad thing about Chi-Chi. No, man. It’s really cool. And these are not lateral moves for these guys. I want to make that very clear. All of these guys are elevating their role. Joe Singley is going to go be the major league field coordinator for the Baltimore Orioles. You’ve got Smarlock who’s going to be the major league field coordinator for the Washington Nationals. So you have two field coordinators that are coming from the Marlins coaching staff in 25. And then Derek Schman has the opportunity to make that jump to being a lead hitting coach in Major League Baseball. This guy was an assistant with the Minnesota Twins. He was an assistant to Pedro Guerrero with the Miami Marlins. Now those two work in tandem pretty much every day. it it didn’t feel like a superior and you know employer employee situation. Uh but this is his opportunity to go be the guy in Chicago. And by the way, Showman from the Chicagoland area. So happy that he gets to be close to his family. Just happy for these guys kind of growing. And you’ll hear that sentiment expressed by Clayton. So Derek Shman goes to the White Sox, Joe Singley to Baltimore, Tyler Smarlock to Washington, and Chi-Chi Gonzalez out as well. So I don’t want to get too much into the coaching staff additions because we are eventually going to have them on. I don’t want to spoil it for the audience. Plus, we have Clayton on the other side of this break. Chris Hes, the assistant hitting coach. Corbin Day, assistant hitting coach. Craig Driver, first base/catching coach. How about the 3C’s? the 3C monster right there. Chris, Corbin, and Craig. They call them drives. That’s what we got from Clayton today. Drives. I love these nicknames, man. I’m in on drives. I’m also uh I’m fascinated by Hess. Chris Hes, who’s going to be one of the assistant hitting coaches. He comes from Boston. He was with the Portland Sea Dogs. You mentioned, you know, just when we were texting back and forth a couple of weeks ago, he worked with a lot of really talented players. Roman Anthony is one of the best young outfielders in Major League Baseball. Marcelo Meyer, Christian Campbell. The Red Sox have something unique and it’s a bat speed program. They help guys get a little bit quicker. They help them get quicker through the zone, more power there. We talked a little bit about Liam Hicks kind of improving the bat speed as the season went along. Wags. Um, Wags. I I’m curious to see what type of ideology Chris Hess can take into the Marlins building, whether it’s bat speed, whether it’s bat to ball, however he may influence the Marlins in a positive way. The big question for me, Jack, too, with these hires and how you go about doing it is like, okay, like you’re not going to replace Tyler Smarz, Derek Shman, but you want to replace a lot of the qualities that they brought, but you also want to have that blend of some newness to the organization and let them put some their touches on whatever it is. So, um, you know, it’s it it baseball is incredibly difficult to be consistent in for so many reason. I mean, the health is a number one, but the number two is there’s constant movement with the coaching staff. You never know what player clicks with what coach and so on and so forth. But at least you got to trust what Clayton McCullen and company did in their first year. You would have to trust them here in the second year as well. Do you have anything else to add on the coaching front before we go to the front office? I don’t think so. Okay, promotions. It’s promotion time. Congratulations, Gabe Kappler. The sixth general manager in franchise history. Frankie Polari promoted to vice president. Amateur forecasting and player evaluation initiatives. That’s going to be my next goal. Ven Kthton elevated to senior director of baseball operations. Congrats to all three of them. Let’s talk about Gabe Kappler. Yeah, Gabe Kappler, former manager of the year, player obviously with the Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays. He was in a position last year as an assistant general manager. Jack, I think this is a big deal that he is now being named the general manager. We have felt his influence and and we’ve seen his footprints on this organization and through two years, I think he’s made a ton of strides with where the Marlins want to get to. Of course, I think it’s a huge deal. And I do want to specify that Peter Bendix is still the president of baseball operations. Peter Bendix is still the lead decision maker and he is heading the baseball operations department. Uh but Gabe Kappler getting this promotion is huge. I was trying to do the the Google dive. Who are the guys in the history of Major League Baseball that have been managers, players in the big leagues and general managers. And the people that I got to, I mean, you got to go back a couple of decades. There is not someone off the top of my head that I think about, oh, this guy was a manager in the 2000s and a GM in the 2010s. I think he’s the first guy in a long while to play in the major leagues, manage in the major leagues, and be a general manager. The other thing is general manager, that title has changed a little bit over the last few years, right? There are presidents of baseball operations. There’s a different structure in pretty much every organization, but I looked at GMs and president of baseball operations around Major League Baseball right now. And if I have my count right, Gabe Kappler is one of just eight or nine guys to play in the big leagues and be a GM or a president of baseball operations. I I’ll list out the rest of them and these are some of the top executives around Major League Baseball. Craig Brezlo, who’s the lead decision maker in Boston, right? Chris Gets with the Chicago White Socks. Chris Young with the Texas Rangers. Jerry Dotto in Seattle. Brandon Gomes with the LA Dodgers who works with Andrew Freriedman. Sam Fold in Philadelphia. Buster Posey San Francisco. Those are the only other guys that have played in the big leagues and hold a GM or a president of baseball operations role that are active right now. So, I I just felt like this was an exclusive club for for Gabe to join. And I’m so happy for him and I’m so happy for the organization. Great research by you. There you go. We have a ton to get to. We’ve got Clayton McCulla. We’ve got extension rumors. Okay, we’ve heard it over the last couple of weeks. Kyle Sters’s camp, Yuri Perez. We will ask Clayton about that. We will talk about Gabe Kappler. I think Jack laid it out tremendously to all of you how big of a deal it is. And he had mentioned all of the or not all like a very few amount of players that are now in the position that Gabe Kappler is in. again. Javier Senoha wins a gold glove who turned 23, the first Marlin since 2017, Marcelo Zuna to capture a gold glove award and the ninth player in franchise history. So congratulations to him. Kind of funny. It is kind of funny to think about that. Sorry to cut you off, but Marcelo Zuna, who is famously a designated hitter now, was the last guy to win a Gold Glove. Yes, it is very ironically funny. Uh I’m excited to get to Clayton, Jack. Um, it’s great to see him and it’s great to hear from him. So, unless you have anything else you want to throw here to the to the big man, to the man of the hour. Let’s fire up the skipper. And we actually we had a big surprise. Me and Jack, you think we’ve been like hibernating? No, no, no. We’ve been grinding. Wait for this production value. Okay, we’re going to break and we’ll come back with Clayton. That is next on the Marlins Hot Stove Show. [Music] 2-1 and over. Edward scores from third. [Music] Hey Fish fans, this holiday season, share the joy of baseball with the Marlins Holiday Bundle. It starts on opening day, which is already included. That’s on Thursday, March 26th against the Colorado Rockies. Then pick a marquee game like the Phillies, the Mets, or the Dodgers coming to town and add up to three tier 2 games for even more family fun. And because it’s the season of giving, you’ll get a special discount on a customized Cityconnect jersey. Make memories that last. Visit marlins.com/holiday today. How about that production as we welcome in the manager of the Miami Marlins, Clayton McCulla. Steven here, Jack McMull. What do you think about the production elements, Mr. McCulla? I love that. You know, I got fired up there getting seeing some highlights and hearing the music and Lone Depot rocking. Uh that got me you got me going here in early December. Well, we’re so pumped to have you and uh Jack, go ahead. No, I was going to ask you, are you rolling with the loan dome? Are you coining that? Have you worked on trademarking that or No, I don’t know. I guess that did uh I didn’t even really I kind of said it off cuff. I think it just, you know, you kind of you say things around the clubhouse or out there, the lone dome, and then I think I had it come out in one media session and then well, now it’s the Lone Dome. So, uh, yeah, I I don’t know if I can take full credit for it. Um, but it had a had a good ring to it, I guess, at the time. It’s amazing to watch some of those highlights because you can feel I mean, I don’t know if it feels long ago. I don’t know if it does for you. I don’t know if it does for Jack, but all of those highlights bring back some incredible memories of what was an awesome year, Clayton. 79 wins. And I know you don’t want me to mention this, but you did finish fifth in manager of the year for uh for that award. I know you don’t care about that, but um I guess I want to first start here and I hope you had a great Thanksgiving with you and in the family. It I describe this season as the innocent climb where there wasn’t a ton of expectations. You guys um came in every single day. You guys formed an identity and you guys, I think, surprised a lot of people this year going into the off season. what is required to take the next step and how does that define for you? Yeah, uh Stephen, that’s a great question. That’s that’s probably the one thing that is on my mind more than anything else at this point. And if I have, you know, anything that keeps me up at night is we’re not guaranteed uh to just have a to have a better year just because we did what we did last year. And hey, we finished strong and you know, there were a number of individual players that were certainly proud of the progress that they that they made. I think collectively we set out last year to to really just try to get better, right? to to try to raise our our our floor. And so the fact that we were able to do some nice things and you said maybe exceed some expectations from the outside, it’s no guarantee that hey, next year we can pencil in, you know, a seven, eight, nine win improvement from this just because. And so the sense of urgency that I I I I believe our group had last year and not only within the games, but how they prepared and how they worked, how our staff approached things, the relentlessness that our uh I think our team kind of became somewhat identified by was, you know, how they just, you know, never gave up. Those are things for me that um we can’t stray from that. I think those are really important core parts of what is going to hopefully continue for our group to to keep getting better and to win more games is that we’re look we’re going to go into next year still as an underdog. I mean, you know, maybe it’s we’re projected to win a few more games than we were projected before last season, but at the end of the day, it’s still going to be um you know, the teams that are going to be forecasted to have the big years, and that’s fine. So, I think that we’re going to just continue to keep our head down and understand that our path to um continuing to trend in an upward trajectory is going to be through our own improvements, improving our processes, our internal our players getting better, and us approaching each game with that relentless mentality to just focus on, you know, trying to find a way to win that one and not getting too caught up in, you know, what we think September may look like. Clayton, a huge part of your job, a big chunk is being an effective communicator with some of the best people on the planet at what they do. And you mentioned the strides that so many players made for you. You look at that 26-man roster at the end of the year. You could say that 10 to 15 of them had the best baseball year they’ve ever had, doing it at the highest level. How do you communicate to those guys leaving for the offseason, hey, we need to push towards making that the bedrock? We need to build off of that. Is there a way that you can communicate? Let’s build from where you finished 25. Yeah, Jack, a big part of that was we um have met with most now almost every player on our 40man roster and gone through player plans, you know, with them. Um Carson Vitali, Bryson Nakamura really, you know, spearheaded this uh project of sorts and we felt it was incredibly important to um you know, take a holistic approach. we, you know, medical is included, uh, strength and conditioning, um, and, you know, including also maybe their skill specific coaches, but that, hey, look, there’s going to be some goals this offseason. You know, we’re going to try to keep it as simple as we can, but try to give them a clear, uh, path in which to have focus for this off season. And as you said, you’re you’re not guaranteed anything from one year to the next. And I believe our players appreciate, look, most of them haven’t had the easiest path, you know, to get here. And so, um, you realize how quickly the rug can be pulled out from under you if you aren’t always striving to to get better. So, we felt it was look, what we can do is set out, uh, three three, four goals for each player that we felt are most important right now to put them in a good position to build off of, you know, certainly what maybe what they had done last year, but then also to try to springboard that into a more productive 2026. It’s a it’s a great way to open up this discussion, too, Jack, because there were so many guys that, you know, had amazing years that again, not a lot of people thought uh not only could they play at this level, but could they put together the season they did, Kyle Sters being one of them. And Clayton, I did want to ask you because there’s been some stuff that has been swirling around about extensions, Kyle Sters, Yuri Perez. I don’t want to dive into too much personal information, but how exciting is it and how important is it for this organization to build off uh that excitement from last year? Yeah, certainly. I think it speaks to what what we feel is like a really budding group of young players that have the chance we believe to, you know, be part of us making this a consistent winner. And so I think the one thing we’ll I I feel like I we’ll definitely have more of in 26 than we have before 25 was some clarity going into you know this spring training with you know pieces of the roster. Um maybe even what are you know what we can somewhat kind of expect from them and um look we don’t know what’s going to happen health-wise. We don’t know what’s going to happen transactionally between now and then. But I think we do can can look at some of the strides that you mentioned Sters and you mentioned what Marcy was able to you know what he’s was able to do at the end um just to name a few um that have come up that we can you know somewhat that um you know kind of pencil them in health permitting that we we counting on them to um you know take some further steps but that are our um the amount of players that we also have coming through our our minor league system the amount of depth we’ve been able to acquire and and develop. So, the exciting part is we feel like we have a really good, you know, young group of players that are only going to get better also with, you know, players that are behind them that are continuing to put themselves in position to either take down meaningful innings or um meaning meaningful play appearances for us next year. Clayton, you care about these players as people so deeply and you spend so much time around the guy for eight months, nine months for the conversation. You know, Star Wars is an example, but plenty of other guys. And it seems like the Marlins fan base wants so and so extended and so and so extended. For the conversation to shift from am I on the team on opening day to what does an extension look like? How does that make you feel for these guys the guy? Yeah. I mean, it is it’s that part of it. There is a business side of what we’re doing here as well, right? And you know, we we talk to our players a lot about look, we’re we’re trying to get you I mean, why we preach so much about development and getting better is ultimately like the the you perform more consistently and you perform at a higher level on the field like monetarily you are going to at some point get rewarded for that as well and you have the opportunity to you know provide some security for yourself and your family uh which is important to people and important to players and uh and also winning and those things aren’t mutually exclusive. So like it’s important for us like we’re trying to you know for the team you get into a position where you are you know have the opportunity for some of these things to come your way is we think a great thing because um you know it’s it’s good for you. shown that not only on the field, what you’re able to do, but also probably more importantly, the type of teammates you are. And you have to, you know, you’re having to bet on the person um as much as you are just the individual skill ability when you’re talking about wanting to, you know, potentially have someone, you know, over over a long period of years. Uh Clayton McCulla with us now and we have a lot more bases to cover. I did want to get into some of the offseason chatter about positional changes and maybe starters going to the bullpen, bullpen going to Could you share any of that? Is there anyone that comes to mind that you’ve had discussions with about, hey, you know, we preach versatility here and optionality. We think that we want you to potentially be ready to play this position. Uh yeah, I have had some of those conversations with with some individuals and uh right now more on the position player front and I think like before diving into you know the specific people but anyway it’s like it’s important for me and for us organizationally that the more optionality as you mentioned a player can have. It’s beneficial for me the amount of in-game maneuvering that can that can take place. I mean, we saw how valuable Sonoha was for us with his ability to kind of go anywhere at any given time. And so, uh, it gives me a lot of freedom within games to make maneuvering, um, that I think’s tactically advantageous for us to to win. And for the player, you know, the more the more spots that you can go to, uh, it’s a way to keep yourself in the lineup um, with more regularity. And that’s really the only way that you can, you know, put up the type of, you know, performance numbers you want is to to get out there and be able to play. So, um, I mean, we, you know, Conor Norby is one I’ve spoke to. And look, and I’ll say this first that believe that Connor, um, you know, can play third base. And we’ve challenged him this off seasonason to continue to like that’s where your focus needs to be, Connor. Like, you know, come in, compete, and win the third base job next year. And also, it’s nice that you have some history of playing the outfield in the past. And that may be something that this spring that we look to um you know dive into a little bit. And so um he’s athletic enough and Connor’s a team guy. He wants to be on the field. He wants to help us win. And does that mean that Conor is going to be an everyday outfielder? That’s not what I’m saying. Does that mean he’ll ever play in any in the outfield? I don’t know. Um but I think that we can, you know, put some of those things out there. Talk to Griff about maybe getting some work at first base. And um you know the big part I one I love is most our guys when I have those conversations with them they’re like okay like one you know if that’s going to help you and it’s going to help our team um you know I’m all in. I’m I’m all for it. I you know so they’re they’re all about the right things. And I tell them too like I don’t know if this is going to you know end up playing out. Okay. It’s I don’t know what the roster is going to look like in spring training. I don’t know what the roster is going to look like April or May. So many things are fluid during the season. Uh, but if you’re open-minded enough to, you know, give it a shot, it just again is going to give you as a player potentially more avenues to stay in the lineup and it allows me a whole lot more, uh, flexibility and maneuverability within games. So, um, those guys, um, have spoken to, I mean, the outfielders sometimes are easier. Hey, you might play right or, you know, left. I think those are, you know, it’s not as much as as it is when a guy maybe goes from the dirt to the grass or, hey, we might ask you to go from the grass uh, into the dirt. So, so much has been made about the youth on this team and obviously you have a ton of experience in your time in LA working with veteran players and you know everybody knows about your relationship with Mookie Betts. That is a needle in a hay stack type of situation for a gold glove right fielder to make the pivot to shortstop when he’s already at his stage of in his in his career. I am curious from your perspective, is it easier to have these conversations with younger guys, with guys that are trying to find their footing in the big leagues and really thrive. I think what’s made some of these conversations easier is that the era that they’ve come up in that it’s become more of the norm or it’s become more uh in vogue so to speak to um you know wear some different hats or have different gloves in your bag that it’s not you know very few guys are just going to be penciled into the same position for their entire you know you know 10 12 13 you know year career that um a lot of organizations have been you know pushing this you’ve seen um how it’s been able to, you know, impact players value. I think about guys like Kik Hernandez who are over there and Chris Taylor and guys that have really made you know incredible careers because of their ability to to bounce around. So I think players understand more now that it’s not a knock on maybe what you can’t do as that ability to be again flexible and provide some optionality for the club and yourself is advantageous for you uh as a potential earner. Well, it’s going to be nice to see uh the players from last year be here at spring training because I know this year for Jack and I, we were like, who’s that? Who’s that? Who’s that? Who’s that? We are going to get a couple of who’s that. Clayton, it’s going to be a couple of coaches. Before we get to Corbin, um Corbin Day, Chris Hes, Craig Driver, etc. I did want you to give us a little bit of um you know what guys like Derek Shman, Tyler Smarzlock and um who else we got? Joe Singley and Chi Gonzalez and what they provided for your first year. Yeah, I mean you always hate to see they were they were outstanding. they were a huge part of, you know, what we were able to to do last year. And I think, you know, culturally what we were able to try to start to get put into motion and you hate to see people that you spend, you know, so much time with and you and you know what a quality job they did depart. Um, so on the one hand though, I do see it as a good thing for the Marlins like that, you know, when you’re when other teams are calling and asking for permission to talk to your staff members and this was certainly a very active off season with the number of positions that were open. Uh, it’s a good thing. I mean, I think it shows that we had identified some really talented people and were able to hopefully, you know, put them in a position and in a place to grow as as coaches and um, you know, happy for them that they got, you know, opportunities that they felt right now was um, a real step in their career trajectory and um, you know, a ton of confidence in the group that we’re bringing in. You know, you mentioned some that you know, are going to come in and believe they’re going to make you know, an incredible impact. the same that the staff members that we had last year that are no longer here did. So, I don’t I don’t want to put this, you know, comp on you, but thinking about college football, we were just talking about the whole Lane Keifin situation before we hit the record button. Nick Sabin, Kirby Smart, those are guys that have expressed this sentiment when they have coordinators quote unquote poached for head coaching jobs. When their coordinators move on to head coaching jobs in the Power Five elsewhere, they view that as an almost badge of honor. Do you feel that in a certain sense where your assistant hitting coach just became a lead hitting coach where you had two field coordinators come from your staff this past year? Yeah, I I think I I’ve I view this much differently now than I did say nine or 10 years ago. I remember, you know, when in player development role with LA and a lot of staff members, you know, you bring in and you feel like you have something good going and now guys are getting jobs elsewhere and it’s like, man, you’re kind of frustrated, right? like all we’re doing is interviewing, hiring, and onboarding. And then it was like, you know what, this is actually a really good thing. I mean, this is ultimately like for the staff member, we have an obligation to try to help them grow and become better and allow them to be in a position where if these opportunities do come that they’re ready for them. And um you know what, that’s the way this game goes. and guys take jobs and then you know what it’s our job now to go either try to continue to develop those ones that we have internally or go bring in some from from outside places to um you know and and run the cycle over. So, I’m very happy for them and I hope that, you know, I hope that we continue year after year to have our phones ringing for our staff members to go, you know, interview and be in positions, whether that be, you know, our major league staff members or, you know, even those that are down, you know, um, in our player development system because I think that shows a real strength of your organization that people are taking notice a little bit of what you’re doing and, you know, in some small way want people that are a part of that. Got a couple more left with Clayton McCulla. Can you tell us a little bit about Chris, Corbin Day, Craig Driver, and Harry Wowski? Yeah, I think that you’re going to love uh Chris and Corbin there coming in to round out our hitting crew. And we we had spoke about this many times last year. We we were going to want to add a third hitting coach. Just like the demands of that um that job right now are are, you know, so intense. with the game planning with, you know, 13 hitters at a given time that all kind of maybe need a little something differently with the amount of data that we’re getting. You know, you’re tying in bio, you know, biomechanical data. So, there’s just so much on a hitting staff’s plate. and you know looking at this more as a strong team and we love Pedro is like the leader of our you know our hitting group and um you know Chris coming over from the Boston Red Sox and he has a lot you know a lot of experience with some of their really you know young talented players that made their way through that that system and now we’re in the major leagues and um he speaks a lot of the same language that you know we do. He’s he loves you know plate discipline and um challenging practice environments and the way to try to problem solve. So, um, it’s very much he’s in lock step, I believe, with what we care about, but also he’s going to bring his own spin on, you know, some things that’ll help our department grow. And Corbin Day, this guy just full of energy. Um, you know, young last year on the Minnesota Twins staff. Uh, going to take more of an active role uh in the hitting space this year with us, but you know, we believe both of those guys are um are going to be stars and, you know, probably said in a in a very short amount of time, people will be, you know, calling wanting to talk to them as well. So, we’re excited what they they can do teaming with Pedro to take our offensive group um and continue pushing forward. Everybody loved Chi-Chi, you know, Chee was, you know, great. I mean, what a um to go off the mound, you know, from being a pitcher than to just he came I can remember this guy showing up in January last year, strapping on the gear, trying out as a bullpen catcher and you could see that there was no ego there is, you know, being bilingual, um the experience of being a starter, reliever, been in different organizations. You know, Chich was a big asset for us. Um so, you know, tough loss um there. Uh but you know to have um you know we’re able to you know to back fill that with um you know we think some very you know talented, hardworking, eager um you know individuals that are going to you know going to do their part and uh grow and learn and be real great teammates. Clayton, one familiar face I want to get to. Uh baseball operations department saw a couple of notable promotions. One of which Gabe Kappler was elevated from assistant general manager to general manager. This is a guy that you have spoke so highly of in the last year in Miami. You feel like he is, you know, a huge influence on who you are as a manager. For a former manager, former big league baseball player to be the GM, what is your relationship with Gabe look like on a day-to-day basis? How do you guys communicate? And what does this mean going into 26? Yeah, I I imagine, you know, Gabe certainly has earned this promotion and elevation to general manager with the work that he’s done here over the last couple of of years and so many of the, you know, initiative systems that been put in place from the major league level down. you know, Gabe has certainly been in the middle of a lot of a lot of that action and um so yeah, fortunate that I mean, I I think back to, you know, 10 or 11 years ago, you know, when I first got the chance to work with Gabe, it was a real turning point for me professionally and how, you know, um how much Gabe has helped me and he was around our team a lot last year. He was around our staff uh a lot, went on a lot of road trips. So I I’d imagine that it’ll be um you know very similar in you know in our communication and you know the involvement with Peter and the rest of our front office with you know how we continue to try to look to build out the you know the roster heading into spring and then once we get into the season you know the day-to-day transactional uh items and or anything Gabe just brings a very unique perspective as you mentioned from you know he’s been a player he went he went to coach went back to playing um you know managing the big leagues been a farm director been in the front office. So, um, he has a lot of different experiences to pull from. He’s been around a lot of different organizations and, um, so it’s always, you know, it’s always nice when Gabe sits down because he’s going to ask you questions. He’s going to challenge you, which I, I think is a very healthy thing for for all of us to to be a part of. Frankie Polari, Ven Kton, and Gabe Kappler all promoted in the offseason. Okay, two quick ones for me. You went to the Dominican Republic. You visited the academy out there, but I got a question for my guy Gus. Augustine Ramirez has been on Instagram. He’s been working out. He looks great. Did you see Gus? What can you tell us about how his off seasonason is going? Yeah, I I did. I had I had the chance to go down there for three days. It was amazing. and Gus was was there working out one of those days and he’s been a a regular visitor to to our academy in the DR and he looked great and not only did he look great but um just the what he was the way he was speaking and and how he was able to reflect on I mean he went back even before the start of last year and you know and he was very self-aware of you know he was working hard but I I you know at some points you have to kind of go through a season to realize you know what there’s going to be a different level of um you know detail I need to put into my work you know for what’s ahead and now that he knows that and he really was down there um you know working very hard on his blocking and his receiving and you mentioned Craig Driver earlier Craig was able to get down there for a day and spend um a session with with Gus which is going to be huge you guys are going to love drives he’s um very intelligent he’s going to bring a lot but Augustine is not backing away or shying away from this challenge and We still we believe that Augustine is going to be um you know a very good catcher in this league uh for us and still see him that way right now and he’s doing everything in his power to uh put himself um you know in a position this off seasonason to be better than he was when he left you know at the end of last season. So uh I can I can let everybody out there know that’s listening that Gus is down there. He’s working and he he’s really invested in in making this thing happen. Boots on the ground journalism. back Clayton McCull. It’s huge. Yeah, it’s important. How was the visit to the DR as a whole, though? That had to be great. Yeah, it was Our Academy is beautiful. I mean, it really is. I mean, it’s uh what the work that Jay Lassley and Johnny Bloom have done. Um it’s it was so much energy. And I I’ll I know I talk a lot, but I I’ll in you know, I’ll say this. I’ve been probably almost 25 times. That was, you know, I’ I’d been a lot. I love going down there, right? the the the passion, the puress of baseball that you get to experience, the energy that’s down there. And this the highlight for me this trip was taking my son and um to have him be able to come down and experience those three days with me, stay on site, uh be at a baseball field all day, um you know, watch the dream. Oh, watch the action in the wait room, you know, out on the fields. He’s coming down in the cage. We mess around a little bit and he runs back up um do his thing and uh it was really the amount of conversations they’re having on building on leadership and um you know our guys learning how to be great teammates. So it’s not it wasn’t just ground ball after ground ball and swings. There was a really holistic approach to you know um you know our young men improving in all facets. We are also a week away from the winter meetings. I’m going to prepare you for the media jackals, Clayton McCulla, because I got your back. I’m beyond a radio broadcaster. Last year, you were asked, “What individual were you really excited to work with?” Here’s what you had to say last year. I am I’m really excited about Edward Cabrera and again, like, you know, just had the chance for last few years, you know, few opportunities where, you know, competing against him, you know, and they just kind of know what guys, you know, and those hitters means they weren’t fans of having to, you know, kind of go up there and take that at bat. And you know, again, it’s it’s young. Um, great stuff. Like, there’s so much more in that in the tank there. And, you know, uh, so I think that’s he’s a really exciting one for me just cuz like the the upside is so big and like, you know, like, hey, it’s going to, you know, not everybody’s path to success is linear, right? And so, but like it’s it’s real ability that can, you know, win major league games. eight and seven a 53 or 35 rather erra 137 and two/3 innings 150 punch outs 26 starts you nailed that one uh who’s our guy for this year who are you really excited for in in 2026 all right I’m can I do two yeah absolutely okay I think one I think the com major league comeback player of the year next year is going to be Sandy Alcantra and I think um okay if I if Edward was my pick to click last year this year my pick to click is going to be Otto Lopez I think Otto Lopez is going to shine again defensively, the base running and offensively. I really believe that Otto is going to take um some continued strides and um be a uh I I think this guy’s going to have a really big year all around. I love Jack. Love both of them. I approve. All right, Clayton, it’s been a pleasure as always. Thank you so much for taking the time in the middle of your off season. Have fun at the winter meetings. It’s in Orlando, so it’s not too far of a a trip over there. Enjoy it. I know we’ll talk before the holidays, but we appreciate you again as always for for jumping on with us. All right, Stephen, Jack, great to uh catch up with you guys. Thanks. Coming up next, love it or leave it. But before that, here’s a message from us. Well, it’s that time of the year, folks, the holiday season. You want to nail that gift for that special someone. And I’ve got the perfect one for you. Forget the jewelry. How about experiences? How about some memories? The Marlins holiday bundle. First thing that you get is opening day tickets. March 26. Marlins and Rockies. How can you forget what happened last year for the Marlins? Kyle Sters walks off. You had to be there. You can be there though this year. Second thing, you get to choose one marquee matchup. Phillies, Mets, LA Dodgers have won back-to-back World Series championships. You can attend one of those games as well. And I’m not done. How about on Saturdays at home? The Marlins wearing some fire. That City Connect jersey. You can customize it yourself at a special discounted price. So, those are three things that you get with the bundle. Don’t wait. Celebrate the holiday season with the holiday bundle today at marlins.com/holiday. Hey Marlins fans, the 2026 season is right around the corner and the Fighting Fish are primed to make this one a memorable year in South Florida. Building off of an exciting 2025, the Marlins will look to make some serious waves in 26. Join us at the ballpark on opening day when the Fish host the Colorado Rockies on Thursday, March 26th. Opening day tickets and single game tickets for all 81 Marlins home games are now on sale. Just head to marlins.com/tick and make sure you’re there. Alrighty, that was fun, Jack. No, that was a good interview. That was a great interview. I love talking to Clayton and uh No, I mean Clayton just seems loose, happy, off season mode. I think he’s loose and happy during the season, but got some color in his face. He’s he’s happy. I think this guy’s just living his best life right now. He’s He’s hanging out. Hopefully, he got to Disney with the family for a minute and he’s uh Yeah, I you know what? I’m I’m really happy for Clayton. What a year it was. You mentioned he got National League Manager of the Year votes. That guy is so deserving of all the love that people are are heaping on him around Major League Baseball. This team was supposed to win 62 games according to the experts and they won 79. They won just 62 games in 2024. Again, 79 wins for the Miami Marlins. Did write down some talking points and then we’ll get to love it or leave it. This doesn’t have to be a huge segment, but thought it was interesting. Griffin Conine, he’s going to get some reps at first base. Conor Norby, he will see the outfield. Augustine Ramirez, I know that’s been a big topic of discussion. He is going to stay a catcher right now. He’s in the offseason. He’s working. Clayton met with him. Some extension stuff as well. I know we tried our best to it’s it’s not in Clayton’s court whether there’s going to be extensions or not, but I do want to mention the last player was Richard Blire to land um a pre-arb deal in 2022. And then his predictions Clayton McCulla’s Sandy Alcantra major league comeback player of the year and Lopez. Yeah. Yeah. Who hit 246 15 home runs and 77 RBI’s. Yeah. So the Sandy one like if you guys were watching you saw my my fist pump when he said that. That seems like an absolute layup. I almost want to say be bolder Clayton because that it almost feels like it’s already come true. The Sandy that we saw for the final month and a half of the season starting in that start in Boston. You remember that start at Fenway Park where he just looked amazing. that gave him all the confidence he needed to push through the final month and a half. And for me going into 26, I look at Sandy saying, you know what, this guy’s going to recapture all of that magic and all that value and all of that like leadership. It’s not like the leadership ever went away, but you know, all of that onfield leadership that he might have felt like he lost in 23 at the end of the year, missing all the 24 and then 25, pitching like a shell of himself at points. I’m really excited to see what Sandy does in 26. And I love the auto shout. You know how much I love Otto. Defense will always carry you. He will stay in the big leagues for a long time because of how good of a defender he is. But that bat, it looked better and better as the year progressed. I’m really fired up for Otto. One thing on Sandy, when you look at this team, this team won 79 games and their pitching numbers were in the 25s to the 30s as far as rankings are concerned for Major League Baseball, which I know some could be skewed a little bit because the bullpen pitched so well from the middle of July to on, but you get like a normal year from Sandy Alcantra, those numbers are going to look completely different. And who knows what 79 wins turns into with a Sandy Alcantra season that he’s pitching to a three RA. Yeah, respectfully. Also, I mean, you you swap in some Ryan Weather starts if he can stay healthy in 26 and you swap out some Cal Quantrol starts, that number looks a little bit different, too. There were a lot of things that changed quickly that probably hampered those numbers, right? I mean, Connor Gillespie really struggled at the beginning of the year as well. You start to look at what an optimized rotation looks like and what an optimized bullpen looks like, more Ronnie Enriquez on the back end. There are so many guys that you just figured out what their role is going to be in 26. You figured that out in 2025. I feel like we’re going to see an optimized pitching staff in 26. And I’m just being fair here and I believe Ronnie is nasty, but there are going to be guys that just take steps back because that’s just what baseball is. I I I don’t know if Ronnie Enriquez can put together the numbers that he did equally like he’s going to, you know, like he did in 25 and 26. I don’t know. But you know that there’s going to be some guys that had great years that are going to just naturally take a step back. I don’t know what that looks like if it’s a number standpoint, but that is going to be the case. So that’s that ying and yang that you do have to, you know, fair for. But building off of that, what an amazing starting block for these guys in 26, right? If Ronnie still takes a step back, he can be a top 25 reliever in Major League Baseball. There are so many guys that look the part and then some. Even if they regress a teensy tiny bit, they built this bedrock in 25 that you just want to push further as the years go on. You ready for Love It or Leave It, man? I am. I’m fired up for this. This is my second Love It or Leave It ever. Uh the first thing I ever did with you was I think one of the last hot [Music] Did you get muted there? I don’t think so. Oh, good. Yeah, it was the last one. The last hot stove show was like your introduction. We did love it or leave it. Yeah. So, this is my second love it or leave it. Is this music too hot? Should we turn it down just a little bit? I don’t know. It’s the beauty of podcasting. Okay. Love it or leave it. We just had Thanksgiving. I don’t know if you do this for your family or with your family, but as you’re eating dinner, you take a moment to talk about what you’re thankful for. Yeah, you love or leave that because it’s a some people find it really challenging. Not because they’re not thankful, because when you’re on the spot and your family’s in front of you and your friends, some people clam up a little bit. Love or leave it. Yeah. I love it. I love it because we’re paid to talk for a living, which is nice. Uh, we know how to express our thoughts and we’re also very emotionally in tune people. I feel like I think that’s fair to say. I think I think we can express what we’re thankful for. I feel like I’ve always kind of been good at doing that. So, I love it. But if you’re talking to a table full of second cousins that you hardly know, I’m leaving it at that time. Okay. So, so context is key here. Context is key, but I would say overall love it. If this is immediate family, you’re you’re loving it. Oh, I love every second of it. But if this is third cousin Sally sitting across from you saying, “Tell me what you like about me.” No, I’m I’m leaving that and I’m driving far away. Uh, do you have another Thanksgiving one? Because I have one for you. I do. Uh, kind of. It kind of goes with this the holiday season, but go ahead. Give me your one. Give me your love it or leave it traditional Thanksgiving food. Forced to love it. Forced to love it. I don’t love turkey. I that that’s no longer a hot take. I think there’s a lot of people that are in my boat right now talking about like turkey isn’t great. You just do it because you feel like you have to. It’s kind of like the high school senior prom. I didn’t really want to go to prom. I just felt like I had to do it. That’s kind of how I feel about turkey. It’s that high school prom for me. Love the stuffing. Love the mac and cheese. Love the mashed potatoes. It’s really just the turkey that gives me the But yes, I’m I’m loving that. You I’m I’m leaving it. I haven’t done a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in a couple of years, and I love that transition. I like I did I did a seafood and risoto deal. We went out to dinner on Thanksgiving night, and I love that. I listen stuffing is solid. Sweet potato, whatever with the marshmallow, that’s solid. Green bean casserole, solid. Turkey, fine. My thing is it’s not my first choice. And isn’t Thanksgiving about just getting way too full? If I’m going to get way too full, I don’t want to do it with my food dinner. I want to do it with my 18 dinner. Okay. The good It’s It’s fair. It’s fair. I think the tradition is what always holds people back. I think there’s a lot of people that share that sentiment that say, “You know what? If I’m going to do Thanksgiving and I want to be stuffed, let’s go get pizza. Let’s go get baked ziti.” Whatever it is, but again, it’s like the high school prom. It’s you just feel like you have to go. Did you go to your high school prom? I did. Yeah, I had a good time at high school prom. Very good. Love it or leave it. Miami Invitational, December 8th. Shout out to my little sister. Happy birthday. And my best friend, Mike Kickman at Lone Depot Park. Carlos Alcarez, this is gonna be awesome. I’m gonna start. I love this. I love that Lone Depot Park is becoming this um what was the thing I just did last week for MTE multiple team event or not multiple team event but multiple events. Yeah, it’s not just for baseball, it’s the Winter Classic. It’s the WBC. It’s now tennis. Correct. It started It It feels like this year kind of kicked off with the Breezy Bowl. Chris Brown came in and it was an amazing concert venue and now we get a tennis court and in a month we get a hockey rink. Like it’s so cool what Anthony Favvada and his team are doing with Loone Depot Park. You have a humongous surface and you get to turn this thing into a a highlevel tennis complex. And by the way, if you’re looking for highlevel tennis matches, this is your place to be. You’re a tennis guy. You got to be Carlos. Yeah, I am. sneaky tennis guy. Carlos Alcarez is the world number one on the men’s side. He takes on Jao Fana who lives in South Florida. Jao Fana has done some great stuff at Lone Depot Park already and he’s a top 25 player in the world. So really excited for that. And then on the women’s side, you’ve got Amanda Animova who is a top five player in the world. Animova is from South Florida and she’s going to take on an American Jessica Pagula who is according to the WTA the world number six. So, you got a top 10 matchup in the world on the women’s side, a top 25 matchup, including the world number one on the men’s side, and oh, by the way, they’re going to play mixed doubles for a 10-point tie break. I love that. Yeah, it’s amazing. So, in the middle of that, you’re going to get Alcarz and Pagula against the two South Florida natives and residents, Animova and Jia Fana. It’s going to be such a cool event. Again, doors at 5:30. The event actually starts at 7:00. Uh, and that’s on Monday night. Tickets still available at marllins.com/tick. marlins.com/tick or marlins.com/tennis. Yes. December 8th. You don’t want to miss it. Love it or leave it. Holiday music on December 2nd. Love it. Uh on the drive back from Thanksgiving dinner, I queued up Michael Bublé’s Christmas album and I love it. I drove back. I was with my immediate family on Thursday. First thing Friday morning, I hit the road back to um me and my fiance’s apartment and I was hanging out with the future in-laws and the first thing we did within 30 minutes of me being back in the apartment is putting up the Christmas tree and and decorating ordnance and getting everything set up. So, I love it. I I am a sucker for this stuff. So, November, I don’t know. But December, it’s it’s go time. I actually had it on this morning. I had it on this morning. Starting my morning right with it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas as I looked outside and it was 80°. Now, can I show my geography here? Go ahead. Uh, do you miss the winter weather at Christmas time or are you all about Christmas in Miami? I do. I do, but I’m also going home for for Christmas. I always do. I’ve done that since I’ve moved down here in 2021. Once you get there, once you smell that, it’s it’s kind of fresh air in Newark. And then you start to drive a little bit and you get that seapport smell and you’re like, “Yeah, I’m home. I’m home.” But you see your breath. when you see your breath and you see the le, you know, there’s no leaves anymore and you know, you’re in your winter jacket, it just you start to really feel Chris. That’s the one thing with Christmas. I say Thanksgiving I had here in Miami and it was fine. I was a little bit worried. It’s my first time not being in Jersey for it, but it it was fine. Christmas here, no, no, no, no. Not for me. I get it. Love it or leave it turtlenecks. Love, love, love, love. You’re going to see me. Yeah. No, you’re going to see me wearing a turtleneck probably next episode. I love them. Uh, have you worn a turtleneck before? All the time. Uh, what I recently started doing in a You proposed in a You proposed in a turtleneck. I proposed in a turtleneck. Yeah. Yeah. You look good. Turtleneck. Uh, the big thing is the last couple of years I’ve called some college basketball. Stop it. And the thing that I’ve started doing is the turtleneck under the blazer. And it looks so good. Try it. Just try it. Welcome back here to Ball State basketball. Yes. Uh-huh. Ball State and Western Michigan. Get ready. I’m in a turtleneck. All right, last one. Love it or leave it. The MLB draft lottery. This is December 9th. The Marlins have a 1.85% of winning the lottery. The most likely outcome is the 10th pick. Love it or leave it, the lottery. Uh, I love it. I don’t necessarily I I would leave the NFL draft lottery system where it’s not a lottery. It’s just the worst record gets the best pick. I don’t think Major League Baseball teams, you know, even a decade to a half decade ago were actively tanking. I feel like it’s much harder to tank in baseball than it is in in NFL football, let’s say. Uh, but I love that there’s, you know, a matter of chance that goes into getting the number one pick. So, even if you do sell off every piece, you’re not guaranteed the number one, there’s nothing to tank for. It incentivizes winning even further. So, I’m all about that. That was your last one. That was my last one. I’ve got two for you. Go ahead. Give it to me. Love it or leave it. Laente Delbario’s home run derby at London Depot Park. Can I just read you? Yeah, of course. Love. read it to me and I’m still going to say love it. Saturday, December 6th at Lone Depot Park, you got the celebrity softball game that happens, I want to say at 1:00 and then at 4:00 is the home run derby. Tickets are still available. This is the home run derby field that you can see at Lone Depot Park. O’Neal Cruz, who put on an absolute show in the home run derby this year in Atlanta. Catel Marte with the Arizona Diamondbacks. Carlos Santana the veteran. Novi Marte with the Cincinnati Reds. Gabber Torres the All-Star with the Tigers. and Jose Ramirez, maybe the best third baseman in all of Major League Baseball. You get that at Lone Depot in December. That’s an unbelievable lineup. I’m all about it. So again, December 6th, last one, love it or leave it. Miss not letting Lane Keifin coach in the playoff. [Music] Lane Kein just left to take the LSU head football coach job. Yeah, for people that aren’t filled in on the college football scene. Lane Keifin just went 11 and two with Old Miss. The college football playoff is coming up. LSU in the playoff and he dragged out this decision to either stay at Old Miss or go to LSU for three weeks. LeBron James decision thing. Yes. Do I love it or leave it him not coaching? I love that he’s not coaching. Yes. I I know that there’s people that are going to say, “Oh, it’s one season. Live in the moment, whatever it may be.” But there’s principles that I live by. There’s values that I live by. There’s black and white. And for me, if you are going to leave me, I heard this from Scott Vampel. I’m just going to take it. I love it. If if my wife told me I’m going to leave you for my ne for our neighbor that I despise, that I don’t like, and she does that, and then she says, “Oh, you know what? Can I actually Can we stay together for Christmas? Can I come home for Christmas? Out out. Don’t let the door hit you behind. There’s There’s certain things I just believe that are right and wrong. If you’re 11 and one, this is what you do this for. This is what you do this for. You go 11 and one, you have a chance to go to the playoff with your team, with Old Miss, who wasn’t necessarily a powerhouse when you took over, by the way. You did this from scratch. Finish what you started, man. I don’t know what the money looks like and I know it’s different if it’s if it’s a hundred million versus whatever he’s making right now. I know it’s that I know it’s with the M. I know if I get an M I’m going to be extremely happy and I know it’s right now and I know down the road you might be like all right like now 1 million is not good enough. Come on, man. What is this about? Is this about money or is this about winning and impacting lives? Love it. You agree with you. I think. Um, yeah. Listen, is it a better job at LSU? Probably. But how many coaches have you heard say they had opportunities presented to them and professionals in general? They had opportunities presented to them and the timing just wasn’t right. This is a clear-cut example of the timing not being right and uh and still doing it. And I I saw someone tweet this college football writer on a national scale. I think for the athletic uh part of being an adult is making difficult decisions and living with the repercussions of those decisions. Exa Exactly. And this is a repercussion of that decision. Exa it would send I think it would it would send the wrong message to let Lane Keifin finish when he left. I mean it it that’s just my listen beauty of our lives. We get to talk about baseball. We don’t have to deal with the coaching carousel in college football. Great show. Great start to the hot stove season. Great. Excellent start. Big thanks to Clayton McCulla. Big thanks to you, Jack McMullen, for uh, of course, just the the wealth of knowledge that you bring to this program. What else we got on tap? We got winter meetings next week. Yep. We do have a surprise guest. It’s not a player, although we will have a player right before we head to the winter break. That will be on the 23rd if I’m not mistaken. So, next week we’ll talk winter meetings. We’ll see what happens. There was some stuff that happened last year. Jake Burgerer was traded uh from the Miami Marlins to the Texas Rangers. So, we will fill you in if there’s anything that happens of relevance. I’m really excited about the rest of our hot stove season. We don’t have a ton of new guys that we have to introduce to the team, which is actually a really good thing, but we have enough to give the audience a little bit of a behind the scenes and some background on some of these coaches. I think this was a good start to the hot stove show. We got a lot more to chew off. Um, closing thoughts by you. No, great job by you facilitating and uh just I being the king you are, man. So, I’m I’m all about this. Really excited to talk some ball. It feels like it’s been too long, although we’re we’re kind of in the dead of winter, but excited to keep tabs on on everything stove and Marlins related. Remember again, you can get your tickets for of course opening day marlins.com/tick. You can also go to the Miami Invitational, which is next week, marlins.com/tennis. We got a ton of events. Again, the MLB draft lottery December 9th. We’ll have that though covered for you next week. Thanks everyone for tuning in. Stephen Strom, that’s Jack McMullen. We’ll talk to you next time on

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