Jose TREVINO
Post columnist Steve Serby catches up with Yankees catcher Jose Trevino to take a swing at some Q&A.
Q: How close were you to quitting baseball when your late father Joe was ill?
A: I was coming home, I was ready to come home. I was gonna try to support my family. It was me and my mom, I talked to my mom and my mom was like, “No, you’re not doing it.” I was having a tough time at Oral Roberts at the time and my mom was like, “I’m not gonna let you do that. Your dad wouldn’t let you do that, he wouldn’t want you to do that. Don’t worry about it, we have control over here, it’s fine. We’ll take care of everything, you just keep chasing your dream.” For me, I’m living my dream with my dad. This was our dream. And it wasn’t forced on me, it was like our dream. This is what we imagined.
Q: What drives you?
A: My family. The people that I’m trying to prove right. I’m not trying to prove anybody wrong anymore. I could care less about what people say. I care more about the people that have believed in me through my whole career, my whole life. Those are the people I play for. I play for the people that always had the vision of me being where I wanted to be, and the people that just believed in me.
Q: How did you feel about being undrafted?
A: I knew as an 18-year-old kid I needed to go and develop, and that’s why I chose Oral Roberts.
Q: Was there a time when criticism bothered you or you thought it was unfair?
A: I think at a young age. I wasn’t getting the attention that I thought I should be getting. And looking back now, that’s just immaturity, that’s just not understanding that you don’t have to get the recognition by everybody.
Q: How proud of yourself are you for overcoming the odds?
A: I’m definitely proud of myself. There’s a lot of stuff I still want to do. There’s a lot of boxes that I want to check off before the story’s done, I guess you can say.
Q: What boxes do you want to check off ?
A: The main one is win a World Series. That’s all I dreamed of as a kid, holding up a trophy, watching the Yankees hold up their trophies. I’m the guy that watched the celebrations at the end of every championship. I’m the guy that looks and feels like everybody that’s in tears, or happy, celebrating with their teammates, with their family. I’m the guy that’s like one day, that will be me one day. I want to win a World Series with the New York Yankees. There’s nothing better for a baseball player to do.
Q: Do you visualize doing that?
A: Every day. Every day I go into work. Every day.
Q: A catcher has to understand what makes each pitcher tick, right?
A: (Laugh) There’s so many personalities that you juggle, and it’s fun to me. Some guys need a pat on the back, some guys need somebody in their face. That’s what’s good about this catcher position is that you need to know what everybody needs. Q: So what would you say Gerrit Cole needs? A: Nothing. He’s Gerrit Cole, he’s gonna go out there, he’s gonna compete, he’s gonna toe the rubber and he’s gonna get after you.
Q: Nestor Cortes?
A: Nestor’s a competitor. He fears nobody, and I feel like that’s to his advantage, he’s just gonna go and attack you, he’s gonna attack you with his best stuff, and he’s gonna do it with style. Nestor’s gonna be himself.
Q: Luis Severino?
A: He’s one of the ultimate competitors. Sevy’s always got a game plan in his head, he’s ready to roll all the time. When I’m not catching him, it’s exciting to watch him pitch. He has fun, he enjoys the adrenaline of getting to two strikes and striking out somebody.
Q: Jameson Taillon?
A: He gets in a zone and he’s in attack mode, he’s ready to roll, he’s ready to attack anybody at any time, any count, it doesn’t matter. And he doesn’t need no extra motivation, that guy’s got it.
Q: Jordan Montgomery?
A: Monty is special. He enjoys the tic-tactoe of the game, the chess of it, pitching a guy a certain way, pitching the guys this way and then coming back and pitching ’em this way. I feel like he’s always playing chess when guys are playing checkers. Monty’s smart, so he knows what he’s doing out there.
Q: Michael King?
A: Michael King is rare. It takes somebody special to come out of the bullpen and do what he does. But he’s in attack mode. No situation’s ever too big for him, and he loves to be out there.
Q: Clay Holmes?
A: There’s not much to say about Clay. Same thing, man, he’s in attack mode, he’s ready to get after you,
Q: What makes his sinker so deadly?
A: He throws it for strikes. Even if you plan on taking it, he throws it for strikes, so you have to make a decision whether you want to sit there and get to two strikes or you want to sit there and try to take a couple of hacks at it, but it’s a tough pitch. It’s a lot of movement on it.
Q: What enabled you to pitch two perfect games in high school?
A: One of ’em I think the ball was put in play like four times, the other ones were like strikeouts or something like that, but every time the ball was hit, the guys were making the plays.
Q: What did your fastball top out at?
A: Like 92 or something like that maybe.
Q: Other than Nolan Ryan, which pitchers did you like?
A: I liked the way that Roger Clemens threw. He had this thing about him where like, “OK, I’m coming to dominate the mound.” I liked the way his presence was on the mound. I also liked watching Pedro Martinez throw.
Q: Why is your Twitter handle HipHipJose?
A: When I was in high school, I had some of the guys that would come out to the baseball games, they would just start saying, “Hip Hip,” and people would say “Jose.” Me and my agent actually trademarked it, so we’re gonna start icing here I think pretty soon . ... If the fans want a T-shirt, maybe we can make a Hip Hip Jose T-shirt or something.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Tim Duncan, Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “The Grinch,” any time of the year is acceptable ... the one with Jim Carrey. Q: Favorite actor? A: Jack Black or Adam Sandler. Q: Favorite singer/entertainer? A: Anything from the Randy Rogers Band to Drake. Q: Favorite meal? A: My mom’s spaghetti.
Q: Describe the feeling of a walk-off.
A: I think it’s a sense of calmness for me. I got asked last year by one of my teammates when I come up in big situations why do I look like I’m smiling? I think it’s because I enjoy the moment. I enjoy what’s in front of me. Whether I’m gonna fail, whether I’m gonna succeed, I know that in that moment I’m gonna learn something. That way when that moment comes along again, I’m gonna be even more prepared for it. Everybody sees all the walk-offs that I’ve had, all the hits, but nobody’s really seen the big situations that I failed in, or the big situations that I’ve had a hit in. Every opportunity’s a learning opportunity for me whether I fail or succeed, and I feel like that emotion just kind of tunnels in and I just try to enjoy that moment every second I can.
Q: What do you like best about this Yankees team?
A: The fact that there’s no egos. Everybody goes out there every night, and it’s do your job. Everybody comes to the field prepared and ready to do their job, to the best of their abilities. Yeah we might not win, but you’re definitely gonna feel it, you’re definitely gonna feel the pressure of us performing and us doing our job. And as a team, you get however many individuals it is on a roster to do that, and individualize their job and be good at their job, that’s a tough team to play. And I feel like that’s how we are.
Q: How would you sum up what it’s like being Jose Trevino?
A: I always got told that no matter what I did, no matter how good I am at baseball or how good I think I am at baseball, that I always had to be a better person. I take a lot of pride in that.