 Aaron, how different does it feel walking to the podium this year with a year under your belt? And what did you learn last year that you're going to try to implement in your second season? I don't know how much different because it's, I've said a couple times, it's just this living organism that every day is a continuation of from where you began. So I guess in some way looking back, you know, certainly feel way further ahead of the game, just in my knowledge of our organization, the relationships I have within our organization, not just with our players, but, you know, all the people in the front office, all the people behind the scenes that I know, you know, know who they are, know about their families, know what their role is, know where to go for something that I might be looking for. So there's no question that, you know, just being much further along at this point. But in a lot of ways, I feel like, you know, I walked in fairly comfortable last year at this time. And what was the follow up with spring training, you know, look, living in the Northeast now as I do, spent a lot of time at the stadium. So a lot of conversations that span the entire off season, the entire winter with small things that we're trying to implement or want to implement that that will implement a little bit here in spring training. I think in a lot of ways, spring training will look very similar to last year. But there's definitely some things that hopefully we continue to evolve as a club that hopefully allow us to improve all the time on the margins and help us reach our peak. From row on the left, Eric, in regard to the big expectations that accompanied the team last year, you said your message to the team was go out there and expect to be great, embrace those expectations. Is the message the same this year? Um, there's no question we'll embrace those. You know, I haven't addressed the team yet, so I'm not sure exactly, you know, how I'll put it. I like to get up in front of them anytime, whether it's to start spring training or or anytime during the season where I dress the club, I like to go out there and and, you know, kind of let it rip and say what I'm thinking. I mean, they'll certainly be some things that I hit on, excuse me, with our club the first day. But for the most part, I like to get up and and kind of speak from the heart about, uh, you know, our expectations and, um, but there's no question we'll we'll embrace those expectations. I think everyone, uh, that's been here a while and certainly the new guys coming in, I think understand what goes along with, you know, having the kind of club we potentially have and being within this organization that the expectations are great. So, uh, we, we welcome that. We look forward to that. And, and hopefully this year we can get to the top of the mountain. Same row, Sweeney. Aaron, how much better is your rotation coming into spring and given the situation, do you feel like you have enough depth to have it be a good rotation to take you where you want to go? I do. I mean, health, obviously, as with just about every club is, is important with us and it's important that, um, you know, we remain relatively healthy. There's, there's obviously going to be attrition during the year or, you know, even, even when things go perfect, guys are probably going to miss a start here and there. Um, but we feel like we have people within the organization right now capable of filling in, um, but, you know, I think staying healthy within our starting rotation and relatively healthy is obviously a key for depth. I mean, you're talking about Domingo, Herman, Loisiga, um, uh, Chance Adams, you know, Michael King, who's, you know, come onto the scene a lot, um, and then guys that'll emerge along the way that you don't necessarily account for, you know, and Luis Sessa, who, you know, maybe is ticketed for our pen in a lot of ways as a guy we know is capable of going out and starting as well. So we feel like we have a lot of internal options and a lot of internal options that especially in a fill in role are capable of being very good pitchers for us. Bruce in the middle. Erin, you went a hundred ball games last year, but is this team presently constituted in your mind better than a year ago? I hope so. Um, you know, we feel like I feel like, you know, Brian and his staff have done a great job of, of adding reinforcements to our team. I think creating even greater depth for us going into this year, um, you know, probably a few more moving parts, a few more guys that, you know, we expect to have more versatile roles, um, but that, that really play into our depth, um, obviously adding some of the, the, the pitchers that we've added, both starters and relievers. I feel like as we sit here in early February on paper, we probably look a little bit stronger, but, you know, now we got to go out and make sure we, we keep guys healthy, keep guys posting and, and, uh, and go deliver on, on what we believe is a really good club. All the way in the back middle, Andy. And you're, excuse me, obviously asked a lot about Sanchez through the course of the season last year, but now that he's back and he's had the shoulder taken care of, how do you think that, uh, will impact him offensively and defensively now in terms of how you can be optimistic about it this year? Yeah, um, I think it certainly helps and to see, you know, how he's kind of evolved over the last month from his progression from, from, from that surgery, he's doing really well, um, you know, his bodies and really good shape. Um, I think he's going to have a great year for us on both sides of the ball. I'm really excited about his frame of mind right now and, uh, and we're counting on and expecting him to go out and be a great player for us. Who else branded up in the front? You mentioned being excited about his state of mind right now. What about it, uh, excites you? Is there something different than last year or times last year when you were struggling? You know what, I just think he's a year more mature. I think going through some of the things he went through last year. I've said this a lot with you guys is, you know, bumps in the road, struggles, especially as a young player. Um, can be great things in the, in the grand scheme of things for a career, especially when you're as talented as a guy like Gary. And there's no question that I think the things he went through last year physically, um, I think will benefit him going forward. And I just, you know, I, I've spent some time with him this off season, went down to Dominican, spent some time in the, the conversations I've had from. I feel like there's, it's a young player that's another year along another year mature and, and a guy that frankly is very hungry to go out and show the world how good a player he is. Brian, back to the front left. Aaron, what's your read on where Troy Tula Witzke is right now? Have you seen him play? And, and what would your plan be if he can't make it through the spring healthy? Right. Um, feel like he's in a good place. Um, you know, obviously the big question for Troy, first of all, he's in great shape. You know, we, we worked him out pretty extensively, uh, before we signed them and, and, you know, felt really good about where he was physically and that he's over some of the injuries that have really plagued him, you know, over the last year and a half, two years. Um, so we'll try and be very vigilant as far as his schedule goes and, and obviously communicating with him and where he's at, um, but trying to develop a plan that, that kind of evolves a little bit that we talk about almost daily. As far as, you know, we obviously got to see how he bounces back, you know, and, um, as far as, you know, if, if there are health issues and we break them, we feel comfortable being able to move labor over to shortstop and obviously having DJ, uh, a gold glove second baseman, um, we feel really comfortable from a depth standpoint that we could handle that. But as we sit here right now, we're, we're very optimistic about what Troy is going to bring. But, but even best case scenario, we'll, and I will try and protect them certainly in spring training, but, but even early in the season and just probably not, you know, over doing it too much, even if things are going very well. Buster to the right and then Jack to the left. Aaron, just a couple of quick follows. One, will you have to Lewisky work out anywhere other than shortstop during the course of spring training and when he went down to saw Gary and saw Gary and Dominican, what did you learn about him that you didn't know before? Um, no, the plan right now is for Troy to get ready to play shortstop and, and that's where we'll, we'll, you know, he'll pour his focus into and, and then, you know, as, as the weeks as the months unfold, we'll, we'll adjust if we need to, but we're planning on him playing shortstop and focusing solely there with Gary. You know, I feel like I've developed a really good relationship with him over the last year. You know, you know, we've had a lot of conversations over the past year. So I don't know necessarily learning more, I think, getting to go and have dinner with him and his wife and in his country and to, you know, just deepen the relationship and to see him talk passionately about things that matter to him. And I just feel like I do feel like there's been a growth there and a maturity there that comes out when, when you're, when I'm around him, when I talk to him now, there's a real hunger to go out and show the world what a good player he is. That's, that's what feels palpable to me about him right now and where he's at, not only physically because he's in a really good place physically and his body's in good shape and, you know, all the testing that he's doing behind the scenes suggests that he's physically in a really good place. But I think mentally, I feel, I feel like he's ready to go out and, and, you know, in a lot of ways take charge. Jack to look at when Bruce asked you if you thought that the 2019 team can be better than the 2018 team, you said, I hope so, in order to eventually be able to say yes, you are better than last year's team. What are some of the specific areas that need to improve some of the specific players that need to improve? Yeah, I mean, you know, I think certainly you look to some guys that maybe had down years. You know, I think there's reason to expect that they could bounce back and have more consistent campaigns. You know, I feel like the depth that we've created within our team, you know, feel like even if we're healthy, you know, hat will probably end up having some really good options and some really good players sitting in triple A ready to have major contributions at some point during the year. I feel like again on paper, our rotation and even our bullpen is feels even a little bit stronger as we sit here today. But when I say I hope so is that we're sitting here and it's early February. So, you know, in a lot of ways, the talk about it is cheap. We have tremendous expectations and I think we rightfully have those expectations. But now we got to go out and do it in the middle right here to the left. And you mentioned about embracing those expectations and wanted to get to the top of the mountain. Hopefully is there general tone or message you want to set within these opening weeks, even though it's just February? From my standpoint, yeah, with the team that you like to set tomorrow's the first workout as you know, and then the team eventually does show up. Sure. And, you know, and I'll hold back on divulging that, you know, again, it's something that I like to when I get up and talk to the guys it's from the heart. I mean, I'll certainly have some things in mind that, you know, I want to drive home with the guys. But, you know, I'll hold off on that until until I speak with them. But, you know, they'll they'll understand, you know, where I'm coming from and how I feel. And look, I mean, I have conversations and communicating with my guys all the time throughout the winter. So in a lot of ways, it's just an extension of some of the text messages, some of the conversations that I have with guys throughout the winter and in kind of trying to set that tone as we we start in February. From right, George and Pete living in New York for most of the offseason. Do you ever what would your take on the constant Machado talk he's coming here? And the other guys coming here? And then one other thing is CC full go at the beginning of camp? Yeah. First, Machado, I mean, I think that's, I think that's an exciting thing about being, first of all, a New York Yankee. But then, you know, all of us that love Major League Baseball, you know, the the attention and the conversation about, you know, great players that are available. That's inevitable. And when you see that interest, I think that's ultimately something that's very good for the game. And for the sport is when there is that interest in where guys are going and and and those kind of conversations. So I think that's one of the fun things, certainly for being a fan about, you know, what you can follow and get interested and invested in in the offseason about where different guys end up. As far as CC goes, we'll slow play him a little bit. You know, obviously, had the issue with the heart and had the stint put in. Happy to say that that is all going really well. But it also slowed down his, you know, workout routine and coming off, you know, the knee surgery slowed his rehab process. So we'll be careful with him here in the early days and slow playing the first couple of weeks. You know, probably won't throw his first bullpen for a couple more weeks. But he's doing well and but but we'll make sure that his body and his conditioning and everything we feel really good about he feels really good about when we start to really ramp him up on the mound. Aaron, do you have any specific ideas about the structure of your lineup to this point? And would you see like Aaron Hicks, perhaps being a primary leadoff hitter for you? Yeah. You know, last year at this time, it was something I think I talked to you guys about it all the time was messing around with lineups less so this winter, you know, especially as our, you know, as our roster took shape a little bit slower. So I've started to, you know, kick around some thoughts, start to get people's inputs on certain things. I do expect Aaron to be certainly being that leadoff mix, you know, possibly against both right and left. But but I also like him kind of, you know, because we don't have a lot of lefties right now. His left handed bat in the middle. You like him splitting up guys. So we'll kind of let that evolve over spring training. My expectation was will that would be that we'll see a lot of different orders, depending right left, you know, as the season unfolds as spring training and as the start of the season unfolds. Middle left, Christy. We saw DD, I think Monday said he'd started throwing. Is there any update on his progress and in terms of when you might expect him back? Well, all I'll say is that he's doing really well. His last doctor's checkup was whatever last week or 10 days ago in New York, where he was clear to start his throwing program. He still won't hit, you know, at least with two hands start swinging a bat, I think for three or four more weeks. But he's doing really well. You know, you know, he's listening to to, you know, the progression and and being smart about it. But he also in his mind and and knowing who he is, you know, he's like, let's go. I want to get get this thing going. So I hate given a timeline because we'll let the thing play out. You know, I think our original was anywhere from two to four months, maybe into the season. He certainly seems at least on that pace. And and he's in he's in really good shape and progressing the way he should be. So we're optimistic that, you know, he's going to play it hopefully a significant amount of the season for us. But to put a time on it still at this point, that's probably a little early. At the nj.com combo Randy and the baby blue followed by Brendan and the baby blue. I got that as a kind of an aqua. Do you expect to try and do hard any other position other than third base to spring, maybe some first or left and where do you see his defense being at now? No, I don't expect them to pretty entirely a third. That said, there may be a day or two that we picked to to have them on a back field just getting some first base in which we may do with like a Romain or a Gary pick a day where we just to keep some versatile options when you get into a little bit of a bind. But no, his his game work will be, I'll say now, pretty much entirely third base. And I feel like he's in a really good place defensively. I think he's he's another guy that's had a great winner. Another guy that's I think in really good shape as far as he worked really hard taking care of his body and stuff but there's some things that you know we've had him work on defensively that I think have really taken hold with him and I think he's had a great winner of of work and I think all of you that have been around him seen the kind of work ethic that's reared its head in the winter and I feel like he's another guy that comes into spring training in a really good place and I'm excited to see him another year and his his progression is of what is a really good player. We planned these shirts by the way. We heard about this from Hal, we heard about it from Cash. What was your take of the Machado dinner and what did you learn from him in that experience? It was a really nice dinner. I really enjoyed it with him. I feel like I enjoyed him and his wife and look he's a great player and confident that that he'll be a great player moving forward but you know what what more that that's about my take on I really enjoyed the day. E, do you have a question? We'll take about five minutes more worth of questions. It seems like a lot of the roster is set rotation, most of the bullpen positions. How many slots are really open in terms of open competition in the spring and where? Yeah, yeah I mean I think if things play out and guys are healthy yeah there's not a lot of necessarily spots initially but I think in every season even in the best of seasons I don't know exactly what the numbers are but you're going to need 30, 35, 40, up to 50 guys that make serious contributions to a club and we feel like we're in pretty good position to have guys that are able to come in and step up and but hopefully if things play out from a health standpoint in spring training you know they'll be very few decisions that we have to make as far as initially from a starting standpoint. Buster on the right. Aaron is the the Red Sox moved on to the LCS in the World Series how much of that did you find yourself watching or not watching and why? A lot, I watch a lot. I love the game so you know you know I've always been a fan of the game so I watched the postseason this year was a little more difficult but I certainly you know and made a point even to watch the World Series and watch the Red Sox celebrate and watch them on the podium. I don't know if it was to torture myself or what but you know I made sure I watched it and you know not that you put this hat on and this uniform on and to get to wear a big league uniform you know you shouldn't need much motivation but you know to watch a team that you know so well that's certainly one of your rivals celebrate where you want to be you know I think that that adds a little little fuel to the fire certainly. Christie in the back metal. Sorry I just want to be clear when you're talking about competitions for spring training do you see first base as an open competition or do you see Luke White as your starting first baseman? Well I think based on what Luke was able to do last year he certainly comes up in with a leg up but that doesn't change you know in my mind and never has even at the lowest points last year for Greg Byrd of what I think he is in his ceiling when he's right and he's another guy that I feel like has worked really hard this summer or this winter and I feel like comes in physically in a really good place where maybe he wasn't last year and I think probably a big contributor to some of the struggles he had a year ago so look I think opportunity inevitably knocks at some point for at different times for different people and it's about taking advantage of those but you know I think as we sit here today Luke has certainly earned you know the right as having a little bit of a head but but certainly those are two you know compelling players potentially for us. We'll take a couple more a couple of quick notes for everybody. Tomorrow clubhouse is 930 to 1030 following the workout Aaron will be back here also Tanaka will put him in a press conference setting. Some of you asked about Danny Farquhar and when he is throwing he's scheduled to throw his first bullpen on Friday so that'll make a lot of sense to have him in the press conference room following his bullpen session and then Cece will have his press conference on Saturday following the workout. Also of note we have a new press conference room especially for those of you that will be here throughout the spring once the dust settles we're going to start using that room continuously through the spring so we had a couple more here Brian and Sweeney. Aaron what was your take on what happened with Severino down the stretch last year and are you still looking at him as your opening day starter? I would say there's a very good chance of that you know I haven't settled on that we hadn't had those kind of conversations exactly yet but my expectation is that he would be that guy. As far as down the stretch I feel like in a lot of ways at times he righted the ship I think there's no question he dealt with you know some of the falling in and out of some of the tipping things that probably hurt him a little bit probably on some level even though I feel like he was certainly healthy probably dealt with some fatigue issues of being a young pitcher in this league of you know for the second consecutive year kind of getting around that 200 inning standpoint but in a lot of ways I think we saw the normal progression of a young star pitcher and and even though you know he had some struggles obviously in the second half I also think he had some flashes where he pitched really well for us righted the ship a little bit but hopefully some of the things that that he's worked on this winter that you know Larry and he have talked about us as an organization have talked with him about hopefully there's some things that he tightens up even more that allow him to continue to progress and really continue to establish himself as one of the aces in this league that's what we believe he is. Sweetie I'm going to hold that question Aaron do you want to give a couple injury updates? Yeah on Jacoby Ellsbury he he's not he won't be in camp with us initially obviously had the hip surgery late in the year we expected him to be here you know as a active player from from the start but just some issues he had from with his plantar fascia that kind of crept up as he was going through his rehab this winter have slowed him a little bit so we feel like he's making really good progress he's going to stay in Arizona though for at least the next couple of weeks and hopefully when he's ready to really dive into baseball activities which we believe will be sometime in March then then he'll join us. Also Michael King after throwing his one of his pens last week had some elbow issues MRI so we've shut him down I saw the doctor today he won't throw for another three weeks when we'll give him another MRI he had a stress reaction basically in his elbow you know feel like you know feel like he's probably going to be okay but it's something that we need to shut him down for a few weeks and then hopefully at that point doctor model re-examine him and look at the images again and then hopefully we can start ramping him up but obviously he'll be considerably behind with that. Okay Sweeney. I was going to ask about L's so. Yeah it's alright Thunder's gone Z. Are you figuring 13 pitchers on your opening day 25 at a three-man bench? Probably. Probably. You know it just kind of depends you know we're going to need based on just looking at it from now we're going to probably need that fifth starter even the first go around you know sometimes you have the off days where you don't need we're going to need that fifth starter but does that mean you slow play it a little bit that remains to be seen but I would anticipate us more often than not having 13 pitchers and that could likely mean the start of the season. To follow up on two of the things you said. Yeah. Was Ellsbury cleared from the hip and the planter fascia is now something extra? Yeah. Yeah so it's just really slowed him and in his ability to really break through and get to where he needs to be so he hasn't been able to start the baseball activity stuff when he started working on the alter G and stuff the planter fascia stuff I think really started a rear its head. And you said C.C. is going to be a couple of weeks until his first bullpen. Is that jeopardize at all his spot on the opening day roster? Not necessarily. You know we'll just kind of you know that something we'll kind of revisit in two weeks hopefully when we get them going and then we'll see how he progresses and see how he's bouncing back after his bullpens you know after he's getting out and doing his PFPs if he's bouncing back then there's a realistic chance that he he starts a season with us but I think that'll become more clear over the next two to four weeks. Hey Sweeney keep in mind too that C.C. still has that to serve that suspension. Yeah. The first I think it's five games of the regular season. Yeah.