 Welcome back to Yankees half stove. I'm Meredith Marokovits alongside Mike Ford. Mike back in Tampa. Have you been training at the facility already or are you waiting to get back to Steinbrenner field. Yeah. We've been there doing our thing. Honestly since probably November. So it's been really nice. They've had it open obviously with with all the challenges this year. It's kind of nice to have that place to go into and and just kind of work out not worry about much and just kind of be around all the guys that are here and get to be able to do that's pretty nice. So moving down here was was an easy choice because of everything that you guys went through last year. Are you essentially just used to all the protocols and the new way of doing business. Yeah. I think I think that we all kind of got pretty used to him last year. Obviously we've had some more sports start back up in basketball and football. You know obviously getting through their season. So it might be one of those things that sticks around for a little bit. But you know I think we're on the upswing with the vaccine here and see how long it takes to get out. But hopefully we get back tomorrow. We're pretty soon. How many guys are working out at the facility right now. And what does a typical day look like for you when you go there. So right now. Luke goes in every day. It's kind of dependent on the day. But we probably have anywhere from four to seven guys in the complex at any time. And you know it's great to have the training staff there strengths that staff there. So I usually get in there around 10 o'clock. Just started hitting again in January. So that adds about 30 minutes to the day. But you know for me it's a you know with it with just getting in shape and everything. I got to do a lot of cardio to get in shape. So it's about an hour on the stair master every day for me. Nice long lift of about an hour. And then you know we just you know go hit hit after that or before depending on when the coaches can be there. From a baseball perspective. Anything in particular you're working on this off season. Yeah. I mean obviously you know I didn't have the greatest year with the bet. That's where my confidence lies. And that's that's what I got to get got to get back to doing. Just kind of getting back to the 2019 form that I had and and just that confidence and build you know this year was very very strange with the stop and the start. Even in spring training and you know there's no excuse to it and and I'm not trying to make one but just to get back to being confident again in the box and and key in on those little things that I was doing in in the night in 2019 video and not doing it. Did you identify something in the video mechanical that you need to change or is it simply because of the lack of reps and crazy season that you just couldn't get in that rhythm. Well I think there's definitely a component that I found within the video. You know I have very small triggers throughout my swing that that allow my body to work the way I wanted to work throughout a swing and in some situations I wasn't getting into those trigger points. I wasn't getting fully you know into my load. It was was one of them with my hands. So just small things like that. But also you know as a guy that kind of is fighting for a position all the time. You look up and you're you're five four you know 35 and oh man we're halfway through the year. I got to really get going. Just very small sample sizes the whole year and I think you know guys that started slow it was tough to tough to get out of those holes and it's just kind of one of those things. You talked about fighting for a position. Where do you see yourself fitting in in 2021. Yeah I mean just just like I said you know I've said in the past I'm a very confident player. I know I can contribute on this team still I know I can help us win games. Obviously we got a lot of talented players which is great for us obviously and you know Luke really really did his job last year. I mean led the major leagues and home runs. You can't really get much better than that. But for me you know it was never really competing in that job. You know I love the position I'm in a bench bat that can come off fill in when you guys need days off and shit. You know we love consistent bats but anything that I can do to help the team I'm willing to do. You were lucky enough to get opportunities and really earn opportunities in 2019 and 2020. But does any part of you wonder what's going to happen from a minor league perspective. Having missed an entire season for those guys last year. Yeah I think it's I think it's something that's probably not being talked about that much. But you know you have you have a lot of younger guys and organizations that have completely lost a year of You know development just getting used to a schedule from you know especially for a high school player to get used to just playing at night playing 140 games in 150 days. It's very different. Bus rides you have to do certain things off the field that you're not very used to. So I think that's probably one thing that they're not talking about a lot. It's just kind of the situation that happened and that was the best case you know just Lucky enough that I had made it to the big leagues where I wasn't really affected by it other than you know going to the alternate side for a little bit. But It's definitely a tough road. I've had a lot of friends that play in the minor leagues for a long time with me. Obviously you know I took a little bit longer to get up there than most people. So Yes it's definitely crazy to watch and It's sad because you see some people that you know that you know could probably do it at the next level. But it's kind of just one of those things that was just terrible time. Now I can't help but notice it seems as though you're hanging out with somebody in the background back there. Yeah. He's on the floor. Back there. Yeah. He's my he's my dog. He's he's the best two years old now. Golden. He's like 85 pounds. So he's huge. But Got this shirt. You know it's a it's a solid shirt. I'm big big golden father I guess now. But yeah he's he's great and keeps me company down here with without much family down here. So I like it. Mike as always thank you so much for the time I've been going. Thanks.