 I have to imagine you have been extremely busy since this lockout ended. How crazy have things been for you? As chaotic as you could expect heading into an office or a spring training after about a hundred days locked out from talking to your guys But all things considered it's back normal now, which is good to see typically you're connecting with players You're seeing video. You know where they are at. So how quickly can you evaluate where these guys are at? The nice thing is we've got a lot of returners So we kind of have a set expectations for a lot of these guys coming to spring training So I think we've got a baseline that we're kind of trying to meet and I think we feel like we're in a good spot overall Which is encouraging take me through it lockout ends. Are you immediately firing off texts? Yeah, we kind of got the word about seven o'clock that it was over and we send out a mass text like we're gonna get to All of you we just got to figure out, you know split these calls up and just basically don't have a lot of time To chat about how your off-season was where are you? What are you been doing? When are you gonna get to Tampa? Exciting moment when you think about the rotation yesterday, Luis Severino appears to be healthy He threw in a live VP session yesterday. What did you think of that? I thought it was encouraging, you know Just given where Sevilla's been at the last couple years to see how he did on his own this off-season in Tampa coming in ready to Go and you know bounce back well today So I think we're in a good spot with him with him considering the fact that he really hasn't pitched in two years What do you do as far as managing him and making sure that he's not? Over-exerting himself throwing too many innings back. Yeah, I think it'll be similar to how we managed a lot of the guys last year where we're gonna be Cautious in the onset, you know just making sure we're hitting all our benchmarks making sure he's recovering and then not gonna put a Necessarily number on him for say for the year But I think just making sure as each outing goes we're taking the inventory as he comes out and you know What's the objective information look like and you know nice things we got a lot of depth this year So you know not necessarily put the onus on him to cover, you know 200-plus innings if it doesn't mean, you know, he's not in that physical spot Could you see him maybe towards the end of the year being in the bullpen? Or is it something that you'll give him starts off throughout the course of the year? Yeah I think it'd be a combination of things where we're managing innings managing pitch counts managing days off and you know Just kind of seeing where we're at But you know, it's hard to say exactly what we would do at the end James and Tyone through today He's coming off that ankle surgery. How did he look to you? I look great I thought you know just given you know where he's been this off-season recovering with the ankle and then you know I would say on schedule You're just given that we're a little bit behind with the spring training and he's probably a touch ahead But you know, the Velo was good today 9194 and just given that you know and the shapes were good. I think we feel really good about that He almost seemed a little bit surprised with how many innings he was able to give you guys last year What would you like to see him do this season and taking a step forward? Yeah, I think just taking a full workload for him and I think you know just for him in particular It's you know bouncing back from the starts giving us the five six seven innings every time out and just see where we end up at The end of the year and I think less less concerned about you know What it's gonna look like given how he performed last year and stayed healthy till the end pretty much Do you worry at all about Garrett Kohler? Do you just expect that he is going to be ready to go. He knows what to do to take care of his body I don't worry about Garrett, but still give him, you know Respect in that he needs feedback and he wants to be coached just like anybody else You know just taking inventory and where he's at what he's been working on how he feels and I think overall like he's He's hitting his benchmarks as well, which is encouraging Jordan Montgomery seems as though he came in to camp a little bit slimmer What did he do in the offseason to achieve that and how do you think that could benefit him on the mound? Yeah, I think he just took his program serious and he's got a couple years under his belt now of the the programs that are in place here and Start of the year offseason in Chicago felt like it was a little bit too cold form and went back to his home in South Carolina and got a quality workload in both strength training wise the conditioning and also throwing I think he's obviously in a great spot. Nester Cortez played a major role for this team last year How do you see him fitting in this year? Kind of picking up where he left off I think for us it's looking at him as a starter until he's not and you know Just seeing how the other the spots shake out and the nice thing is he's versatile and he can come out of the Pen he can be a long guy you can match up with lefties He can start so there's a lot of ways to utilize Nester skills You have a lot of guys that are that are pretty versatile versatile Clark Schmidt Michael King Do you see them being in the fold this year? Yeah I think it'll probably depend a little bit on how the roster construction is to start the year with how many spots we have and you know Whether they're starters or coming out of the pen and piggyback and I think the nice thing is we've got some looks on those guys The last couple years so we kind of know what they are and both those guys that come into camp in great shape And I think the nice thing is we have some starting depth, but also they're they're comfortable You know pitching on a piggyback if needed So I think that the versatility will be big for us Dave Garcia struggled a little bit last year seemed like he maybe took a step backwards. What have you seen from him so far this spring? I know it's only been a couple days but I think looking like the the Davey of 2020 a little bit more so and we've just seen one bullpen so far But delivery looks like it's a better place the fastball life looks like it's coming back And I think he's you know less less concerned about what's happening over the rubber where he was last year and focus more on What's happening at the plate and I think that's a great spot for him to be in mentally Louise Hill got called up It didn't seem like necessarily that was in the plans But the circumstances dictated that you needed somebody What would you like to see him do to continue to improve? Yeah, I think it's I was a nice taste for him Both from a success standpoint and from a development standpoint of just seeing how his fastball plays in the zone And he should be aggressive with that and just work on you know pitch efficiency You know just to be an aggressive in the zone and attacking with his fastball and slider and Basically continue develop that change up along the way What are you most looking forward to this season a little normalcy maybe almost you would go a long way You know I think it's nice to have you know the media and the fans back in spring training So that kind of brings us back to pre 2020 pandemic times a little bit So I think the buzz is good around here and you know the energy of getting everybody back together after a long off season of No contact, so I think we're in a good spot. I just want to stay healthy and get out of the gates Well, wow you miss the media. We don't hear that very often We're gonna we're gonna keep that forever and remind you later in the season Matt, thanks for the time. No problem. Thank you