 Welcome back to Yankees Hot Stove. I'm Meredith Marokovits alongside Zach Britton. Zach, the 2020 season has come and gone. When you look back at 2020, what comes to mind? A lot of a lot of things, basically just the fact that you know kind of shocked that we got through it all. You know, I thought we did a great job as an organization keeping everybody. You know, as safe as we possibly could, but you know, just fortunate to get through the season. Obviously, you know, you're not going to win the World Series, but considering the circumstances, I think overall guys handled it. You know the situation really well. Was it difficult to focus on the baseball side of it with everything else going on around you? Yeah, you know, there was so many things every day that we were trying to accomplish, you know, without even playing the game, so it was difficult every day, especially when we're going through some situations where games were getting canceled because of, you know, positive tests on other things, but it was really hard to get into the context and the starting and stopping for some guys too. I think it was it was really hard for a lot of guys to get into a pretty consistent routine. So, you know, it's difficult and hopefully next year things will go smoother. Can you describe how crazy it was for you as the player rep trying to get things going and then maintain contact throughout the course of the season to keep everything running smoothly? Yeah, I mean I was, you know, constantly on the phone, you know, with the players association or, you know, even Brian Cashman, just, you know, all the information that we were getting, we were trying to relay to each other and just keep things running smoothly. Like I said, I think the Yankees did a great job from top to bottom. You know, obviously how giving us the resources above and beyond of what they had to to keep us, you know, in a good frame of mind, whether it's at the hotel, at the field, things like that. But yeah, a lot of phone away for a little bit. You mentioned getting home. You said towards the end of the season, it was a mental grind for you due to the fact that you weren't able to see your family essentially the entire season. What was it like when you walked in your door and saw your kiddos for the first time in a long time? You know, I thought they're gonna be like excited to see me run to me. I mean, they were excited, right? But they, you know, they're in their own little world right now. For me, though, it was nice to, you know, kind of take a breath a little bit. Good to see my wife and the kids and just being a family again, being around everybody is something that I missed throughout the season. You know, one of the aspects I think you forget during the years, you know, there's obviously ups and downs to the course of a long season. And it's nice to be able to go home and vent to your wife or just to see your kids. And when you don't have that, you know, I found obviously like I had some, I got some good relationships in my teammates, obviously communicating that way and maybe talking to them about some more personal things that you normally wouldn't. But yeah, I miss, I miss that aspect of having the family there when I got home after games. Have there been any discussions amongst your teammates or even with the Players Association as far as what might happen in 2021? No, we haven't had those talks yet. I know. I know we have some union meetings coming up by sometime in December. And you know, I'm not sure if the union and we have talked yet about what next season is going to look like. I think they're still waiting for some things on a national level to kind of get ironed out and and then we'll go from there. But I'm sure we'll have an idea, you know, well before spring training is supposed to start. Do you think it'll be a full season next year? I'm not sure. I would never do everything that we went through. I would never put it, you know, my word or my name to anything at this stage. I have no idea. I'm hopeful that we can play, you know, 162 games of the regular spring training and that the world's back to normal. So, you know, we all can do that. But, you know, I think we're prepared for, you know, any situation, any scenario that comes up at this stage. You just you can never be too certain at this stage in the year. End of October, the Yankees picked up your option. You'll be there from 20 21 season 20 22 season. Was there any doubt in your mind that they were going to exercise that option? Yeah, you know, there definitely was. Yeah, due to, you know, obviously financial situations that teams are in, you know, from what they're saying and, you know, yeah, I didn't know, you know, me and my agent Scott Boris. We really hadn't discussed in great length, like what was we're going to happen if they didn't and what we wanted to do in regards to free agency and things like that. So it was nice to obviously get that call from cash and talk to him about it. And obviously I'm excited to stay in New York for the next two years. And, you know, hopefully winning a championship is the reason why I came here in the first place. So to have two more years to kind of realize that that goal would be nice. You've had success on the mountain since coming to the Yankees. Your sinker last year seemed to drop a little bit more than years past. Did you change something to get that extra drop on the sinker? No, I mean, that's a good observation, though, because through, you know, the analytics and stuff like that, especially the postseason, I had I definitely had increased the movement on my sinker. They say the depth of it. So the way that it's going down. Very similar to some of the years, the really good years I had in Baltimore. There was actually a couple of things, you know, talking with, you know, Brett McCabe, who we brought over obviously this year Eric Cressy, Matt Blake, you know, Mike Hartley, just talking to them about something with my stride that I felt like was getting more natural. You know, obviously I had that Achilles injury a few years ago, but you lose some type of fuel in your delivery when that happens to you go through a surgery like that. And I was able to find something that was familiar in my delivery in my stride, kind of shortening my stride, I guess it was the best way to describe it. Shortening my stride back to the length that it was in Baltimore allowed me to get on top of the ball and pull down a little bit more on my sinker, which caused, you know, a good amount of like increase and drop that I had before that maybe I had lost a little bit. So that's good. Going into next year, you know, that I I know what that feels like now and I'm able to, you know, watch video and get the data to support it, which is which is nice, too.