The Sweet Spot- Rangers Pitcher Nathan Eovaldi

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1:00The NFL Draft, presented by Bud Light, is coming to Pittsburgh. And it's your chance to witness the future of the game for free. From April 23 to April 25, feel the energy of the NFL Draft. See the Vince Lombardi Trophy and Super Bowl rings. Meet NFL players and legends. Enjoy interactive games and live music performances. And be there as the future of the NFL takes center stage. The NFL Draft starts April 23. Register for free entry at NFL.com slash Draft Access today. Surprise Arizona, Texas Ranger Spring Training Camp 2026. Sean Bass, David Mino. And once again, we are joined by a staple of the Ranger starting rotation. It is Nathan of Aldi. How you doing, man? I'm good. I'm good. Thanks for having me. Good to see you again. Appreciate the time today. Obviously, I know you're busy getting ready for a season. But we were at your start on Sunday and five innings. Yeah, I guess you're getting to that point where it's starting to stretch out a little bit. You can sort of sniff opening day and the regular season. Yeah, yeah. I mean, fortunately, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling healthy. So it's like at that point in spring, where it's like,

2:02I just want to kind of bottle everything up and get out of here and get the season going. We can go back to last year for a little bit. Obviously, with the team of a disappointing season now, the rotation, probably the best season the rotation has had in Ranger history. But just the, you know, just as a fan and watching the games every day, there's the frustration seeing there that you guys were so great, but you just couldn't win games. And then at your side, a sub-2 ERA at the All-Star Break and not making the All-Star team, just did you feel a lot of frustrations last season? Yeah, I mean, it's definitely the ups and downs. I think the biggest thing is more so, you know, only when, you know, have the games, you know, when, I don't know, it's one of those tough things to kind of put your mind wrapped around. To me, pitching wins championships, you know, and I felt like we had that last year and we just weren't able to piece it together. I know towards the end of the season there, they were saying some stats saying that we would scored first the most in the big leagues. I think that that was like at 130, 140 games.

3:03And it's like, to me again, it's like, if we score one run, especially when it comes down to the post season, it's like we need to make sure that we win those games, but, you know, it's a collective effort and everything. So, it's just tough. But yeah, I mean, I was feeling really good there. I definitely wanted to get that ERA title, try to bring that one home for us. And unfortunately, the health and everything caught up to me. And I wasn't able to stay out there on the field. And you're in the in the signed young mix also. Was that something that was that was on your mind through the season? Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, it's tough because I missed a, like a month right there towards the beginning of the season or midway through. And, you know, I think that's kind of what caused me not to make the all-star team. I don't really know all the logistics and everything how it goes into play. But definitely frustrating not making the all-star team. And then they're towards the end of the season just getting hurt. But, you know, I feel like a lot of the times as long as I stay healthy, I'm going to be able to accomplish some good things. And that's a, I think, speaking for our entire rotation. We've got a lot of really good arms again coming back this year, who I think we can, we can't repeat what we did last year.

4:04Obviously, losing Mike is going to be big for us, but we've also got, you know, Tiggs coming in who I thought did an outstanding job last year in the bullpen. I felt like his hands were tied in a way and he's able to, he's going to be able to help us out even more, you know, being in that role that he's in now. This is thing with Nathan of Aldi here on the ticket. He bring up Jordan Tiggs and I wanted to ask about him. I know that he's been around you guys for a while now, but as a pitching coach, where does he shine just to let us know? Yes, exactly. Yeah, where he helps you guys along, Lloyd. Yeah, I mean, I think just today, like where the game is now, like with all the trackman and all the information and all the spin rates and, you know, pitch shapes, things like that, he's really good mechanically, he's really good understanding those things, but he can also put together a really good scouting board as well. So spring training is one of those things like where you don't have a ton of information because everybody's so busy and you got a lot of the minorly guys who are playing and everybody also is building up. So I think these these last two weeks are going to be big for us to kind of hit the ground running when the season starts, but I enjoy working with Tiggs. I'm staying with Bushy and then Suggs has been great as well.

5:05So, you know, there's been some turnover, there's been some change and stuff, but for the most part, I'm enjoying everything so far in camp. So first, spring training with Skipschulemacher is manager, and we've had the opportunity to talk to him a couple times now, and just seeing him in the room, seeing him out here, he seems like a real players manager. What's your initial thoughts on Skips? Yeah, I mean, definitely a players manager. He brings a lot of energy, you know what I mean? And, you know, I think that's what we need right now with our organization and stuff. We've got a lot of young guys and it's, you know, they can't get too comfortable. You know, he's definitely keeping them on the edge of their seats, on their toes, and you know, and again, it's the confidence, it's, it's all, everything kind of packed into one, and, you know, I've been enjoying it, but it's, again, it's spring training, right? So it's like, he's a lot of moving parties. You don't get to see each other as much as you would during the regular season, and then when the season starts, it's, I'm excited for it. Nathan, I think it's awesome that last year when you were down, you know, you were still charting for Jack Lider, like you were still like, that locked in as a teammate. And I'm curious, and also this sort of relates to you were on MLB Network with DeGrom

6:08and doing the 30 clubs and 30 days, and you guys were just talking, pitching. And I'm curious because you watch so many bullpins. Is there anybody out here that maybe we're not thinking of that you've seen, and you're like, oh, that pitch looks good, or this guy might be able to take a next step? No, I don't know. I'm not trying to think of the spots. I know I'm trying to think of the guys, and everybody that we still have in camp and stuff, because I mean, we've been, you know, trimming it down as the season starts to get closer, but I mean, we got a lot of guys. We got a lot of guys who are just, I'm excited to see, you know, Lads has been throwing the ball really well. I mean, the season he had for us last year, it's not easy to bounce from being the long man to the short to filling in and start and going deep into games, and he did an outstanding job of that last year, and I'm excited to see, like, what his role is. There are certain guys who they want to be in the bullpen, and there are certain guys who want to be in the rotation, and he's a guy who wants to be in the rotation, and he's been doing so well for us now. But again, it's like he's so versatile with being able to come out in that role. Again, in the bullpen and be able to long man and be able to give the shutdown inings,

7:09which is big for us. Jack's been good. Again, for him, like last year, I feel I always talk to him and try to explain to him, like, I feel he's a younger version of me back in my day, right? So it's like I kind of get to see the struggles that he's having. I do the same thing. He's obviously got an outstanding fastball, and sometimes I feel overused because his off-speed is just as good. And if we can use the off-speed a little bit more, it's going to set up the fastball and he's going to get away with a lot more mistakes. Well, he mixed in the kickchange last year, and I know Kamar is working on his change of right now. As a young pitcher, how do you get over that hump of going? Okay, I trust this pitch when it's live action. Yeah, I mean, the success, right? You have to trust it enough to go out there and throw it, execute it, and then you get some good results on it. Yeah, and all of the times when you do it, you're not going to have as much confidence when you throw it, so when you do go out there and throw it, it may not be the best, but then you get the good results, and then you're like, okay, hey, this is a pretty good pitch. And again, that's where the track man comes into play. You can see the pitch-shaped, you can see the recognition of it,

8:11and his kickchanges similar to my splitter. So it's like, okay, hey. It's a kickchanger, I thought it was splitter, but yeah, we're both on essentially the same pitch, and it's like easy to see the success that I have with my splitter. And again, the confidence and everything starts to build, and I think that was one of the big things last year was him getting in those two O counts, two O counts being able to go online and the change up, the at-bats over with. As opposed to it's, hey, I got to rely on my fastball. I throw three or four more in that at-batt. The at-bats was seven, eight pitch at-batt. You know what I mean? It's just harder for that next time around. But like, we could do a point as a starting pitcher. Like, your splitter, you said, wasn't as sharp as you wanted it to be the other day. But you're still able to get guys out. I guess that's where that leap happens to where like, I don't have my A, A stuff, but you can still, you know how to get dudes out. I guess that's the big secret, right? Yeah, and that's the frustrating part about the other day too, right, is I had to wait six days to go out there and go out there and play. You know, and then I wasn't as crisp and as clean as I wanted it to be, and then the splitter wasn't where I wanted it,

9:11but you know, we found a way to, you know, limit the damage at two runs, and you know, by the third, fourth, fifth inning, I was feeling really good. So I was talking to Tiggs about that as well, and the dugout, it's like, sometimes I waste 40 pitches through two innings, and I'm like, it's driving me crazy, because now I feel like I'm in control, but now you got the bullpen, who's all chomping at the bit ready to go as well. So it's Nathan Abaldi joining us here on the sweet spot at Spring Training, and when we had you on last year, we talked a little bit about the ABS challenge system, and how it was implemented in Spring Training games. Now this year, it's going to be in the regular season. Do you have a strategy for how you're going to use this? Do you, are you going to try to maybe avoid it in the early innings to save it, or is there, has Skip talked to you about this? How do you, do you feel comfortable with this in the regular season now? Sorry. I've been trying to use Spring Training as that gauge to try to find the strike zone. I feel like as a starting pitcher, you can find the strike zone early, and you can recognize the bottom and the top. It's going to benefit you in a lot of ways, but that's one of the things that changes.

10:12Hitter to hitter, the top and the bottom of the strike zone. So I've been playing around trying to just remember the pitches. Like, hey, I felt like that was a strike. Come back into the dugout, and you know, they're questionable. I mean, obviously if it's there, and I've only challenged one, where I'm like, who I'm 100% on that one, that's out in the zone. We got that one right, but it's tough with just two of them. You know what I mean? Like, I want to give it to our hitters, because I want them to have that opportunity to drive them in. Plus, I have a lot of confidence when I'm out there on the mound that I can throw strikes. So we've talked about it a little bit, just trying not to burn it early in the game, or in an early at bat, something like that. Because again, we want to try to save it in a big situation, but I mean, it's still in learning experience, and trying to figure it all out. Is there a conversation with the catcher? Because I could, you know, just watching it on TV, sometimes it's hard to tell just by how good catchers are at frame of the pitches. So do you think that might be something that that Janssen or Higgy might want to challenge before it actually gets to you? Yeah, I mean, it's both, right?

11:14Like, I mean, if the catcher is confident with it, he can go ahead and then same with me. But it's just, it's got to be quick, and they've been working on it with the trackman down in the bullpen. So like, when we're throwing, we've got somebody standing behind them, and they'll be like, hey, good pitch, ball. You know what I mean? And it's like, yep, ball, you know, or if that's at the bottom of the zone, then they can call it, and we're working on it, so. So you are for the ABS challenge system. I mean, it's part of the game, you know what I mean? It's trying to utilize it. I mean, they're going to have it, so you might as well just love it. Yeah, you mentioned your catchers, so you got Higashioka back. Jonah's gone now. He's in Atlanta, and you've got Janssen in. What's, what's it like throwing to him? No, it's been great. You know, I think I've only thrown a Higgy one time this spring. But Danny's been great to work with. Again, it's tough for him. You're coming into a new organization, and you got to learn all these pitchers, and how they want to attack guys, what their strengths are, trying to get them back in the council, when they're, you know, not on. I feel like that's one of the most important jobs as a catcher is just knowing, hey, like what's going to re-lock the pitcher back into the at-bats?

12:16I have the pitch come on, and it's been nice because I'll go to push a button, and then he's already pushing it, and I'm like, hey, nice. Like, so I think that's one of the biggest perks of being able to push the button, is you don't have to wait till the clock. You know, sometimes it's like, hey, like, what are we doing? Like, let's push the button, and we're at six seconds, and now I feel rushed, and then I feel like I don't execute my pitches, as well as I should, but he's been quick with the buttons, he's been quick to get to what I want to throw, and he's been really fun to work with. Nathan Evaldi, joining us, and this is our third season out here at Spring Training, and you've been around the game forever, so you know, it's different faces every year, and I'm not going to lie, it's a little weird not seeing Adoles, and you mentioned Jonah Heim, and Marcus Simeon, it felt like those guys were leaders of this team, like in the clubhouse. Who do you see as obviously yourself, DeGrom? I would, yes, Nemo has probably stepped into that role also. Who do you see as the vocal leaders of this team? Nemo's been good. I mean, even like some of the younger guys, why it's midi,

13:16they've been able to step up, they've been able to help out some of the younger guys, because again, those, all the younger group, they can look up to those guys as well, because they've been able to have that success early in their careers. Higgie's been great, you know, Danny again, has been better, I mean, well, not better, but, you know, I mean, been vocal in the clubhouse and stuff like that. So having a coach, you know, he's only been here for a few days, but a lot of guys have been really gravitating towards him and talking to him. So it's, we've got a good group of guys, you know. Obviously, I feel like there's a lot of changes that usually happen with the season and stuff, but having the coaching staff too, having Jean Kowski back, and... How big of a trip is that? Yeah, your old teammate is the first base go. He's been one of my favorite teammates ever, so it's like having him around the clubhouse, it's always fun having him there and being able to joke around, and, you know, make him make in that transition. He's been a lot, you know, obviously very vocal with everything, but it's been great because he's one of the best. He's been able to do it for a long time. He was playing all the roles. He was, you know, what I mean, base sailing, one of the best outfielders out there, so he's been great for us.

14:16I'm expected to just see him take off and steal second base when he's standing up. I know, right. I love that he's kept the hair. Yeah, like most coaches don't have the flow. I want him to like keep that as he goes forward. We've been given him a hard time, you know. Looks way bigger now than he ever did when he was playing. Last thing for me, and I don't want to, you know, spoil any of these. If you've been told anything about like where you're falling in line, opening day, nothing official yet. I think we're just trying to play it safe. Make sure that we make it through spring training. Health and stay healthy. Just be in one peaceful Nathan. Thank you for the time. Let's do this. Keep doing this every year. Do you like uncrustable? Oh, yeah, yeah. We have a party gift for all of our guests. Yes, for our guests. Little nourishment out here. So, oh, a crust for you. Thank you. There you go. There's Nathan of Aldi. Texas Ranger starting picture with us here on the table.