Speaker 1: We're joined right now by mister October of the bullpen,
Speaker 1: or one of them, one of the dogs of that
Speaker 1: Dodger bullpen, and that is the lefty himself, Alex Vessia.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot for the time. Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I mean, mister October, I don't.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've seen you pitch in October Vessia.
Speaker 2: That's a heck of a intro.
Speaker 1: Thank you as to what that's what I believe. If
Speaker 1: I didn't believe it, I wouldn't say it.
Speaker 2: All right, all right, I appreciate that. What questions do
Speaker 2: you have in store for us today?
Speaker 1: Well, let's start out with your personal life. You've been
Speaker 1: on social media announcing that you and your wife are
Speaker 1: expecting a brand new Vessia, your first Vessia addition to
Speaker 1: the family. How exciting is that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, super exciting. We've had a secret for a
Speaker 2: little while and uh a few teammates have known and
Speaker 2: then helped me my best friend and whatnot. And then
Speaker 2: we announced it to my parents and case parents on
Speaker 2: opening day, and man, I was just super special, you know,
Speaker 2: for for myself and for k it's both, you know,
Speaker 2: the first grand baby of our family. So that that
Speaker 2: was very very special. And yeah, man, it's been very,
Speaker 2: very exciting. And we will know gender and everything like
Speaker 2: that on the twenty fourth, so basically like ten ish
Speaker 2: days and then yeah, after that, we just well we'll
Speaker 2: keep knocking off days and this baby's gonna gonna grow,
Speaker 2: so it's gonna be fun. Man, I'm very excited.
Speaker 1: How does that just change your perspective on what you
Speaker 1: do in baseball?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that, you know, and I you know,
Speaker 2: obviously providing for my family and whatnot is is a huge,
Speaker 2: you know, objective goal however you want to explain it.
Speaker 2: But now you have you know, you have one more
Speaker 2: thing to play for, you know, And I think that that,
Speaker 2: you know, when I get to hold him or her
Speaker 2: and you know, my for the first time, it's gonna
Speaker 2: be very special. And yeah, it's definitely I got a
Speaker 2: lot to play for.
Speaker 1: Alex Vesia is our guest. We're off and running in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. Alex and the Dodger bullpen again has
Speaker 1: been a big part of what the Dodgers are doing
Speaker 1: right now. What's the vibe down there with this new
Speaker 1: group of guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean our new additions have been picking us
Speaker 2: up big time lately, it's it's been nice, you know,
Speaker 2: having been and Jack and even Garcia, Right, we just
Speaker 2: them three alone and have done really great. And you
Speaker 2: know they they learn and adapt every day, and you know,
Speaker 2: I try my best to make sure it's loose and
Speaker 2: fun down there. And yeah, we've we've been having a
Speaker 2: good time. It's nice to be back in La have
Speaker 2: some nice weather. The road trip was was kind of tough,
Speaker 2: but yeah, you know it's at the end of the day, Yeah,
Speaker 2: we're ready to go.
Speaker 1: When people ask about what's wrong with the Dodgers and
Speaker 1: you look at your record, it's pretty good. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like you guys have set the bars so high
Speaker 1: for yourselves that to a certain extent people are spoiled.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm not too sure. Obviously, that's a that's
Speaker 2: a tough question. But at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: our job is to go out there and do the
Speaker 2: best we can and to win that day. Right, And
Speaker 2: it's one hundred and sixty two games. We're not gonna
Speaker 2: win them all, yeah, but we want to win every
Speaker 2: single game. You know that that's at stake, So taking
Speaker 2: it one day at a time, right, and you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's very early in the year, and you know,
Speaker 2: we're gonna have ups and downs. We're gonna you know,
Speaker 2: even when you look back to last year. Last year,
Speaker 2: a lot of people have had a lot of opinions,
Speaker 2: and our season turned out pretty darn good, right, So
Speaker 2: you know, take it one day at a time, right,
Speaker 2: and not to to not get too far ahead of ourselves.
Speaker 2: And you know, we we do have a really good
Speaker 2: group of guys here with you know, our our leaders
Speaker 2: and the guys that are out in front. You know,
Speaker 2: we have full faith in them. They have full faith
Speaker 2: in us, right, And that's what I think makes this
Speaker 2: team so special.
Speaker 1: You're not a young buck anymore, ves, Yeah, you've been
Speaker 1: here for a while. Do you feel like you're starting
Speaker 1: to evolve into that leadership role to go along with
Speaker 1: what you've learned from past veterans and current veterans like
Speaker 1: Blake Trining?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean it's every year there's new challenges, right,
Speaker 2: There's there's different you know, not every year is the same.
Speaker 2: I think, you know, the adversity that I've faced over
Speaker 2: the last five years, it's you know, it's definitely helped me, right,
Speaker 2: and it's also helped me teach guys like Ben and
Speaker 2: Jack you know, just how to how to be a
Speaker 2: big leaguer and you know, and what might work for
Speaker 2: me might not work for them, right, But we do
Speaker 2: have a very good communication down there to where we're
Speaker 2: able to bounce ideas and topics just anything off of
Speaker 2: each other. And you know, with with that open and honesty,
Speaker 2: knowing that like everything that I say is is in
Speaker 2: good spirits, you know, and I think that that's that
Speaker 2: goes a long way. And yeah, man, you know, every
Speaker 2: every year it's you know, it's a new opportunity to uh,
Speaker 2: to go out there win World Series.
Speaker 1: I hate to bring it back to last year, but
Speaker 1: when you when the Cubs were in town, you guys
Speaker 1: went over to give Ryan Brazier his rink as a bullpen.
Speaker 1: What was that like? What was that moment like to
Speaker 1: see his reaction?
Speaker 2: Yeah, very special. We wanted to do that, you know,
Speaker 2: because he was a very big part of our bullpen
Speaker 2: and you know, we we do miss him. Man. He
Speaker 2: was a great, great addition to our bullpen and you know,
Speaker 2: he he deserved all the recognition and whatnot, so it
Speaker 2: was great to present that to him. I don't I
Speaker 2: don't really I didn't really know if he knew that
Speaker 2: that's what we were gonna do, but you know, to
Speaker 2: we did play a little prank on him where we
Speaker 2: had a calf sleeve in the ring box so when
Speaker 2: he opened it, he was expecting a ring and there
Speaker 2: was a calf sleeve in there, and then Blake had
Speaker 2: the ring in his pocket. So you know, it's all fun, man.
Speaker 2: I mean, we we have such a good culture here
Speaker 2: and you know it's for Brazier, I know it's very
Speaker 2: special for him.
Speaker 1: Hey, you're part of that culture of Vesia. You've been
Speaker 1: part of this for the last five years and certainly
Speaker 1: a big part of the Dodger bullpen. Always great to
Speaker 1: catch up with you, and congratulations on the upcoming addition
Speaker 1: to your family, and we'll catch up with you soon.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, thank you. I appreciate it. And let's go
Speaker 2: get one today.
Speaker 1: Let's get one today.