On the first day of September in 2014, the Kansas City Royals called up a pitching prospect named Brandon Finnegan. Only a few months earlier, they had selected him in the first round out of Texas Christian University. He was a hard-throwing lefty, the sort of arm the bullpen needed as the Royals attempted to return to the postseason for the first time in 29 years.I was the Royals beat writer for The Kansas City Star at the time. So I asked manager Ned Yost the question on the minds of most Royals fans that afternoon: How did he plan to use Finnegan?
“Match him up,” Yost said.
He stared at me. We were sitting in his office, with a couple other reporters, a courtesy Yost extended to the traveling beat writers before every game. His answers could often be cryptic or clipped or flippant, but this one was just confusing.
What, I followed up, did that exactly mean?
Yost leaned forward in his chair. He knew the answer. He would gauge the rookie’s mettle in low-leverage situations and go from there. But Yost saw little reason to explain that to me. He always knew more than he let on.
“How the fuck,” he said, “do I know how I’m going to use Finnegan?”
― mookieproof, Monday, 23 September 2019 20:56 (four years ago) link