Everyone here has a right to their own political beliefs and everybody has the right to stand by what they believe in. That's what makes us American.
I love my story. I wouldn't change it. It gives it character. It's never been on a silver spoon.
I had to lower my hands, I had to work my hips a different way. I also had to stride to get the power. I'd always been a standstill hitter and had to generate power from my upper body. Basically, I had to change everything I was doing. It was really difficult.
You can say baseball's fun, you're in the big leagues, you get to come to a Major League field every day - and, yeah, that's great. I love it.
Rodney Linares really stuck his neck out in Greenville to play me, because they had their prospects, guys who they had invested money in.
I busted my butt in '15. Then in '16, I broke my arm running into a wall, so then I got scared of running into walls because I didn't want to get hurt again.
I've been on a bunch of teams in my career.
I want to win championships.
There aren't too many Mookie Betts, Mike Trouts or Bryce Harpers out there to be grabbed. Those players only come around once every 10 years.
Losing is incentivized now. You have 80 percent of the teams trying to lose.
You can't say it's good when guys out there are signing minor league deals and they would be big league players on 80 percent of the teams, but why would a team sign a player when you can pay dirt, and they're not going to win anyway?
I'm a very analytical guy, I like to study my swing, I like to study what my back foot is doing, my elbow, whatever it might be, and there's a lot of guys nowadays that are like that. That's the trend of the game, that's the way the game has gone.
My whole life, I've felt like I've always had to prove myself. It's never been easy, as easy as others who are in my position have had it.
Everyone's path is their own.
I told Pedro this story: I used to wear a freakin' Pedro Martinez jersey because it had 'Martinez' on the back.
I grew up in Miami watching baseball down there, so you could see it from one extreme to the next. It was like, 'Well, this is what baseball is about.'
I love my country. I love this country.
I stand by the Constitution and I stand by the Second Amendment and it's something that I take pride in. It's something that I'll back up.
We're all not going to agree on the same things, but that's what makes this country so great.
I want to be on a team that's got a chance. That's what's fun. That's what you play the game for.
