Article: Alex Meyer Reflects on 2014, Looks Forward to 2015

[Seth Stohs]

Thursday morning, RHP Alex Meyer joined 3B Miguel Sano, OF Eddie Rosario and LHP Jason Wheeler as the Minnesota Twins newest members of their 40-man roster. On Thursday night, he joined the Twins Hangouts podcast to talk about the honor, his 2014 season, subbing in the classroom for Jeremy, and much more. (Download on iTunes)We found out on Thursday morning that the quartet was added to the 40-man roster, but he actually got a call from Terry Ryan about a week earlier. His mom answered the phone at his home in Indiana, and screamed excitedly to Alex, “Hey, Terry Ryan’s on the phone. Get over here. He’s asking for you!”

 

Alex understands that when Mr. Ryan calls, you go to the phone! Ryan told him he was going to be added to the roster. “I was hoping that’s what he was going to tell me. I didn’t know what else it was going to be.”

 

Despite the fact that he was a “given” to be added to the roster, it is a big deal for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, being on the 40-man roster makes it much easier for a player to be promoted to the big leagues. Secondly, even if he were to return to the minor leagues to start the 2015 season, his pay will jump noticeably, though not as much as it will jump when he does get to the big leagues.

 

Although he wasn’t called up in 2014, he was very happy with his season. Meyer said, “It was a good year this year. I had a blast. I was with a great group of guys. Some really good pitchers came through here that I was able to watch. For me, it was a great experience.”

 

He highlighted one of the new Twins coaches as part of the reason he enjoyed his season so much.

 

“Being able to be around Gene Glynn, who obviously was recently promoted to the big league club, was awesome. He’s a guy who, I think we’ll reap benefits from just… I’ve never played for somebody as knowledgeable as he is. He just sees things in a different way than other guys. He’s one of the most intelligent people in life that I’ve been around. I learned a lot from him. I was really fortunate to be able to play for Gene for a full year, and for Marty Mason.”

 

There’s no question where Meyer wants to play in 2015, but he also has a strong grasp on what his situation was in 2014. He did miss two months in 2013 with a shoulder injury.

 

“My goal was like anybody else’s in minor league baseball. You want to get to the big leagues. Obviously that didn’t happen this year which is OK because the Twins were pretty adamant on my making sure I finished the season whole and stayed healthy.”

 

He left his final start after just one inning which concerned a lot of people. However, Meyer isn’t at all concerned about his shoulder.

 

“Yeah, I went out my last start. It was unfortunate, I had a little shoulder tightness and couldn’t get loose that night. That stinks because we were in the middle of a really good playoff push too. You know what, I’ve been able to do everything I wanted to do in the offseason in regards to weightlifting, trying to prepare my body to get ready for next year. Really, that’s the only thing I can judge off of right now. I’m pretty confident. Everything feels good. My strength feels good. I have a peace of mind knowing that I’m going into camp, I’m going to be 100% and ready to go, trying to earn a spot in the rotation.”

 

Some have suggested, including the Twins Daily Offseason Handbook’s blueprint, that maybe Meyer start the season in the Twins bullpen. It is a career path that the Twins chose for the likes of Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano. So what does Meyer think of that possibility?

 

“If I can have half the career that Liriano or Johan Santana had, I don’t think I’ll be too upset about that. In all seriousness, I trust our coaching staff and our front office and what their decisions are. If they want me to go to the bullpen, and they think it would benefit the big league club, then absolutely, I’d be all for it. Like anybody else, my dream is to play in the major league level. They’re better at evaluating that than I am. That’s why they do it. If they think I’d be most successful out of the bullpen, well, there’s a lot of guys who make great careers out of it, I’d have no problem with that at all.”

 

He continued, “We have some good starters coming in, and you never know what the front office is going to do this offseason in regard to that also. So, I’m up for whatever. I just want to do whatever I can to help that team win.”

 

Meyer is fully aware of the Twins history, and he enjoyed watching the team in the last decade. He wants to be part of the group that turns around this stretch of four straight losing seasons.

 

“There’s a lot of guys who have had a lot of success here before, going back to the early 2000s and the mid-2000s. I remember watching them. I’ve never played at the major league level, but I can imagine when you’re on the field with guys like Joe Mauer, who you’ve seen do it all, you can’t help but want to help those guys out, even if that’s coming out of the bullpen. I’d absolutely be all for that.”

 

When asked what traits he would look for in a pitching coach, Meyer provided an interesting insight. Sure, it’s about mechanical and physical things, but it’s much more too.

 

“For me, personally, I think it’s really good to have a guy who’s there for me mentally because not every guy is going to be Clayton Kershaw. Eventually you’re going to go through a streak of three or four or five games where things aren’t going to go well. I had a couple of times like that this year. I went through a stretch there in the season when I couldn’t get through the third inning for three straight games. I was really, really struggling. Marty Mason was there for me, almost laughing, saying ‘This isn’t a big deal. You’re going to get through this. You’re just going through a funk.’”

 

Meyer was asked about several other topics. He talked a bit about what it’s like, from a player’s perspective, to be represented by Scott Boras. He talked more about what he’s doing in the offseason. There were a lot of topics, and Jeremy even asked if he would want to come up to Wisconsin and sub at his school.

 

Asked about his goals for the 2015 season, Meyer said he’s going to just see what happens.

 

“Every year I’ve set goals, and this year I won’t. I want to let them come to me. I don’t want to set any expectations because you never know what can happen. I’m just going to go out there, wherever they send me whether it’s Minnesota, Rochester, or in Cedar Rapids. I just want to go out there and pitch as well as I can, continue to get better as a pitcher, and whenever the big league calls, you want to make sure you’re ready. I just want to go out there and throws as well as I can. I just hope I can help the team sometime during the year whether it’s from Game 1 in April or whenever that time would be. ”

 

Having covered the Twins via blog for the last twelve seasons, I feel safe in saying that Alex Meyer will NOT start the 2015 season in Cedar Rapids.

 

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[Linus]

Sounds like he has an exemplary attitude.  I hope he is in the rotation no later than June.

[Dantes929]

I can imagine liking a rotation of Meyer, Hughes, Gibson, May and Nolasco with Milone in the pen in long relief ready to take over for the weak link.   Just 4 short years we have been conditioned to think 3 or 4 of these guys will fail.   The talent seems to be there now with more in Berrois on the way.  One would think that eventually we should have a rotation that can equal Pavano, Liriano, Baker, Blackburn and Slowey of 2010. 

[Seth Stohs]

And Berrios in 2016... Theyre doing the right things for sure. And having people like Gibson and Meyer and Hughes in the mix certainly helps. 

[by jiminy]

Did he say anything specific about his progress on improving secondary pitches or control? I'd be especially interested in hearing what he had to say about that. No one is concerned about his fastball but if he could improve his other pitches he could really reach another plateau entirely. From what I hear.

[Seth Stohs]

We only had about 15 minutes with him (and still took 20), so we didn't get too in-depth. You can listen to it too, to hear (even if the sound quality wasn't very good) for yourself. 

[laloesch]

Not sure that Meyer, May or Berrios is going to get a real shot at the rotation anytime soon.   With Pelfrey and Milone still on the 40 man i think its highly unlikely any of the before mentioned three breaks the rotation this season to start with.  

 

Nolasco is under contract through at least 2017.  Santana 2018.  Hughes 2016 (they should extend him) and Gibson is not a free agent until 2019.