Jesse Chavez breaking the news on FT that he’s retiring: most memorable matchups & what’s next?

00:00:03
Speaker 1: Major League VET pitcher Jesse Chavez joining us on FT right now. Jesse, great to have you on the show here for the first time. Todd five, boy, we had been hearing about Jesse for a long time. One of the best teammates in the sport. And remember Todd the other day, We're like, how have we not had Jesse on yet?

00:00:21
Speaker 2: Appreciate it for having me, guys, Yeah, thank you. Just try to instill it all the older guys did before me.

00:00:27
Speaker 3: That's all.

00:00:28
Speaker 1: It's been incredible to follow. So and and then let's get to you know, how this season has gone. Obviously, you know, just the other day outrighted by the Braves elected free agency. What's next for you?

00:00:41
Speaker 3: Uh all?

00:00:43
Speaker 2: Honesty, I haven't picked up a baseball since my last pitch in Saint Louis.

00:00:49
Speaker 3: As of now, I don't think we're gonna keep going.

00:00:51
Speaker 2: I think this is it time to turn the page, focus on the next chapter in life and go help all the young kids all the stuff that I did so they don't have to take two steps back becuse they can take those three steps forward.

00:01:02
Speaker 4: Well, you've that's incredible for you to come on here and basically, you know, say you're retirement. And I'm not going to say you're fully retired because all of a sudden somebody might give you a call for an injury. But again, you know, your career has been absolutely spectacular. Every time I look, I'm like, how's my boy still playing here? How the heck is he doing it? Because guess what, one determination too pure athleticism as a pitcher, and you're a healthy man. You're healthy as can be, and you threw strikes and you got after vibe. I appreciate everything you've done for me, even though we played for a little bit in Texas. We had such a good time being with the boys. And I'm going to say, not congratulations. If this is the end, well deserved ride off in the sunset and your new cars, those old school cars you've got, and just skate yourself away baby in California. Let's go.

00:01:52
Speaker 3: Thank you. I appreciate it, man. That means a lot.

00:01:54
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, this has been a great ride, you know, way more than I expected to from a forty sixon round draft pick. You know, the thing was is I was giving a gift early on. I understood it, but it was how am I going to make it last? How can I keep it going for this long? And I always said, I don't want to go out the way I came in, being able to roll out of bed and throw baseball.

00:02:15
Speaker 3: And fortunately I'm still able to do that.

00:02:18
Speaker 2: And like I said, I had a conversation with my college coach. He's one of the biggest mentors in my life. Then you go to the background of my family, you know, my wife and kids being there the entire time from day one, you know, and then allowing me to go through this being a knucklehead and just being stubborn with this, you know, trying to get what we wanted to get accomplished, you know, to where we're at today. And then the people that I came across, you guys you tune the booth, you know, those conversations we had, the talks, you know, watching you guys go about your business as professionals, the guys I had my first year in pro ball, all the way up through till my last day, you know, all the conversations we had. I still took that and tried to learn. And you know, this game's still about adapting, right, So I felt like I went from you know, throwing ninety one ninety two when I came into throwing on a hundred and then now throwing, you know, eighty nine ninety, so I knew how to.

00:03:08
Speaker 3: I always understood how to.

00:03:10
Speaker 2: You know, if I wanted to stick around, you had to make make moves, make adjustments, whether it was you know, moving on the rubber, throwing a different pitch, coming into one, you know, banging one so it doesn't work because it doesn't work anymore.

00:03:24
Speaker 3: You know.

00:03:24
Speaker 2: It was all about that and the conversations I had early on. You know, I think that's all the boys are down to you, all right.

00:03:30
Speaker 5: I want to go early on. First of all, anytime I can shout out like a two thousand and two draft pick, that is the you know, I'm always going to shout those out because we're part of that. Now. You got picked much later than me, so it must have been that I was a much better player because picked in the twenty ninth round. They waited for you in the forty second round. So that's that's where it's at. But we ran across. We never actually got to play together. We were in spring training together in two thousand and nine. And the story, because I've had this story on deck forever. The story is when we got our meal money, we went out. Do you remember how you got Ryan Domits? Who else did you get Sean Burnett's? And I forget who else is meal money? Do you remember we were all out hanging out and we just got the meal money envelopes We used to get that meal money envelope and Todd remembers it was like one thousand, twelve hundred dollars of cash. Do you remember how you got all their meal money one night?

00:04:27
Speaker 3: No?

00:04:28
Speaker 5: Okay, they said Domit. Domitt was the one that came up with it. Domitt said, Jesse said, would you ever lick a urinal cookie for all of our meal money?

00:04:42
Speaker 3: No? That that no, no, no, no, that that was that was Sean. That was Sean, not me.

00:04:47
Speaker 5: So then you lost it, so that you lost the money. So you so you gave your meal money away? Okay? I love I love that. I can't like that's the lot of stuff, like hanging out with the guys afterwards, and like, are you gonna miss that now that you're now that you're done.

00:05:06
Speaker 2: Ski, Yeah, I would say that's probably the biggest part. You know, what we do on the field is what we're expected of but being able to hang out outside, talk about life, talk about family stuff, how the kids are, how's the wife doing, how's everything going off of the field.

00:05:22
Speaker 3: So that way, you know, we know when.

00:05:24
Speaker 2: We show up when something's going off on the field, we don't look the right way, we have an empty face or we you know, we snap a little bit more when we're going in a conversation or the til might not be differently. But being able to understand that and leave the stuff at the field and the stuff away from the field, which is the family stuff, but mesh them both to where we can get our job done at the same time. It's huge, but you know, so that's how I look at it.

00:05:49
Speaker 5: Which time that you signed with the Braves is most meaningful to you? Obviously this year you got to sign back. It's your last uniform you' put on. You want a World Series after I think signing a mind the contract if I remember right, which yes, there is there one time that you'll be like, wow, I remember that because the kids remembered it, the wife remembered it, you know, or this happened.

00:06:11
Speaker 3: Twenty twenty one because it was only offer I had.

00:06:15
Speaker 2: That that one was the only offer I had after being first opening day I was at home from any affiliate or in affiliated baseball, so to speak, first time I was ever at home and they were the only time that the only one that offered. And you know, I felt I wasn't done. I felt the way I ended spring training that year with the Angels wasn't right.

00:06:36
Speaker 3: Rolled my ankle and had a subscap thing going on.

00:06:39
Speaker 2: But other than that, I rolled out of bed one day and went up top on the basketball court throw baseball and I felt good. I was like, all right, let's give it another try, sent some numbers out and they were the only team that called, and it was a blessing in disguise.

00:06:54
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00:07:04
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00:07:05
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00:07:06
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00:07:24
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00:07:54
Speaker 4: I'm gonna go back to this retirement thing we talked about. What is like what told you time to hang up? Was family?

00:08:00
Speaker 5: Was it? You know?

00:08:01
Speaker 4: Just been playing for too long?

00:08:03
Speaker 2: Now?

00:08:03
Speaker 4: You know, I want to be home. And my last question, if you did get the call, you know, in next week or so, are you gonna say no? You know what I mean? There's questions you got to talk to yourself about.

00:08:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I mean if it would be a big league job, yes, I think it's the way the upbringing is in minor league systems. Watching it from afar, it's not about development anymore. It's about you know, who's the hot hand and let's see what happens. And then I feel like some kids when they get to triple A now watching them from on the on both sides, it's like they think they're the biggies when they're triple A because they're right there, and that ain't it. It's not the way it's supposed to be, you know. And I I'm not gonna unless I'm a coach. It's the only way I'm gonna deal with it. Okay, I got you know, we all got stuff we want to get accomplished, and that's getting back to the big leagues.

00:08:48
Speaker 3: When we're in triple A, you know, and then the big leagues.

00:08:50
Speaker 2: You know, you see the same thing if on other sides and both sides of it, you know, you want to be on that side of the coaching side and instill that little Hey, come on, now, there's one hundred and sixty two. I know it's tough, but you know, being able to when you see the end, which is holding up that trophy, it's a little different.

00:09:06
Speaker 5: What's the what's the difference in the players that you've seen since the beginning of when you got called up to the big leagues in eight I think was your first year. Two the guys that are getting called up this year in twenty twenty five.

00:09:22
Speaker 3: I don't know.

00:09:22
Speaker 2: It's just such a quick turnaround, real quick with them, and they're the process and some of them take it and understand what it's like to be a professional and some did.

00:09:32
Speaker 3: You just see it differently, I feel, and I you know, you see, I was one of them too at some point I assume where it was.

00:09:44
Speaker 2: You know, you gotta slap yourself and look in the mirror a little bit and be like, okay, wait a minute, let's hold off a little bit. But I feel now it's more about what we're all seeing on the end of it, the paycheck.

00:10:01
Speaker 3: And not the longevity.

00:10:06
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, I mean, give us more on that. Because you've been through obviously a long period of time in this game. How do you actually see that from the preparation, from the info. Do you feel like it's something that's growing from you know, high school and college and all of that, or is it a lot of Hey, you get to a certain team, they're trying to maximize the arm. The player obviously wants to get the most out of the arm, but then that leads to a higher injury risk. You know, what else have you seen specifically that you think has changed, Like, do you have any examples where you're like, hey, nowadays, this is what we're all doing and this is what's leading to this problem.

00:10:48
Speaker 2: My only thing I see differently is the way the training is how me and I talked to the strength coaches all the time, so I'm always in there. And it was about them communicating with their off season coaches how it was and how it was like before. If you had an off season coach or facility you went to to train, they were in contact throughout the season as well. I mean, call me if I'm wrong, right, Frage Katsy, If you guys went to one of those, they had contact just to understand where you were coming from.

00:11:19
Speaker 3: And I feel like that's kind of a lost art in a way.

00:11:24
Speaker 5: Why do you think that is? I mean, I know teams want to keep guys healthy, Yeah, I do think it. Do you think it's an ego? Do you think it's a front office saying no, we got to leave these guys alone. Where do you think it is? Because you said it's about money, Well, if it's about money, the only way you can most guys can make money is by longevity and staying around, So you better figure it out.

00:11:46
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, And I feel I don't know what happened with that.

00:11:52
Speaker 2: Because before, I mean, now there's other there's everybody's getting involved now and it's fine.

00:11:58
Speaker 3: You have you have drive Line.

00:11:59
Speaker 2: Now on baseball you have Maven and Baseball, and that's great. There's other facilities that are in it, but they're.

00:12:05
Speaker 3: In contact with the teams.

00:12:06
Speaker 2: But if a guy goes to a private place and they're not in contact and then he gets hurt, then what do you do to an off season? I don't like that the player being questioned about that doesn't make sense because they're trying their hardest to get prepared for one hundred and sixty two.

00:12:19
Speaker 4: No doubt about it. That's that's a long way. Hey, listen, we all know, and it's more than one hundred and sixty two. It's another month, month and a half at spring training. It's not for everybody, as we know. But my question to you, you kind of inklinked this a little bit ago, would you end up being a coach if the opportunity came to as well. Are you some guy that's gonna want to do something like that in a couple of years, maybe next year, a year, whatever.

00:12:43
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would love to. I'd love to help these guys out.

00:12:46
Speaker 2: You know, I feel like I was given a lot more than I should have and to go back and give it, give it back for however long I can. I mean, I think that would be great conversations I can have with them, you know, just on the field about how off the field preparation can can take over and it make it a lot easier once you step between those lines, you know, the philosophical talking, you know, easing them through it, understanding who they are as a person, so that way, now when they get on the mound, they're that person and not trying to be somebody that they're not or trying to be.

00:13:19
Speaker 5: I should say, Yeah, you might be the most valuable hire that anybody in any organization has if you can get that through to front offices. I don't know if it's even players, because players are like, well, the front office said, if I'm not throwing ninety seven every pitch that they're going to send me down and you're like, actually, here's what you actually need to do. You just need to get out. When you're in a big leagues, you need to get out. So if you anyway, if any organizations are listening to FT, Jesse Chavez is now willing to sign a one point five million dollars coaching contract per year and he will get your boys a eighteen season career, every one of them. But that that doesn't seem to be a value to teams.

00:14:00
Speaker 3: I guess I would love to help out and do that would be great.

00:14:05
Speaker 2: I mean, they're just a lot of things that I can I think I can help them out with from the mental side of it, just being able to being in every situation, being a swing man, throwing in highlighted situations and throwing the worst situations you can being down nine, which is you know, highlights of situation.

00:14:21
Speaker 3: So you know, a position player doesn't have to come in and pitch facts.

00:14:25
Speaker 5: Now in retirement, you get a lot better at things. You you don't ever have to deal with arms hurting. I don't ever have to deal with Jason a slider in the dirt. So one of the other reasons I'm glad you were on is because we get to show my one at bat that I got against you and when I went deep Sauce, I mean, I mean, I mean it's so far back that it's it's unbelievable throw a win. The wind was the wind was blown out and regularly that. But we're not even gonna really talk about that.

00:15:02
Speaker 4: You're having a perfect spot too, Yeah.

00:15:05
Speaker 5: Over the fence, that's the perfect spot. But when you face Todd, you're one for seven off of Jess Was.

00:15:16
Speaker 4: Stuff was moving everywhere, but I couldn't everywhere.

00:15:22
Speaker 5: Is there one at bat? Is there one at bat from your career that you look back on and you go that isn't memorable at bat or that is like a game changing at bat. I remember, I used to have a theory that if I hit a home run off a guy, they were either getting released, sent down to the minors, or not. So you stuck around. So I want you to make sure you know that. But is there one for you where you're like, dude, I just battled I don't know, Albert Poolholes, Mickey Cabrera, like something where you're like I belong in the big leagues, or that meant that at bat will always I'll always remember this pitch.

00:16:03
Speaker 3: You know, there's two that makes okay, there's two, they're two tied.

00:16:08
Speaker 2: It was the second out in the what was it the twelfth inning in Oakland when we played eighteen innings against Yankees.

00:16:20
Speaker 3: To finish that ending.

00:16:21
Speaker 2: When I came in with second and third and went out to finish that inning, my mind was like, okay, shoulders can drop. Now you are, you're reinvented. Now you're this is who you are, now who I'm. What I throw now, it's what I throw then through then and I was like, okay, now you can go with it.

00:16:38
Speaker 3: Now, let's run with it.

00:16:39
Speaker 2: And then the other one was was Mickey the one when he broke my leg, because that proved to me that you know, no matter how long you've been around, he still can't throw four the same pitches to a Hall of Famer wouldn't make sense, you know. So I think that those two kind of stood out to me that I was like, all right, back to being a bigger game. I mean, the first pitch of my career in the big leagues. I mean, you're numb to the fact. You don't really remember that one. You know, you just know you were there, so that one kind of really didn't officially say I was a big leader because you don't know how long it's gonna last, but I would say those ones kind of solidified it for me.

00:17:17
Speaker 1: Hey, you had a special relationship with the Braves, and Braves fans obviously had you know, multiple stops there. So what was it like. I mean, you're fresh off the field right now announcing your retirement, So what was it like this year with Atlanta? Obviously I know that didn't go as well on the field for the team, but just take us inside what it was like to be part of the org this year?

00:17:39
Speaker 3: Oh, from day one it was great.

00:17:42
Speaker 2: I mean back you could go back to twenty ten until now. It's all being open arms. Anybody that comes in, you're welcomed.

00:17:50
Speaker 3: You're part of the crew.

00:17:51
Speaker 2: Whether you're you've got making your debut or you've got fifteen years in, You're welcome no matter what statue you are as far as what you've done in the game.

00:18:01
Speaker 3: And that's the best part about it.

00:18:02
Speaker 2: That makes it easier for you to show up every day, show up with a smile, and go out and do your business. And that's you know, that's a testament to the organization and up top to being able to do that year and year out and put that type of lineup and that type of roster together to where they all feed together.

00:18:17
Speaker 3: They all feed off of one another.

00:18:19
Speaker 2: The conversations that they have, aren't afraid to have because that's what you're going to have to have in order to be successful. The tough ones. Never a questioning conversation. It's always a meaningful and a moving forward conversation. So that's something that we all leave at the door, which is our ego and understanding what we want to get accomplished today is when we step out into that dugout up those stairs, there's one thing, and that's get a w for that night, and you know, do our best to be able to contribute to you know, what we wanted to do in twenty one year and you're out. And that's awesome for Alex to do that for us and the coaching staff, the training staff, you know. And fortunate part about us this year was we got hit by the injury bug. And in a year where you're going in, you're looking at it like, man, it seems like another special year, you know. But sometimes our motto was we always thought we could thrive in adversity, and we still can.

00:19:14
Speaker 4: All right.

00:19:14
Speaker 5: I gotta ask it because everyone always asks me this. I need you to name in order, you can sons minor league teams because I always have to put in my minor league teams in order. All your big league teams, can you name them from start to finish, from.

00:19:33
Speaker 2: Start to finish, Let's go Pittsburgh Tampa Bay. But it didn't count because it's an off season move.

00:19:44
Speaker 3: I didn't suit up. Does that count?

00:19:45
Speaker 5: No, that's I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Yep, okay, all right?

00:19:50
Speaker 2: And then Atlanta, Kansas City, Toronto, Oakland, Toronto, the Dodgers, the Angels, the Rangers, the Cubs, Rangers, Angels. In spring training of twenty one, Braves, Cubs, of twenty two, Braves, Angels, Braves, twenty three was Braves spring training, twenty four was the White Sox and the Braves. Then this year was the Rangers, Braves.

00:20:48
Speaker 3: He did it, He did it. Wow, Wow, Wow.

00:20:53
Speaker 1: That's how you deliver under pressure. That is impressive. To go through it like that. Baseball player memories are just different. I was very impressive with PESSI well, dude, we appreciate having you on. I mean, last thing, does it feel like a weight off your shoulders? Like, how do you feel when you, you know, come on here and say, hey, I'm I'm calling it from someone who did this for a long time and who didn't give up and bounce around to teams? Like, does does it feel like you're ready for the next chapter, whether coaching, hanging out with fam, the whole thing.

00:21:26
Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely.

00:21:29
Speaker 2: I mean it's one that we've been talking about obviously for some time, but every time I come up to throw baseball it feels great, so I might as well give it another try, you know what I mean. So I feel like now it's all the conversations I've had, you know, this year and you know last year as well. In the last years, I feel like I felt like they were in the coaching capacity. So I feel like now it's finally time I got the hitch out of the system, got all the throws out of the system that I needed to get out of so that way I'm not looking at a TV and biting my fingernails.

00:21:58
Speaker 3: I feel like now it's time to be like, all right, let's.

00:22:00
Speaker 2: Write some things down and get moving forward with what we want to get accomplished now, and that's help kids get you know, get their tenure, you know, and eventually hold up some hardware, whether it's a Cy Young whether it's a really really year award, whatever case may be, and then eventually hold up another trophy as a coach. And I feel like I'm capable and well aware of enough to do that for him.

00:22:23
Speaker 3: That's awesome, man.

00:22:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, very goal oriented, super inspirational Jesse. This was really cool. Thanks for doing this on here, and thanks for everything that you've done in your career, bringing a lot of joy, a lot of success to a lot of ball clubs. And we'll be talking.

00:22:37
Speaker 5: Man.

00:22:38
Speaker 1: We're here every day, so we'll be talking.

00:22:40
Speaker 3: I'll be watching.

00:22:41
Speaker 2: I appreciate you guys, Thank you, thank you, Thank you guys for sure time and thank you.

00:22:47
Speaker 1: Appreciate you.