Post columnist Steve Serby catches up with Yankees catcher Jose Trevino to take a swing at some Q&A.
Q: How close were you to quitting baseball when your late father Joe was ill?
A: I was coming home, I was ready to come home. I was gonna try to support my family. It was me and my mom, I talked to my mom and my mom was like, “No, you’re not doing it.” I was having a tough time at Oral Roberts at the time and my mom was like, “I’m not gonna let you do that. Your dad wouldn’t let you do that, he wouldn’t want you to do that. Don’t worry about it, we have control over here, it’s fine. We’ll take care of everything, you just keep chasing your dream.” For me, I’m living my dream with my dad. This was our dream. And it wasn’t forced on me, it was like our dream. This is what we imagined.
Q: What drives you?
A: My family. The people that I’m trying to prove right. I’m not trying to prove anybody wrong anymore. I could care less about what people say. I care more about the people that have believed in me through my whole career, my whole life. Those are the people I play for. I play for the people that always had the vision of me being where I wanted to be, and the people that just believed in me.
Q: How did you feel about being undrafted?
A: I knew as an 18-year-old kid I needed to go and develop, and that’s why I chose Oral Roberts.
Jose Trevino went undrafted after a collegiate career at Oral Roberts. USA TODAY SportsQ: Was there a time when criticism bothered you or you thought it was unfair?
A: I think at a young age. I wasn’t getting the attention that I thought I should be getting. And looking back now, that’s just immaturity, that’s just not understanding that you don’t have to get the recognition by everybody.
Q: How proud of yourself are you for overcoming the odds?
A: I’m definitely proud of myself. There’s a lot of stuff I still want to do. There’s a lot of boxes that I want to check off before the story’s done, I guess you can say.
Q: What boxes do you want to check off?
A: The main one is win a World Series. That’s all I dreamed of as a kid, holding up a trophy, watching the Yankees hold up their trophies. I’m the guy that watched the celebrations at the end of every championship. I’m the guy that looks and feels like everybody that’s in tears, or happy, celebrating with their teammates, with their family. I’m the guy that’s like one day, that will be me one day. I want to win a World Series with the New York Yankees. There’s nothing better for a baseball player to do.
Q: Do you visualize doing that?
A: Every day. Every day I go into work. Every day.
Q: A catcher has to understand what makes each pitcher tick, right?
A: (Laugh) There’s so many personalities that you juggle, and it’s fun to me. Some guys need a pat on the back, some guys need somebody in their face. That’s what’s good about this catcher position is that you need to know what everybody needs.
Q: So what would you say Gerrit Cole needs?
A: Nothing. He’s Gerrit Cole, he’s gonna go out there, he’s gonna compete, he’s gonna toe the rubber and he’s gonna get after you.
Q: Nestor Cortes?
A: Nestor’s a competitor. He fears nobody, and I feel like that’s to his advantage, he’s just gonna go and attack you, he’s gonna attack you with his best stuff, and he’s gonna do it with style. Nestor’s gonna be himself.
Jose Trevino, left, has developed a strong relationship with the Yankees’ pitching staff. USA TODAY SportsQ: Luis Severino?
A: He’s one of the ultimate competitors. Sevy’s always got a game plan in his head, he’s ready to roll all the time. When I’m not catching him, it’s exciting to watch him pitch. He has fun, he enjoys the adrenaline of getting to two strikes and striking out somebody.
Q: Jameson Taillon?
A: He gets in a zone and he’s in attack mode, he’s ready to roll, he’s ready to attack anybody at any time, any count, it doesn’t matter. And he doesn’t need no extra motivation, that guy’s got it.
Q: Jordan Montgomery?
A: Monty is special. He enjoys the tic-tac-toe of the game, the chess of it, pitching a guy a certain way, pitching the guys this way and then coming back and pitching ’em this way. I feel like he’s always playing chess when guys are playing checkers. Monty’s smart, so he knows what he’s doing out there.
Q: Michael King?
A: Michael King is rare. It takes somebody special to come out of the bullpen and do what he does. But he’s in attack mode. No situation’s ever too big for him, and he loves to be out there.
Q: Clay Holmes?
A: There’s not much to say about Clay. Same thing, man, he’s in attack mode, he’s ready to get after you,
Q: What makes his sinker so deadly?
A: He throws it for strikes. Even if you plan on taking it, he throws it for strikes, so you have to make a decision whether you want to sit there and get to two strikes or you want to sit there and try to take a couple of hacks at it, but it’s a tough pitch. It’s a lot of movement on it.
Q: Aaron Judge?
A: He deserves everything that’s coming to him. The way he goes about his business on the field, the way he carries himself off the field. To do that in New York, playing center field for the New York Yankees and to do what he’s been doing this year is very, very special. He welcomed me right away, as soon as I landed in Tampa, I got in the clubhouse, he introduced himself, just like all the other guys.
Q: Do you think about the All-Star Game?
A: I think about winning every day. If the All-Star Game happens it happens, that’d be awesome, but the big goal for me is to win the last game of the 2022 baseball season.
Jose Trevino could be playing his way into his first-career All-Star Game. USA TODAY SportsQ: If you could pick the brain of any catcher in MLB history, who would it be?
A: Johnny Bench. There’s too many to pick from. I can go down the line — Jorge Posada, Yogi Berra — I can go down the line for days with those kind of guys that I would love to have a conversation with.
Q: If you could catch any pitcher in MLB history?
A: Nolan Ryan.
Q: If you could throw out any MLB player stealing second?
A: Rickey Henderson. I’d have to keep the base or something or get his shoes.
Q: Your father was a Mickey Mantle fan?
A: He kind of showed me the movie “61*.” It’s pretty cool going back and watching that movie and watching Barry Pepper play Roger Maris.
Q: Describe your on-field mentality.
A: Prepared.
Jose Trevino crushes a two-run homer during the Yankees’ win over the Rays on June 22. Getty ImagesQ: What enabled you to pitch two perfect games in high school?
A: One of ’em I think the ball was put in play like four times, the other ones were like strikeouts or something like that, but every time the ball was hit, the guys were making the plays.
Q: What did your fastball top out at?
A: Like 92 or something like that maybe.
Q: Other than Nolan Ryan, which pitchers did you like?
A: I liked the way that Roger Clemens threw. He had this thing about him where like, “OK, I’m coming to dominate the mound.” I liked the way his presence was on the mound. I also liked watching Pedro Martinez throw.
Q: Describe your high school baseball coach, Steve Castillo, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
A: I think I owe that man everything. He actually saved my life when I was like 2 or 3 years old. I think we were at Gardner State Park in Texas, and I was choking on white powder donuts. He picked me up by my leg and turned me over and was smacking me on my back, and I threw up the donuts. I think he had just won Coach of the Year or something like that, and for the rest of the trip everybody would go float the river, and it would be only me and him and he’d be tossing me baseballs the whole time, and I’d just be hitting ’em, and he would just watch me. Ever since I was little, I was playing in Tee Ball, I gave him my baseball card, and he said, “I’ll retire when this guy plays for me,” and I ended up playing for him in high school. This man was there for me through everything. If I ever needed advice about anything, he was there when my dad got sick. … He was coaching high school ball for 30 or 40 years or something like that, and I take a lot of pride in what I’m about to say — but he only has one big leaguer … and that’s me.
Q: Your mother was at the Stadium a month ago?
A: She loved it, she said the fans were awesome. She said they were some of the best fans she’s been around.
Q: Describe your 4-year-old son, Josiah Cruz.
A: It took him a little bit to understand that we weren’t in Texas anymore (chuckle), but he loves it. The fans are loud, that’s what he said. He’ll always be a Nick Solak fan, one of my teammates with Texas. But he’s seen Izzy [Isiah Kiner-Falefa] here, he’s seen Joey [Gallo] here, so it kind of took him some time to be like, “OK, we’re on a different team now and we’re going to a different stadium,” but I think he understands it now ’cause he was going to school telling his teachers his dad’s a Yankee.
Q: Your fiancée Marla Markie?
A: She’s been awesome. She took a lot of pressure off me by looking for housing for us, by making sure I’m comfortable. Basically all I had to worry about was playing baseball. She’s been a blessing to me, and she’s an awesome mother, and she’s the best.
Q: Why is your Twitter handle HipHipJose?
A: When I was in high school, I had some of the guys that would come out to the baseball games, they would just start saying, “Hip Hip,” and people would say “Jose.” Me and my agent actually trademarked it, so we’re gonna start icing here I think pretty soon. … If the fans want a T-shirt, maybe we can make a Hip Hip Jose T-shirt or something.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Tim Duncan, Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant.
Q: You met Jeter recently.
A: It was awesome. If anybody gets a chance to meet their heroes, I highly suggest it. I felt like the 13-year-old in me, the 14-year-old in me was jumping around, and I was just trying to keep it composed.
Q: You tweeted: How does Yogi Derek Trevino sound?
A: (Laugh) Me and my fiancée, we’re expecting here in September, I’m throwing names out there — I’m actually trying to get Jeter in there, so we’re gonna see what happens. I doubt it, I think we’ve come to an agreement on a name, and we’re gonna see where it goes with that. I thought that’d get the Yankee fans going a little bit.
Q: How about Jeter as a middle name?
A: That might be it, we’ll see what happens. I always say the second son is gonna be the best one at baseball because he’s gonna learn from the first one, so I think it’d be a pretty cool name to hear over the speakers.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “The Grinch,” any time of the year is acceptable … the one with Jim Carrey.
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Jack Black or Adam Sandler.
Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: Anything from the Randy Rogers Band to Drake.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: My mom’s spaghetti.
Q: Describe the feeling of a walk-off.
A: I think it’s a sense of calmness for me. I got asked last year by one of my teammates when I come up in big situations why do I look like I’m smiling? I think it’s because I enjoy the moment. I enjoy what’s in front of me. Whether I’m gonna fail, whether I’m gonna succeed, I know that in that moment I’m gonna learn something. That way when that moment comes along again, I’m gonna be even more prepared for it. Everybody sees all the walk-offs that I’ve had, all the hits, but nobody’s really seen the big situations that I failed in, or the big situations that I’ve had a hit in. Every opportunity’s a learning opportunity for me whether I fail or succeed, and I feel like that emotion just kind of tunnels in and I just try to enjoy that moment every second I can.
Jose TrevinoUSA TODAY SportsQ: What do you like best about this Yankees team?
A: The fact that there’s no egos. Everybody goes out there every night, and it’s do your job. Everybody comes to the field prepared and ready to do their job, to the best of their abilities. Yeah we might not win, but you’re definitely gonna feel it, you’re definitely gonna feel the pressure of us performing and us doing our job. And as a team, you get however many individuals it is on a roster to do that, and individualize their job and be good at their job, that’s a tough team to play. And I feel like that’s how we are.
Q: So that puts a psychological pressure on the other team?
A: I would think so.
Q: What’s it like being a fan favorite?
A: A fan favorite? … I was a fan once. They’re special to me because every night they come and watch the Yankees. I understand that that could be someone’s last game. … I understand that that could be someone’s first game. … I understand that the impact of an autograph, the impact of a fist bump to a kid, the impact of a handshake to a little girl who’s chasing her softball dreams. … I understand that impact that we have. And I know I’m not gonna have this platform forever. I know that maybe 10 years from now, nobody might remember me. But while I’m here, while I have this platform, I’m gonna try to help as many people as I can. I’m gonna try to grow the game of baseball as much as I can, grow the game of softball as much as I can, and try to tell kids like, dream big, and no matter what your goals are, just keep going for ’em.
Q: Your thoughts on the tragic Uvalde shooting?
A: That’s pretty close to home, where I’m from now in San Antonio. It’s just terrible. I have a 4-year-old. I saw some interviews with some family members. I can’t explain like … what I would feel. I try to put myself in their shoes and I don’t know what I would feel. And it’s just terrible that people have to go through that. I’m thinking about them, I’m thinking about the parents. I think about the whole families, maybe there’s birthdays coming up, holidays and stuff, summer’s just about to be, kids are gonna be having fun. … I just think about that, and I don’t know what it would be like for me if I had to go home and my son wasn’t there. My heart’s still heavy. I love the state of Texas, I love where I’m from. But that’s just sad … sad.
Q: How would you sum up what it’s like being Jose Trevino?
A: I always got told that no matter what I did, no matter how good I am at baseball or how good I think I am at baseball, that I always had to be a better person. I take a lot of pride in that. I feel like when I’m done with this game, I care about the opinion of my teammates, and I hope my teammates say that I was a good teammate. I hope people say that I was a winner. And I hope people say that I was a good person. And then lastly, they can say whatever they want about my baseball career.
