Daniel Hudson (9-15-24)

Try never to make him wait.

Seems to be his job these days in the bullpen and in life. The one and only Dan Hudson, thanks a lot for the time, and thanks for being patient with me.

I appreciate it.

And I promise from just sitting out here in the dugout some big deal.

I know, and then straggler riders want to pick your brain. You're forced to talk to him.

Yeah, sometimes you're just there. You know, they need somebody talk to.

Dan.

You look very top gun ish right now. You got the white towel around your neck, you got the top gun Navy fighter pilot haircut.

You're ready to go. Lather it up?

Yeah, I'm ready to go. It's easy to get lathered up out here in this humidity. But luckily it's cloudy and overcast, so we don't have too much sun today.

Dan.

As you look at the Dodger bullpen, you guys have done such a tremendous job all season long, not just by the results, but the burden of innings that have been put on you guys. What is the state of the bullpen as far as freshness and fatigue, the balance of all that.

Yeah, I know, the off day helps Obviously, with the freshness I'm coming across the country.

He doesn't help with the fatigue, But you know, it's all part of man.

I think everybody down there is just ready to strap them up and ready to go whatever the phone rings, so, you know, the innings or whatever they are. You know, the guys down there are ready to to take take down.

Whatever inning's gonna get taken down. And you know, I'm proud to be down there with those guys.

You came back for a reason.

Has this season been everything that you had hope trying to come back from two severe knee surgeries?

Yeah, for sure.

I think it's been even more when it comes to just a personal standpoint. You know, obviously I'm in a little bit of a funk here right now. I'm trying to work my way out of it. And but you know, the first couple of months we were really freaking good. So you know, I'm really kind of happy with where I'm at physically, and uh, you know, we're just trying to push through some stuff right now and get ready for the playoffs.

I always hear you guys talk about the process. Some people call it the journey, but isn't what you're going through right now, just the whole thing and why you love the game of baseball so much.

Yeah, I mean, it's just it's just part of the roller coaster that is being in a major league bullpen. You know, it's not gonna go perfect every single night. You know, it's you know, I always say, I try not to ride that role or coaster emotionally. You know, I just kind of stay even keel, don't get too ups with the super highs and don't get.

Too low with the lows.

You know it's gonna even out in the end, and you know you'll be right where you need to be at the end of the season. So you know, I'm just trying to, like I said, I push through some stuff right now mechanically and mentally, and you know, get ready to go every single night whenever Dave needs me.

People feel like you're invincible because you never really show all that stuff.

I'm sure I show up more than more than people think. But no, it's uh, like I said, you just try not to get too too low with these lows that I'm in right now and push through it and like I said, just be there whenever he needs me to take the ball. And get ready for the series and hopefully you know, obviously in the playoffs as well.

You've been through a lot in your career, obviously, have you been able to maybe reach out or allow some of these younger pitchers that have had these elbow and shoulder injuries to lean on you just for some advice or really lean on you? I mean, how have you been able to help some of these younger guys.

No, it's cool.

I mean, obviously it's not great that they're injured, but like it's great that they're around. You know, sometimes you can kind of feel eggs out a little bit when you have like a major injury like that, So for them to still be around, Like, you know, Stoney's on the trip with Usk helping helping him get through his stuff mentally, and obviously River was their last arm stand, so I got to talk to him a little bit. Yeah, we're all just everybody's there for everybody in this organization,

I don't really like to ask you guys too much about Otani and being teammates with him, but he is getting closer to making history to be the first fifty to fifty player in Major league history. What's it been like from your standpoint to watch him this season?

I just I just feel like I'm lucky to have a first first row seat to this season for him. Obviously, the spotlight's always on him, but I feel like it's gotten even brighter since it's gotten caught up the you know, the interstate a little bit to Dodger Stadium, and he's done nothing by answer the bell man, He's he's there every single night. He's posting, he's doing unblie things on a ball field, And like I said, I just feel lucky I get to watch it every single night.

Have you ever had a chance to watch his bullpens?

No, I haven't. I haven't heard yet. I haven't been able to see one of those yet.

But I'm excited to kind of see where he's headed with that man. It'll be it'll be really great to see him back on the mount again.

Where do you stand as far as the DH winning the m v p H.

I mean, it's it's his, no doubt. I don't I don't really have a stance on that. If you're the best player in the league, most valuable player in the league, you get the m v P in my opinion.

So h you know, he's been that and everything for us.

The fact that he's a dah doesn't matter to me, so you know, hopefully it doesn't matter to the voters as well. Hopefully he gets that hardware at the end of the year and uh, you know, hopefully top it off of the World Series as well.

All Right, Dan Hudson, you know I tap into you. What you say leads my compass in baseball and maybe life.

I wouldn't go that far, dude.

If that if that's your if that's your compass, that's a bad compass.

It's spending all all over the place.

Thanks a lot for the time, Daniel, really appreciate.

No problem.