Q: How did you find out you were coming to the big leagues?
A: There were a couple of weird things going on. I went in for my workout and my strength and conditioning guy didn’t want to do too much with me, which I found a little weird. And then we were playing the game, we were losing 5-4 in the ninth and I usually come in when there’s a righty and they didn’t give me a call. So that was kind of weird, too. And then I heard the news right after that.
Meet The Padres: Yasmani GrandalQ: What’s that feeling like? I’m sure you’ve been dreaming of it since you were a kid.
A: This is one of those things where as a kid, you say you want to play in the major leagues but you kind of don’t know how hard it is to make it up here and once you’re that close, and you’re playing in Triple-A and you’re kind of thinking about it every day, like: “Hey, I’m doing good, maybe today is the day” and for me, I didn’t think about it too much. I really worried about what I had to do and that was putting up numbers in the minor leagues in order to make it here.
Q: Who did you call first?
A: My mom was the first call, and then after that my agent. They were both sleeping. They didn’t know what happened. After that I just started calling everyone else in the family. My mom was surprised, she was shocked. When I told her she kind of had to ask me the same question two or three times because she didn’t think it was real.
Q: For you, walking into the clubhouse and seeing your jersey there — did it kind of sink in?
A: Not really. Not when I got here. It kind of sunk in when I was out in the outfield stretching right before the game. My heart started racing a little bit. But it hasn’t really sunk in yet. I know I’m in the Major Leagues but until I’m out on the field, it’s not going to hit me.
Q: You grew up in Cuba and came to the United States when you were 10. Was it tough to learn the language and to acclimate?
A: I didn’t have any trouble. Baseball helped me out a lot. I was always playing on travel ball teams and all the guys spoke English. My mom helped me out a lot, too. She knew how to speak English. I got the language probably a year after I was here. Not to the best of my ability, but I was understanding and trying to connect with the other guys. TV definitely helped me a lot.
Q: What was baseball like in Cuba, and was it big for you there?
A: Defnitely. Baseball in Cuba is just like baseball in any Hispanic country. You use baseball in order to get out of there, in order to make a living.
Q: When you were drafted by the Reds in 2010, you used your g bonus to buy your family a house. What did that mean to you?
A: That was one of my dreams. I dreamt of that when I was in high school. The first thing I was going to do was get my parents a house. The first thing I bought them was a car because they needed a car. That was the main thing I was really worried about — making sure they were taken care of. It’s a pretty good deal because now when I go back in the offseason, I don’t want to stay anywhere else.
Q: You’re a switch-hitting catcher, which is a pretty cool combo. What do you like best about a position that encomes so much?
A: Before I caught, I used to be at third and first base and I didn’t have too much action there. It’s interesting, the fact you can be in on every play of the game is probably the best thing you can do as a catcher. It keeps you in the game, and you kind of know the pitchers better, you kind of know the strike zone better so as a hitter, catching helps me out even more, especially since I hit both sides.
Q: You and Yonder Alonso have similar backgrounds: Both from Cuba, grew up in Miami, went to school at the University of Miami, both with the Reds, now both with the Padres. Is it nice to have someone that just knows where you’ve been?
A: It is nice. Since he’s always been a step ahead of me, a little older, every time I get somewhere that he’s at, he kind of tells me how it’s going to be. Hey, make sure you do this, make sure you do that. That’s one of the things he was telling me yesterday during batting practice, he was telling me things I should be doing to get ready, because he knows I’m going to get a lot of pinch hits, and he told me to be ready the whole game, make sure you’re seeing what the catcher is calling, make sure you’re seeing the pitches that are coming in, watch a lot of video and that’s the only way you can get prepared for pinch-hitting, because I’m not used to that, obviously.
Q: One thing on your bucket list?
A: Go to Rome.
