Jonathan Papelbon Interview: His Current MLB Insights for World Series Pick & More
WHAT TO KNOW:
- Jonathan Papelbon now favors the Toronto Blue Jays to make a World Series run, citing their knack for scoring and winning close games.
- He praises the mix of youth and veterans on Toronto’s roster as the ideal playoff formula.
- Papelbon calls Aroldis Chapman the best reliever in MLB right now, crediting a mechanical change that boosted his first-pitch strike rate.
- On the postseason: mindset is everything — not letting the moment get too big.
- He recalls Yankee Stadium heckling, including fans joking about his wife and even throwing batteries at him.
- For Cy Young, he sees it coming down to Tarik Skubal (before injury) or Garrett Crochet, with Chapman even deserving a look.
- The most disappointing franchise to him? The San Francisco Giants, saying their once-dominant culture feels gone.
Jonathan Papelbon is never shy when it comes to opinions on baseball odds. The former Red Sox closer joined us to talk about his World Series favorites, who deserves the Cy Young, and what makes or breaks a playoff team.
(This Q&A has been edited for clarity, but all quotes are included in full.)
We’re getting closer to the playoff season. Who are your favorites to make it all the way to the World Series and why?
Papelbon: I had the Dodgers early on this year, but I am now leaning to the Toronto Blue Jays.
I just think it’s their year. I think they have all their guys clicking, and firing on all cylinders and they just seem to know how to win.
There are certain teams out there that just have a knack for winning. I think the Brewers are one of them, too. They have a knack for winning. The Dodgers are not staying healthy like I thought they would, but they still have the star power.
But my gut right now is telling me that the Toronto Blue Jays are going to go a long way. They just have star power. They have the pitching and they just seem to have a knack to win.
And sometimes if you get hot in the playoffs, that’s all it takes. Runs come at a premium in the Playoffs. Runs are very proven and the Toronto Blue Jays score more runs than anybody else.
How big of a factor will experience be for the teams and players heading into the playoffs? Which players or teams do you think could suffer because of a lack of experience?
Papelbon: The team that I think that usually can win, is a team that has a good group of veteran players along with a good group of younger players.
Those players need to mesh well together. I think that’s the Toronto Blue Jays. They have good young players mixed with some veteran players.
That is a good recipe for a playoff team. But obviously, a good playoff team is going to boil down to their pitching and whether or not they can throw strikes, not walk guys and make errors.
So the team that walks the least amount of players and the team that has the least amount of errors usually will win.
There’s been no World Series team ever that has been in the top one or two in errors stats in that season.
Who’s the best relief pitcher in the MLB in your eyes right now?
Papelbon: Well, to me, it’s Aroldis Chapman for the Boston Red Sox.
This guy, even at age 37, is doing things that nobody expected him to do this year, nor did I.
He has changed his mechanics and he’s changed some things in his delivery where he is now able to throw almost 15% more strikes on the first pitch.
So that’s made all the difference in the world for him. When you have somebody that’s throwing that with 100 miles an hour and pretty decent secondary stuff with the split and the slider, he’s on a tear right now that I haven’t seen.
He just broke my record for scoreless hits and streaks.
He’s doing things that even not even I could even dream of right now.
If you were advising a young pitcher today trying to reach the postseason, what is the most overlooked aspect in modern MLB — is it physical conditioning, mindset, handling the media, analytics, or something else?
Papelbon: It’s all mindset to me once you get to the playoffs.
Everybody has a good team by then. You’re all in the playoffs.
You all deserve to be because you have a pretty decent team and that’s why you’re there.
But it’s the mindset of the players that don’t let the situations get too big for them.
It’s the mindset of keeping things small and not trying to do too much and not trying to press and play the game the way you did for 162 games prior to that.
I used to always try to downplay the game when it was a postseason game and not act like it was that big a deal and just go out there and act like it was another game.
You’re known for calling out/trolling Yankees fans – what was the worst or the funniest thing that you ever heard a Yankees fan say to you? On or off the field?
Papelbon: They always want to Google stuff about your wife and let you know how good looking your wife looks or I was with your wife last night and I’m like, oh, really? That’s funny because she’s not even here.
She’s back home in Mississippi and we’re in New York. I always thought that was funny because you could tell they just Google something and wanted to get on you. But I did have batteries thrown at me in Yankee Stadium. This was back when they had cameras that actually had batteries in them.
So that was interesting. But I always used to love to engage with fans just because they’re here to have fun with it.
We are, too. And I said to myself, why not have fun with it? You’ve got to be able to take it and give it. That’s part of it.
Who are your picks for the Cy Young Award?
Papelbon: Until Tarik Skubal got hurt, it was Skubal. That gives an opportunity for Garrett Crochet to step in, but he’s going to have to have two more great starts.
It’s going to boil down to one of the two of them.
I do believe that even Aroldis Chapman might even get a vote or two for the Cy Young this year, just because of the historic streak that he’s gone on.
Which MLB franchise has disappointed you the most in regards to their performances and culture?
Papelbon: Well, to me, it’s the San Francisco Giants. The Giants used to win championship after championship. They had a great culture.
I’m not over there, but I’m not sure what their culture is like in their clubhouse. But something’s changed there. There’s just a different vibe there. You go there into their own park now and you feel like, hey, we have a chance to win games.
Whereas, man, when I was playing against them, there was no chance in those days. That you felt like you were going to go into Oracle and win a ball game. They were that good.
Something’s changed with the Giants.
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