Sitting Down With Our Free Agent Pick-To-Click: Ryan O'Hearn

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Baseball Isn’t Boring 34 min 2 speakers 4 chapters transcribed
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What makes Ryan O'Hearn's signing with the Pirates significant?

Ryan O'Hearn 0:00
Yeah, there should be some passion. This doesn't have to be boring.
Rob Ratner 0:03
You don't get bored by baseball. Okay, one thing the game needs is more people like you. You. You.
Ryan O'Hearn 0:08
You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You. You.
Rob Ratner 0:20
Welcome to Baseball Isn't Boring. Here's your host, Rob Ratner. There is absolutely no human being on the planet I would rather be talking to more than Ryan O'Hearn right now. That's a fact. It's a fact.
Ryan O'Hearn 0:31
That's nice of you, Rob. Thank you.
Rob Ratner 0:33
Oh, it's true. It's, you know, and we were just talking. I have not been able to spring into action and have a Baseball Isn't Boring t-shirt in Pirates colors, which I have. I actually have... Have a bunch of them. Like, have a bunch of them. Because I gave you an orange and black one, which your triceps I know never look better when you put it on, right? Correct? No, you're not lying.
Ryan O'Hearn 0:57
I do remember it fit good.
Rob Ratner 1:00
I mean, at least Tyler O'Neal got his, and he couldn't get the scissors out fast enough. That was, like, so funny.
Ryan O'Hearn 1:06
Yeah. Yeah, well, he's got the guns for it. He likes to show them off.
Rob Ratner 1:10
Oh, wow. All right. Well, we're going to get you a Pirates-colored baseball and boring T-shirt and other gear because you are a member of the Pirates. Congratulations. And I also, Ryan, want to proclaim that you – I am stating that you are the baseball isn't boring free agent signing of the offseason. I'm going to say it. Yes. Why is that? Because we've looked at – this is an exhaustive process. I look at – People who I think are going to have great years for a lot of different reasons, right place, right time, right skill set, right personality, may or may not have a baseballs and boring t-shirt, like all these things. So I just, I just, I got it. I got the feeling, man. I got the feeling.
Ryan O'Hearn 1:55
So I appreciate that, man. That's awesome. Well, that's an honor. All right. I'll, I'll take that award all day. All right.
Rob Ratner 2:00
Wow. Um, so how this, if we could go, I got, I got plenty of, uh, stuff I want to talk to you about, but I do want to jump right into the weird world of free agency. I know it's, it's a bizarre thing and you've, you've had to Bob and weave your way through a career of DFA and everything else. But this is, this is the old, other than being in the all-star game, which awesome. Um, But other than that, this is a landmark moment where you have earned the right to do that. And you signed fairly early, but take me through your thought process. A, going through the year and trying to fend off the, oh, it's a contract year thing, which for some guys is easy, some guys it's not. And B, now you get into the offseason, you have great agents in the Levinsons.
Rob Ratner 2:48
Tell me about how it went for you, how you felt throughout the process.
Ryan O'Hearn 2:55
Yeah. So it's I mean, every player wants to be a free agent. You know, it's like like you said, that's once you get to that point, it's you get to you know, you're you have all the leverage. You get to pick where you want to play. Now, for me, in the way that my path has been, it's kind of been like prove it, you know, like prove it every year. for the last probably five years since I left Kansas city. Well, so I guess three years, but it's not, it hasn't been like, Oh, I'm good next year. No, it's been like, I need to play well now so that I can have this job next year and earn this, you know, have them pick up this club option or have them, you know, tender me a contract while last year are whatever it's been.
Ryan O'Hearn 3:37
So I would say that the mindset really hasn't been totally different. Obviously knowing that you're a free agent, after this year is exciting because you get to choose where you want to play. But it wasn't like, oh, I had all this, you know, like I was comfortable. I knew where I was going to go next year. All right. And then like finally like you have free agency and it's a different thing. So there was definitely like I would say more of an excitement than maybe previous years, but not by a whole lot, you know. Oh, really?
Yeah.
Ryan O'Hearn 4:09
Yeah. I mean, I, I was, um, you know, in the way that the market is nowadays, it's, it's, I, you know, back in, you know, years ago, it was like, you, you can't wait to be a free agent.

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