When pitchers and catchers reported on Thursday morning there was a lot of friendly banter – both between the players and between the players and the media. But when things got serious, there was one common theme – the Dodgers were not happy with the way last season ended; or the season before that.

“I just want to win, that’s all I care about,” said Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis. “I’ve held my head in my hands for two straight years in the St. Louis clubhouse and I know the way that feels. And I know the pit that you feel in your stomach for the weeks to follow, especially when there’s teams out there playing baseball that you know in your heart you’re better than still playing, and I don’t want to feel that again.”

Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis doesn’t ever want to feel this way again.
(Photo credit – Wally Skalij)

But for the first time since 2012 Ellis is entering spring training without a lock on the starting catching job – something that he is very well aware of. During the off-season the Dodgers traded away All-Star outfielder Matt Kemp to the San Diego Padres in exchange for 26-year-old switch-hitting catcher Yasmani Grandal, who has also been a starting catcher for most of the last two seasons.

“I don’t need a title of starting catcher or a title of back-up catcher, I want to have the title of World Series champion catcher, that’s what matters to me right now in my career,” Ellis said. “I know eventually I’m going to have to transition to a guy who plays a little bit less than maybe they even want to, but I’m really glad to have Yasmani here.

“Just playing against him when he was in San Diego, he’s got so much talent,” added Ellis. “He’s a guy offensively you don’t really have many options you can go as a catcher, this guy can control the strike zone so well. You saw before he hurt his knee [in July of 2013] he was a catcher who was really progressing and was on his way to being a really really strong defender back there.”

Does A.J. see it as a competition with Grandal for the starting catching job?

“No, no, not at all,” said the 34-year-old catcher. “I’m just here to help him, help him get acclimated to the Dodgers, help him get acclimated to the team and to the pitching staff.

“So if that’s me taking my mask off and running and celebrating with my teammates or if that’s me running from the dugout and celebrating with my teammates that’s all I care about,” Ellis added.

Ellis reflected on his first few seasons in the big leagues and recalls fondly just how important his predecessors were for him.

“I think of guys who helped me and mentored me throughout my career,” Ellis said. “I think of guys like Brad Ausmus, they way he kind of took me under his wing. And even Matt Treanor the way I saw him go about his business and handle maybe being in a secondary role, so I’ve had some great examples of guys. I just want to be a part of making the Dodgers catching position the strongest position in baseball.”

But even if Ellis says that he’s not concerned about the starting or back-up title, he made it very clear that he isn’t about to simply hand over the starting job to Grandal. In fact, he says that he worked harder this off-season than at any other time in his career.

“I really targeted what I wanted to do, I really wanted to strengthen my legs. That was the biggest thing,” Ellis said. “Usually when the season ends I like to take four to six weeks off, but the way I looked at it, I had my four to six weeks off during the season [while on the disabled list], so I took a weekend off and started training right away. I just want to be strong”

A.J. credits Brian Czarniak of Strive Fitness for helping him get into the “Best Shape of my Life.”
(Photo courtesy of @AJEllis17)

With so many personnel changes this off-season what does Ellis expect for the Dodgers in 2015?

“It’s really exciting. It’s a good camp to get to know people and learn new personalities,” said Ellis. “It’s going to definitely be a different perspective, definitely as a catcher looking straight out seeing a brand new middle infield across the mound and possibly a brand new center fielder, and a couple of new starting pitchers to go with it.”

With the success that Clayton Kershaw has had with A.J. Ellis behind the plate, will he become the personal catcher for his best friend?

“I haven’t even thought about that,” Ellis answered. “Just knowing Donny and being around Donny the last few years I know it’s always seemed to work out that way and I’m back there, but I know Donny tries to kind of shy away from things like that.

“I do know that Clayton and I have really worked well together these last few years and we’ve had a lot of special moments on the field together, and obviously those are highlights of my career individually – being on the field sixty feet away from him,” added Ellis. “I’m going to want to and fight for every opportunity to catch him but at the end of the day Donny’s going to be the one making those decisions.”

Although it may ultimately be Mattingly’s call, it was Dodgers President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman who weighed in on the Ellis/Grandal question on Thursday.

“I think having two catchers is obviously very different than having two first basemen and there are a lot of games to go around,” Friedman said. “We have two guys in A.J. and Grandal that really compliment each other really well. We talked about it earlier and there’s nothing that’s going to come out of this camp where we’re going to say ‘Okay, this guy’s going to start 72 percent of the time.’

“It’s going to be much more about Donny writing the line-up each and every day for what gives us the best chance to win that day,” Friedman added. “The fact that we have two guys that compliment each other as well as they do I think put us into a position to where they kind of cover each other in a lot of respects and give us that really really well rounded tandem behind the plate that will put us in a pretty good position throughout the year.”

Friedman sees Ellis and Grandal as complimenting each other, not competing against each other.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

When pressed on how the pair compliment each other, Friedman explained that he means on a situational basis depending on opposing pitching.

“Yasi obviously very good from the left side, A.J. obviously very good against left-handed pitching,” said Friedman. “Both guys I think work really well with pitching staffs and have a feel for game calling and preparation. But there’s certain pitchers with different pitch types that one guy may be more suited for versus another and that’s just stuff that obviously we’ll get into through the advance process if we think someone gives us a better chance to win that night.”