‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Garrett Stubbs on playing in ‘Piggy Land’, Andrew Painter, his future, and more

Garrett Stubbs needs your help.

When the Phillies sent the popular backup catcher to triple A, he vowed to channel the disappointment of being back in the minors for the first time since 2021 into mentoring young players and imparting a slice of the organization’s winning major-league culture.

Behold, the Lehigh Valley IronPins, a group of IronPigs players who have embraced Stubbs-organized bowling events throughout the season.

“Yeah, we’re bowlers,” Stubbs joked, “and we just happen to play baseball.”

And now, they need bowling shirts.

“I’m working on it,” Stubbs said. “I don’t know any bowling companies, but if you know any or if any bowling companies are listening, we’re looking for some IronPins bowling shirts. So, reach out if you’re willing.”

Stubbs joined Phillies Extra, the baseball show from The Inquirer, to discuss his experiences back in the minors, top prospect Andrew Painter’s final approach to joining the Phillies, and more. Here’s an excerpt from our wide-ranging conversation, which has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Watch the full interview below.

A: Yeah, me and Kelly Davis, our security guy up in Philly, have a joke that, winners win, and I think there is something to just winning. I think there’s players that are really good and then there’s winning players and I think both can be true. I’ve been really fortunate to be on some really good teams and try to continue on that winning legacy that’s kind of followed me during my career. We turned them into T-shirts last year, too, and sold them for a really good cause and donated all the money to [Kyle] Schwarber’s Neighborhood Heroes, which was awesome.

» READ MORE: Mentor, mood-setter, bowling team manager: The Garrett Stubbs Experience is a hit at Lehigh Valley

It’s been a really good start with the Pigs this year. Once again, testament to how good the players are. And then also just the desire for each of us to want to win the game because you can have a bunch of good individual stats, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to wins. You see it throughout the major leagues, minor leagues, college baseball. You might have a bunch of really good players, but it doesn’t always translate to wins. So it’s always fun to have a good season individually, but when you’re winning, that tops it off even more.

A: Yeah, sure. ... I think that being a catcher, you’re always an extension of that coaching staff, right? I think that if you ask [Phillies manager Rob Thomson] or [pitching coach Caleb] Cotham or anybody up in Philly, they would consider J.T. [Realmuto] a part of that extension of the coaching staff. There’s only one guy that is facing the opposite direction of everybody else on the field when you’re out there and it’s the catcher. And I think that that’s a really important piece as a catcher to kind of feel like you are part of that managing staff and understanding that you have such a huge impact on the game.

There’s nobody else really in the locker room, aside from maybe the starting pitcher, that goes in-depth on the other team in a scouting report and really understands how to get the other team out and how to win the game that day on a really extensive level. And it’s not only just the defensive part. We also do our report on the hitting side. So you really get a full, encompassing vision of how to win the game that day.

So as far as being an extension of the coaching staff, I think I’ve always wanted to be a part of that extension as a player because of the importance of the role of being a catcher. And like I said, I think J.T. probably feels that exact same way. And that coaching staff, I would hope probably they would say the same exact thing about J.T. And so that importance to me has always been at a high level.

» READ MORE: ‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Mick Abel on overcoming failure, collecting baseball cards, and more

As far as how I feel [about] being a manager or a coach post-playing career, I think we’d have to have that conversation with my wife as well. The baseball lifestyle, as luxurious as it seems on TV, can have its quirks. And I think that going and stepping away from the game would break my heart. I think that it’s been ... One, I know it’s been a huge part of my life — it’s been my life for as long as I can remember. So completely taking that off would be a huge stab in the heart. And I don’t ever want that to end. And obviously my playing days I don’t think are over anytime soon. I hope they aren’t. So managing has always been in the picture and always thought of as a part of my future. It would have to depend on situation, front office, a number of things as far as location.

I’m about to start a family here soon in November — we’ve got a baby girl on the way — so those questions will be answered I think closer to when I’m making that sort of decision. But yeah, the future of managing and coaching has always been in my mind and something that I think that I would really enjoy.

A: Yeah, 100%. I’m all about being where your feet are. And currently I’m in what I like to call “Piggy Land.” And that’s where my future and everything that I see going forward is for the rest of the year. And I think playing the game of, ‘Oh, you know, I’m going to go up [to the majors] or hopefully I’ll go up this next week or this next month or whatever’ is a bad game to play. You don’t ever want to have that ‘maybe after this next start, I’ll get called up’ because when you start playing that game, you’re in a place of a lot of disappointment. This game definitely doesn’t care about your future. It’s day to day. Things can happen.

» READ MORE: ‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Justin Crawford on the challenge of triple A, preparing for a call up, and more

Like today, something could happen and I could be going up, but playing that game is a bad one to play. And a lot of times, too, the reason why you’re going up is injury and you never wish that upon anybody. So it was really important for me to just go to Lehigh, get a place, and if something were to change and I was in Philly the next day, we’d make that adjustment as we go. And our plan was always to have our house in Lehigh and then I would make that commute to Philly if that day were to come. But we’ve got our dogs there. My wife’s happy with the place that we got. So yeah, we’re very happy with our situation. Whatever the future holds, we’ll make that plan when that day comes.

A: Yeah, we’re bowlers, and we just happen to play baseball.

A: We actually went bowling last night. We had an 11 a.m. game yesterday. So those are the kinds of days that we try to do it, either on Monday off days if we’re in a city or if we have an 11 a.m. game or a day game in the middle of the week, we’ll go bowling afterward. [Manager Anthony Contreras] set up the first one. And I just kind of realized that everyone was having fun, enjoying it. It’s not very expensive. In the show, a lot of what we do is golf, but golf is a lot more expensive than bowling. And the paychecks are a lot less here in the minor leagues. So I noticed that everyone was enjoying themselves and it’s just a good team camaraderie thing and something that we can go do outside of the field. Because when everyone’s at the field, you get to know each other on kind of a basic level.

But I think that, team bonding and the wins that you see out on the field, that kind of stuff happens away from the field. ... Once we started doing it, it started to become something that everyone enjoyed and where we could get to know each other on a bigger level than just at the stadium and as baseball players. And I think that’s really important.

A: The numbers are set in stone — the kid’s got good stuff. The computers can tell you that, any scout that’s been around — [David Chadd] is one of our scouts that’s been around forever with [Dave] Dombrowski — he could tell you Andrew Painter’s a good pitcher without looking at any sort of analytics, Trackman, anything like that. He’s got the stuff. … I think that these next however many starts are about finding who he is as a competitor, as a gamer, how to overcome the adversity that comes throughout every single start that you’ll ever make.

Zack Wheeler goes out there and goes seven innings and, no runs, four hits or whatever, there’s probably some moments in there that the game could go a different direction. And it’s about those different moments throughout the game and understanding that this is a turning point in the game where I can either succumb to the situation and things go awry or I’m going to bear down and get these outs and they’re going to be important outs for me to get through the next three or four innings. Because those innings that turn from 15 pitches to 25 pitches are kind of those determining factors on whether you’re going to go five innings or you’re going to go seven innings.

» READ MORE: ‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Farm director Luke Murton on Crawford, Painter, a sleeper to watch, and more

And I think that his time in Lehigh is about finding out who he is as a competitor and figuring out how he’s going to get through those different adverse situations like he did in his first start. And obviously he’s got a shorter leash right now because of the pitch count and not wanting to go long innings. So he only went three innings [in his first Lehigh Valley start on May 8].

But once he gets stretched out a little bit, those types of innings where he gets bases loaded and gets out of it, with no runs, those are the kind of moments that are going to let him go five, six, seven innings and really find out who he is as a person and as a baseball player and as a gamer out on the mound. And that’s really, really important.