Tim Neverett, Dodgers Radio Broadcaster

Tim, how are you, man? Thank you. I'm great. Thanks. Good to be on with you today.

I appreciate it. Well, I know it's been a busy 24 hours, especially keeping up with these Dodgers. How has everybody kind of taken in this team and what they've accomplished besides what we saw downtown?

Yeah, that's not. It depends what you saw downtown. But yeah, I think all in all, except for burning a bus. Anytime that a team wins in any market, it's always great for the city, great for all the fans. I think that this is going to be an incredible day tomorrow for the parade because they haven't had a parade for the Dodgers here since 1988.

Couldn't have one in 2020 because of the pandemic. So a lot of folks that want to get out tomorrow, they're going to line the streets of downtown LA. And there's two events. There's a parade. And then right after the parade, there is an event at the stadium where the players will all be shuttled back to the stadium. And there's a planned event there.

And that sold out today in about a half an hour. So I'm expecting 50,000 plus at Dodger Stadium for that event tomorrow after the parade, which could draw who knows how many. But it's going to be a wild day in LA tomorrow, that's for sure. I think the Dodgers are going to be a strong team at the beginning of the year and how they perform throughout the course of the season, specifically of the pitching. It looked like that was going to be a touch point that might prevent them from winning the World Series.

But as they got tighter down the stretch, that became a strength. Fill us in from the trade deadline. So all of these relievers. How did the tides turn on the Dodgers pitching? I think going, you know, beginning of the season, they were thinking the pitching was going to be the strong point, but then injuries set in. They were expecting to get some guys back, like Tony Gonsolin, who was an All-Star a couple of years ago, and Dustin May, who's, you know, he's just got some incredible stuff. But they both were sidelined and not able to come back.

Tony Gonsolin got close, but just wasn't ready. Dustin May had a problem with his esophagus of all things after he was getting ready to pitch. And he couldn't, he had to be shut down for the season. And, you know, Clayton Kershaw got hurt. Of course, they weren't able to have Shohei Ohtani pitch at all this year.

That was never in the plan to begin with. Walker Bueller was coming off injury. And, you know, there was kind of a wildcard situation there with him. Didn't know what they'd get out of him.

You know, it goes on and on. I mean, there's a list of relievers who had injuries. So, you know, nobody's crying for the Dodgers, right?

Because every team has injuries and you got to work around them. But I give the staff, I give the manager, Dave Roberts, a heck of a lot of credit. It's not easy to have to navigate, you know, around the pitching situation. And, you know, for a while, things looked pretty good on the pitching front. Then they went out and got Jack Flaherty at the deadline. He helped out quite a bit, although he didn't have a good game last night.

He just didn't have his stuff. And the Dodgers had to basically use another bullpen game to win the World Series to take Game 5 last night. But, you know, pitching is, pitching's everything when it comes to Major League Baseball. If you want to win, it's all about pitching.

And, you know, the Dodgers have a lot of it, but a lot of it was on the shelf. You know, Tyler Glasnow, that's another name I forgot to mention. You know, Glasnow was expected to lead this staff. He was going to be the ace of the staff, but injury sidelined him.

So they didn't have his services either. Yeah, well, maybe one day he'll pitch more than, I don't know, 100 innings. Maybe we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, he did pitch more this year than he ever had, but he's still got hurt.

And it's the name of the game. He needs to stop wearing those hot socks. Maybe things will change for him into the future. Tim Nevret is here with us. Voice of the Dodgers does all their play-by-play. You've seen Shohei Ohtani all year.

And I know he played for the other team down the road before he went further north. We all know how great he is, how good he is. Is there any part of his game that you looked at and said, well, damn, this guy's really special? Well, every part of his game, you know, you think he's special. And we haven't seen him pitch for the Dodgers yet. We've seen him pitch for the Angels, and we know how good he is. The guy's already won two MVPs, and he's going to get another one here this year.

He's a remarkable talent. Just from the offensive side, you know, teams punch and he counter punches, and then they counter punch and he punches back. So it just depends on how they game plan him. Sometimes they figure, okay, he's swinging up and in.

They'll go up and in. But eventually he finds a way to close that hole and turn on it and hit a ball 450 feet. His base running is something else. I can only think of maybe one, two base running Heracles all year, but the fact is he covers a ton of ground. In fact, I heard one player say that you know that Ohtani's rounding second base.

You don't have to look because it sounds like a horse galloping around the track. And, you know, I think he's in a lineup where hitting lead off is good because he gets that last at bat late in the game that can help you win a game. And here in the World Series, he struggled because he had the dislocated shoulder. And just, you know, the fact I think it was the regular season, he probably wouldn't even play it. But just having him in the lineup was still a threat. And now that we, you know, this year heading into 2025, we get to see him pitch. And, you know, we saw him rehabbing all season, throwing in the outfield, throwing in the bullpen. And he, you know, he's going to be ready to go for 2025 and be a two-way player again. But he is a special talent.

Nobody's ever seen anybody have a 50-50 year. And, I mean, when he gets hot, it's something to behold. It really is. He is a sensational talent.

Maybe the best we've seen. Well, Tim, you talk about all the talent that the Dodgers have, from Freddie Freeman, who just won MVP, and you think about the money bestowed upon Yamamoto and Mookie Betts, and we can go on and on. Is there a real possibility that the Dodgers spend even more money in the offseason? They're deferring so much. What could this team look like next year?

Any big additions or subtractions? Well, I guess they want to have the parade first. But, yeah, there's going to be. I mean, you know, Daniel Hudson, the reliever, announced his retirement after the game last night. Kevin Kiermaier announced his retirement before the season was over. So I know those two guys will be gone. There are guys whose contracts expire.

We don't know who's going to be back and who, you know, who won't. I would think that they would look at free agents as well as anybody. And as good as things have gone, or as well as things have gone, I should say, every team, including the Dodgers, still looks to try to improve. And I know my guess is they'll be in the thick of the free agent market, whatever they think they might need.

Obviously, pitching is the main thing. You know, they went and got some pitching to the trade market, getting Michael Kopec and, again, Jack Flary. You know, those guys were big additions. And, of course, Tommy Edmond, the addition of him, he'll be back again.

He's got years on his deal. So I just think they're going to be like everybody else. They're going to get in the thick of it. I know there was a report that they're interested in Juan Soto, but, you know, who isn't, right? Whether they get him or not, who knows? Whether they go out and get another frontline starting pitcher, who knows? Clayton Kershaw is going to be back for the last year of his contract.

And who knows? It's probably going to be the last year of his career, you'd have to guess. But he's got one more year, and he's going to try to pitch another year. And all the other guys that are hurt, they're going to get them all healthy and ready to go. So it should be another good year for the Dodgers coming up, but, you know, the offseason does start today for a lot of teams. Well, for every team, but, you know, some teams are busier than others right away. I know the Angels and Braves made a trade already. So, yeah, we'll see what happens. I mean, this is kind of a thing where I think the ballclub is going to sit back and kind of enjoy what's happening for the next few days in the front office.

I'm sure they have their targets and they'll get to work. Tim Nevret, Dodgers radio play-by-play voice here with us on the JR Sportbreeze show Coast to Coast. It was a big deal when Freddie Freeman left here in Atlanta to go out to Los Angeles. So much about how he didn't want to leave, but the deal didn't come and what have you. It's been a few years now, and unfortunately, Freddie has had to deal with issues at home. God bless him and his family for being able to come through that and be better. How has he been kind of accepted by the organization and the fans, especially given what he just did?

It doesn't hurt. Oh, they love him. I mean, they have since he got there. I mean, they embrace him. They chant Freddie, Freddie all the time, even on the road. There's such big groups of Dodger fans on the road. They chant his name during regular season games.

It doesn't matter where we are. He's a fan favorite, and that's before he won World Series MVP. The guy can play. He's been playing on a bad ankle, and what people don't know is that he injured a ligament in one of his ribs, and nobody said anything about it. So, I mean, he's playing just sore. I think most players would have sat down by now and not played, but he was just like, nope, not going to do it. I'm going to get out there and play, do my best. How often do you get a chance to do this?

You never know when your next chance is ever going to be. I give him a lot of credit. A lot of players banged up, and they played through it in the postseason, but Freddie was particularly banged up. Fortunately, his young son is improving and getting better, and they're a very present family at the ballpark. His oldest son, Charlie, is with him all the time. We watch him shag fly balls and take BP, and it's just kind of fun. He's a good family guy. He's just a regular good guy.

What you see is what you get with Freddie Freeman. He's just a solid citizen. Well, Tim, you talk about how he is beloved by the Dodgers organization and the fans. Are people going to leave Dave Roberts alone for a year? Can he get a little bit of a break now? Yeah, he'll get at least a week off here. He knows it comes with the territory.

He knows that that's part of the deal. You're the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. You're going to take heat when you lose a game, and you don't get much credit when you win. But I think if you really watched what he did throughout the postseason, and look at last night, look what he did. I thought he put on a master class in managing a ball club to success. The other things that he does on a daily basis that people don't see, that a lot of fans don't see, the way that he communicates with his players, the way that his players respond to him, the way that he communicates with the press. He's the liaison between the ball club and the fans, and he meets with the press a couple of times a day. He's got relationships that he's built there. He really knows what he's doing, manages his coaches well.

No one's looking around going, what are we doing today? What did he say? Everybody's clear on instructions. So I think what people don't see, all the behind the scenes stuff that goes with being a good manager, Dave does it all. He gets it. And I think last night, and this is not hyperbole, I think this is truth, last night he took another big step toward the Hall of Fame. Wow.

I agree with you there, Tim. Tim Nevert is joining us, Dodgers radio broadcaster. Tomorrow is a bittersweet day because not only is the parade being held for the Dodgers championship, this would have been Fernando Valenzuela's 63rd birthday. I know Fernando is someone that you're very familiar with in many interactions.

How have you been able to kind of take and absorb this on both ends, such the positive for tomorrow, but then also the remembrance? Yeah, I mean, I've known Fernando a long time, and we worked one booth apart. He was in the Spanish booth, I was in the English booth, and I would see him very often. And we would talk a lot and have dinner a bunch. And when he pulled himself off the air and stepped away from the booth, he's a really private guy, so we weren't really sure what was happening at the time.

And then I got notified that there was something going to happen probably, and then 48 hours later, he was gone. And I think it kind of hit me and probably hit a lot of us then that this was such a huge loss, you know, for not only the organization, but for baseball as a whole. And for the city of Los Angeles, for what he represented 1981, you know, you look at the Dodger fan base. I mean, 50% Latino fan base, right? I mean, and that's largely because of Fernando Valenzuela and Fernando Mania in 1981, because, you know, a large swath of the Latino population wasn't going to Dodger games, you know, up until that time. But when Fernando was there, they did, they filled the place, and it was everywhere.

He pitched on the road, too. So I think when you look at Fernando, the loss is enormous. We're going to feel it tomorrow, for sure. There's a new mural going up in Los Angeles in the Boyle Heights section to honor Fernando. Nice. And that was actually planned before the artists knew that Fernando was sick. But it's almost completed now.

They're going to dedicate it on Sunday. But he is just, you know, he's just an icon, and he'll always be a huge part of not only Dodger history, but baseball history and, you know, and social history here in Los Angeles. Hey, Tim, I want to thank you for sharing your experience, your time with Fernando. I want to thank you for coming through and bringing your expertise on how the Dodgers got to this point in the season where they're now World Series champs. Where can people follow you and keep up with you online?

Just pretty much all the basic social media outlets at Tim Everett. We're there, and that's probably the easiest way to follow and see what we got going on. But, you know, we're looking forward to the parade tomorrow, and you don't get too many of these. So it's going to be special, I'm pretty sure.

No doubt about that. Tim, they're making you work tomorrow? You got to work hard? No, I just go watch. Beautiful, beautiful.

I didn't know. Hey, Tim, get behind the mic. We need you for a minute.

So good. You enjoy as well. Yeah, we don't have to do anything. I'm told the parade is just for the players in front office.

I was told the broadcasters, I don't think, are being included. So we just watch and enjoy it and enjoy the ride and get ready for the opening game in Tokyo against the Cubs in 138 days. Hey, good on you. Don't hit the fast-forward button too much. Tim, thank you again for the time. All right. Thank you.