Dodgers

Dodgers: A Winter Meetings Chat With Will Ireton

I went down to the Winter Meetings in San Diego on the first day, Sunday. The hotel where I went was the Hilton Bayfront along the bay, where there were some Minor League type meetings going on.

I saw Will Ireton, best known as the former translator for Kenta Maeda, heading into a meeting so I was hoping to talk to him later. I was fortunate to run into him a few hours later and he was gracious enough to chat with Dodgers Nation. Below are some highlights of our conversation.

Some Selections From Our Talk

From 2016 through 2018 Will Ireton was the translator for Kenta Maeda. He was known as the comedic foil for Maeda, his excellent outfield catches during batting practice and his feats of strength.

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Weight of the ? on his shoulders! #WillStrong

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In 2019 Ireton went to work with the Dodgers AAA club in Oklahoma City. I asked him what his role was for OKC.

I was what they call a development coach in sort of a new new position that is being embraced across the industry where there’s somebody in charge of operating the technology and all these things that we have you know in our organization. Some of the technology like Rapsodo, Trackman as you might know.

I watch a lot of the AAA game streams and I’d seen Ireton working as a first base coach. I asked him about it.

The manager asked me if I’d could be willing to help out more on the on field aspect and I was more than happy to be involved in the game so I gladly did.

With the big change for Ireton in 2019 I asked him about some highlights for him.

I think just being able to see all the promotions (as) a lot of the young players were sent to the Major Leagues to make their big league debut. It was special to see and be part of all that. I think that was one of the more memorable ones. (Something else) I think just the daily interaction with the players, it’s different from the Major League side.

As for 2020 he couldn’t say much yet.

I’m not sure, yet. It’s just the kind of, we’re still in the middle of being able to talk about it right now.

Final Thoughts

First and foremost, a big “thank you” to Will Ireton. He was quite gracious and I appreciated his answers.

People like Will Ireton are important to the future of baseball and the direction the game is going. The technology that is used needs special attention. With Ireton getting various experiences within the Dodgers organization don’t be surprised with him moving into a front office role at some point.

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