MLB WORLD SERIES: RAYS VS BREWERS

October 24, 2026

Taylor Walls

American Family Field

Tampa Bay Rays

Pregame 2 Press Conference

Q. Taylor, you talked after the game last night about how much fun the atmosphere here was. What are you looking forward to seeing at home and what your fans can do? Also, the Brewers haven't played at The Trop in like four years or three years. What kind of advantage maybe do you guys have over them because of all the quirks at The Trop?

TAYLOR WALLS: I guess each stadium kind of has its own tendencies of whatever team's at home, they know the ballpark, know how the balls carom off the walls in the corners. You have the element at both ballparks of the ball potentially hitting somewhere up on the roof.

We're excited to get back there and have our home fans get to experience a World Series. It's awesome. You can tell the energy that their fans have here. I expect pretty much the same thing for it to be our way when we get there, that environment last night. I expect tonight to be the same way. It was amazing. It's fun to play in games like that.

Q. I'm from the Latin American media. You're undoubtedly the voice of authority on playing defense, especially multiple positions on the infield. I know you were drafted as a shortstop and you played third base and second base on the earlier stages of your career and you even were a finalist as a Gold Glove in utility. You played with two Mexican players that are the core of this new generation, both Isaac Perez, your former teammate, and now Jonathan Aranda. My question to you is how much does it come into play on having the shortstop background and then pivoting to other infield positions because that's the case for them as well. And my follow-up question is what is your assessment around how they've been improving their defense throughout the years by seeing them on a day-to-day basis?

TAYLOR WALLS: To answer your first question, shortstop is definitely -- to me, having played all three, shortstop is definitely the toughest. I think your -- the margin for error is just significantly smaller. The angles you have to take in order to put yourself in a position to make an accurate and timely throw to first to get a runner out is harder.

At second you have more time to catch the ball, to set your feet, to reorganize and reposition your body to make an accurate throw. At third base, you're typically a lot closer. Balls are hit a lot harder and get to you a lot faster. So you have more time there as well.

Shortstop, I think there's more -- you have different options as to how you could field certain balls. So you have more decisions to make at third base. It's really just being a hockey goalie and catching whatever you see come at you.

At shortstop you have decisions of whether you're going to catch it on the forehand, catch it on the backhand, come through a ball, elongate the hop to try to get something a little bit more routine, and it's all based on kind of the speed of the ball, how fast the runner is going to get down the line, and the throw is just significantly further.

I think that if you can play shortstop and learn the footwork of shortstop and how to kind of position yourself to throw the ball before you catch it, it makes playing the other two positions significantly easier.

To answer your second question, both of those guys, Isaac, one of my favorite teammates I've had to this point. We kind of were coming up together. I think I saw when he was creating his own lane of who he was when he was coming up with us.

I saw his three-homer game when he had it at The Trop, and just kind of seeing his evolvement and development, minus who he is off the field to me, which he is an incredible, special human being. As a player, you know what you're going to get. He leans into what he does significantly well.

And Jonny is the same way. I think this year he's taken three or four steps forward defensively. He just -- I think I said it the other day somewhere. The toughest play for me for a first baseman is that communication play of knowing when to go get a ball in the 4 hole or whether to forfeit it and let your second baseman get it and redirect and go to first to make it an easier play for the pitcher not to have to cover.

When you can master that of knowing who is at second and just the feel for the ball off bat and knowing when to shut it down and go to first and make that an easier play for them, that's probably one of the toughest plays for a first baseman to master. I don't know that he's made a mistake doing that all year, knock on wood.

Q. How much do you enjoy that mental side of playing defense and all those factors that you have to calculate instantly basically to make the right play?

TAYLOR WALLS: That's kind of why I play the game, honestly, do anything, whether it's playing ping pong, video games, basketball, whatever, throwing a football in the yard. I think part of what makes me appreciate competing is trying to just find little flaws in whoever I'm competing against, what they're doing, trying to take advantage of that without them knowing it.

I think those are the small things behind just the game that you see being played in front of you that I appreciate the most that kind of give me that drive to just want to do it over and over again.

It's almost like a puzzle that you can never solve, or that once you solve it, the next day it's going to bring you a different test of something you need to figure out that day to maybe give you a slightly bigger advantage than you had the day before.

I don't know, it's kind of like a math problem. Every day you have a new one. You have to look at the environment around you, the people that you're playing, the things that they may present that are a little bit different than what you did before, try to expose those holes as much as you can while trying to not let them know you're doing it, and hopefully at the end of the day win.

Q. It seems like the Rays as an organization have that ethos too, they love looking at problems and finding ways to solve it. Did you find from when they drafted you or you came in that they match up really well with you mentally and that what they value is the same as what you value?

TAYLOR WALLS: I didn't know it early on. I think I kind of learned it along the way, still am learning it, just to really how dedicated they are to that same aspect. I feel like how I kind of view everything, not just baseball.

I think it's such a huge competitive advantage. I think that motor never turns off regardless of the outcome, whether you win, fail, have a great season, have a terrible season. I just think the drive to wake up the next day and to try to do better, to try to figure out something that someone else hasn't, that's what motivates me. That's why I do what I do regardless of baseball, just in anything.

That's why I feel like I'm very determined in the things that I do and focus, and as I've gotten older and as I've grown in this organization, I can tell that those things are pretty consistent between us.

Q. You mentioned the fan support you're expecting at The Trop. We've seen what it's like when the Buccaneers or Lightning win. What is unique or special as an athlete to be in that Tampa Bay area?

TAYLOR WALLS: It's awesome, especially right now. The past ten years there's been incredible -- every team that's there, they feel like they figure out ways to win right now. The community there has been awesome towards us, towards every one of those other teams.

To be able to come back and have that fan base, just that entire area, the state of Florida really, to kind of be behind you and to -- you can just feel that they want it as bad as you do, and that's special.

Q. Is there much of a connection between you guys and the Bucs and the Lightning? Do you hear from those players? Are you guys friends with them?

TAYLOR WALLS: We go to Lightning games as much as we get a chance to, they come to ours. Bucs, the same way. I feel like any time there's an opportunity where we're not playing and they are, we're always there in some capacity. The support system between all of us is pretty close.

Q. By defensive runs saved, you and Brice Turang are rated the two best infielders in the game. While competing for a championship, is there even an opportunity to watch him closely and pick anything up from him, as maybe he may be doing from you, while the World Series is going on?

TAYLOR WALLS: It's interesting because you play every day, so you rarely get chances to watch other guys play, especially guys you know that are of caliber or are really special out there defensively.

The play he made in the ninth last night, I know it got overturned, but just competing against him must suck, but as a fan of appreciating good baseball, like making a play like that in that type of moment, that's an incredible play, dude -- going to your left, the ball is kind of taking a tricky bounce, being able to work with the momentum of hop, kick, and up, throwing it as you're falling away, making a pretty good, accurate throw, and getting it there in a timely fashion for him to have a chance to turn it, as a defender, you appreciate stuff like that.

I haven't really talked to him ever really. I know that he's very special out there. He's at the top of all the defensive metrics, I feel like, year in and year out. I'm excited to get to watch him play, but hopefully we beat him.

Q. You guys have only lost one of Drew Rasmussen's starts since the All-Star break. I'm just curious, what's the feeling going in today knowing you've got your ace on the mound tonight?

TAYLOR WALLS: Yeah, confident, knowing that he's going to show up. We're going to show up behind him. He's going to do what he does, what he's been doing all postseason. Things happen. It could not go his way or he could not have his stuff, but he's going to go out there and compete, regardless of whether he has it, whether he doesn't, whether he's even more lights out than what he was the past few starts. He's going to go out there and give it his all and compete, and we're going to do the same thing behind him and hopefully can take this one.

Q. Freddy Peralta's numbers since you all got him, particularly since the start of September, speak for themselves, but what has he added to the clubhouse, to the mix? I know you were already in first place when you got him, but what's he brought along?

TAYLOR WALLS: An extreme vibes guy. He's always smiling. I've never seen him not smile. From the time he steps foot in the clubhouse to the time he leaves, he's always working. He's on the first bus in and the last bus out.

For our Latin group in our clubhouse too, he's been a tremendous help. I feel like just being able to have another leader in there, somebody that's very open, that communicates extremely well, and really just leads by example. I think his work ethic was very obvious as soon as he got here. His struggles that he had in the first half of the season was definitely not due to lack of work.

I think when he got here, I'm not really sure exactly what happened -- I don't know that really anybody is sure of that. But I just know they made him feel like himself. I feel like he's enjoyed every moment he's been here, we've enjoyed having him, and he's been a tremendous add to our team. He's a huge part of why we're at where we are.

Q. You talk a lot about your defense and the infield defense. What about the outfield defense and the ground they can cover with the current group of Chandler, Jonny, or Cedric and Victor Mesa?

TAYLOR WALLS: It's special. I've said it before, I think Vic's going to win multiple Gold Gloves, potentially a Platinum Glove. The jumps that he gets on balls out there is second to none. It's got to be first. If it's not, you've got to check how they're grading it because it should be.

Jonny, the same way. I feel like Jonny's been playing tremendous defense all year. Ced has too when he's been out there. Chandler has found a way to lean into the things he does well and to stop the bleeding on maybe the things that he doesn't. His ability to get the balls and get rid of them rather than maybe trying to gather himself, take a shuffle, and make a throw, I feel like he's really understood maybe his arm strength isn't the strongest, so he just needs to get to it and get rid of it. I feel like that's helped prevent guys from going home to second way more than they did last year.

You've got to give credit to Dickerson too. I think what Corey did coming in this year in Spring Training, really just letting each one of those guys know what they did well, but really what they didn't do well.

I think that last year we missed a lot of the opportunities to explain how some of the things they struggled with, like why that happened, I think he did a really good job this year of coming in and assessing, okay, our jumps are really bad, our reaction times are really bad. Let's not worry about routes. Let's worry about how quick and how good we can get our jumps to be, and let's just get rid of the balls as quickly as possible.

I think they work extremely hard in Spring Training to do that. I think it's shown this year. The relay Vic had last night and the one he had against New York, I don't know there's another outfielder that makes that play. So it's special.

Q. Taylor, you weren't in the bigs when this happened, but today is the anniversary of Brett Phillips' walk -off hit in the World Series. What do you remember about that moment, and what would it mean for the Rays to have a special moment like that tonight?

TAYLOR WALLS: I remember watching on TV. I was in Virginia at my wife's house.

I just remember the chaos of emotion I felt when that ball was hit of knowing he got a base hit and then oh, my God, he missed it. Then, oh, no, he tripped. Then seeing how he scored. I mean, that was -- I don't know how many times I went from being excited to being like oh, shoot, I don't know what's about to happen, to back excited.

I hope I don't have to experience that whirlwind of emotion, and I hope we can get through this one pretty easy to be honest with you.

Yeah, that was a special day in Rays history. I know Brett Phillips personally. He's an awesome guy. He's been doing a lot for the team this year. For him to have that moment, it was great.