Dodgers Austin Barnes on Julio Urias's season and Clayton Kershaw's return 11/16/22

Julio Arias has often been at his best when Austin Barnes is behind the plate, posting a 1.92 ERA in 33 career games with Barnes catching him. That does not include, of course, Game 6 of the World Series when that was the battery for the Dodgers' final out of their championship season. Right now, Austin is kind enough to be joining us from his car. Comfy there, Austin. Thank you so much for taking a couple of minutes to be with us. I know you caught Julio 12 times this year. You've caught him a lot over the years. What makes Julio so special to where he has become now a Cy Young caliber pitcher in your mind? You know, his demeanor, his pitch ability, there's just so much about him. Seeing his evolution, though, since I first came to the Dodgers when he was, I don't know how old, 17 years old. He was a teenager, right? And, you know, him coming into what kind of pitcher he is now with his, you know, his good fastball, you know, his special curveball and his really good chains up. He's a special talent and, you know, he's even a better teammate, which is kind of hard to do. Austin, what's going on? This is Jerry. You know, we watch Julio Rios, obviously, get better every single year, but he tends to get better in the second half of every season. What makes him so special in that second half? It's just hard, man. He's just so consistent each start. You say he gets better in the second half, he gets better in those big games, too, it seems like. So, you know, he's just so consistent. His curveball, it breaks so many different ways. He can really drive that fastball in on righty's hands. You know, I don't think lefties are righties. I'm sure the splits will say something, but he feels good both sides of the play, honestly. And then, you know, throwing that change up underneath the lefties, too. He just has a lot of weapons to get people out. You know, his durability has been pretty good, too. I think he threw a lot of innings this year, and he put up a really, really special year. Hey, Austin, it's JP. One thing that impressed me about Julio this season was his ability to add speed throughout a game, where maybe that fastball starts 91 in the first inning, and then the second time a batter faces him, it's up a couple ticks. How many guys around the league even do that anymore as starting pitchers? Yeah, I don't think if Julio can get past the first inning, he's usually in a pretty good spot. Yeah, sometimes he'll come out throwing, you know, 89, 90, and also he'll start pumping those 95s out of nowhere. Yeah, you know, he can turn it on. He knows when to step on the gas a little bit. He fills out of bats really well. Yeah, you know, when he starts, he has a great feel for pitching. You know, the way the ball's coming off his hands, the way he spins out of his hands, and you know, he doesn't overthink things with, you know, with crazy tags or scouting reports. He just likes to get his skill and go after hitters. Well, Austin, it's pretty big news. It has not been made official yet by the Dodgers, but according to reports, your good friend Clayton Kershaw is going to be back for his 16th season in Dodger Blue. I want to get your thoughts on Kersh coming back, and also how do you and him have such a tremendous rapport working together? Oh yeah, obviously I'm glad he's back. You know, he is, you know, he's our leader. He's our captain. He's a Dodger organization, you know. He's just an ultra hard worker, but me and him, you know, I think we understand each other a little bit, which kind of makes us work. You know, I understand he's a fiery competitor, and you know, sometimes he gets mad, and sometimes he'll take it out on you. I can handle that, and you know, he just wants to win, and I think that's why we, you know, we can mesh well together a little bit. We're out there just trying to compete, and you know, I can see that he's trying to, he's just trying to get the hitter out, and we're just trying to get through the game, and throw up zeros, and you know, put us up, put us in a chance to win the game. You know, Austin, I got a couple questions for you. You know, first, you swung the bat extremely well last season, especially in the power department. You hit a bomb at Coors Field. Everybody is still talking about it. Also, I want to know what's going on in that back seat. I see some eyeballs in that back seat. What's back there? I'm actually at the grocery store getting some, about to get some milk for my kid, and now he's got his Elmo, and he's got his little truck he likes to drive around, so we kind of load it. We go to the park, and we strap him in pretty good, and you know, he runs, he'll cruise around with that thing around the park all day. Daddy duty. Yeah, off-season daddy duty. Austin, last one for me. I wanted to ask you about Tyler Anderson, obviously leaving, signing with the Angels, the three-year contract. This was the innings pitch leader in his one season as a Dodger. Just how valuable was he, and how difficult is it to replace a pitcher like that? Yeah, T.A. was great, man. He was real sad when he went to the Angels, but it really happened for him at the same time, getting that contract. He was a good teammate, man. He showed up every day, worked really, really hard, and he ate up innings. Like you said, he went out there, and he got outs. He got caught up in strikeouts. He got caught up in putting us in a position to win the game, and he took the ball a lot. He had a career year, and it was really, really exciting for him to see all that pay off and all his hard work, because you see it behind the scenes. We played against him for so long. We really didn't know who he was as a teammate and everything like that, but yeah, he'll be missed for sure. We won't be missing Austin Barnes, because he has a new two-year extension. Austin, thank you so much for taking time to be with us. We'll let you get back to your busy off-season on daddy duty there out in the Inland Empire, wherever you guys are. Thank you so much for taking time to be with us. Thanks, Austin. Appreciate it, guys.