Yasmani Grandal is ready to make the Padres pay.

Yasmani Grandal

Yasmani Grandal was traded to the Dodgers in December, part of the three-team trade that sent Matt Kemp to San Diego and Jimmy Rollins to Los Angeles. (Getty Images)

Yasmani Grandal made his Dodgers debut Tuesday. Coincidentally, it came against the same team that employed him the last three years, the San Diego Padres.

“It’s funny,” he said before the game. “I was going through a scouting report and my wife was like, ‘I barely even know these guys.’ I know maybe half the team. (Will) Middlebrooks, (Yonder) Alonso, (Alexi) Amarista, (Jedd) Gyorko. I know the infield. That’s a good way to put it.”

To hear A.J. Ellis tell it, Grandal might have been selling himself short.

Sure, the Padres are more famous for the players they obtained — Matt Kemp, Wil Myers, Justin Upton, B.J. Upton, Derek Norris, James Shields, Craig Kimbrel — than those they kept. But when Ellis, Grandal and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt met prior to the series to discuss how to pitch to the Padres’ hitters, Ellis said that Grandal had some valuable input.

“He’s had some great insight, especially a lot of their bench guys,” Ellis said. “He had some vital information that’s going to help us, and that familiarity is going to be big for us. It’s great to have him. He’s got a great mind for the game, a great mind for catching and it’s going to be fun to work with him.”

Grandal said he would have had the first regular-season series on the calendar circled no matter what. That it happened to come against the Padres is a mere coincidence. “Just another game,” he said.

The Dodgers acquired Grandal and pitcher Joe Wieland from the Padres in the December trade that sent Matt Kemp to San Diego. Jimmy Rollins also came to the Dodgers, and Padres pitcher Zach Eflin went to the Phillies, in part of the same trade.

Ellis caught for Clayton Kershaw on Monday, pushing Grandal’s chance for revenge back a day.

“I know a bunch of their weaknesses, a bunch of their strengths,” Grandal said. “My talk with Zack (Greinke) was more, it’s going to come down execution more than anything.”

 

This entry was posted in JP on the Dodgers and tagged , , , , , , by J.P. Hoornstra. Bookmark the permalink.

About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.