Miami head baseball coach J.D. Arteaga joined DMoney on the Coach J.D. Arteaga Show powered by Sallah, Astarita & Cox to break down the Canes' win over Stanford and look ahead to Boston College in the ACC Tournament. A transcript of that interview is below.
DMoney: Coach, just coming off that win over Stanford — what did you see, and how are you feeling going into Boston College today?
J.D. Arteaga: I feel great. The middle of this conference is so bunched up. You look at a team like Stanford — if they win one more game last weekend against Cal, they're the eight seed sitting in a bye. Instead they're the 12 seed. Anybody can beat anybody. They're a talented team, talented roster, really swing the bat. Rob did a great job — he gave up that one run early, and then the second inning was really the make-or-break. He got a leadoff single, then a double scored a run, man on second with nobody out, and the ability to just minimize there and not allow another run gave us so much life. Then we turn around in the bottom of the second and put up a three spot and answer right back. Just a great job by Rob — another great outing — and some of the young guys swinging the bat. What can you say about Alvarez? Four for five, two doubles, two home runs. And Gabo keeps putting up great at-bats. Another RBI in the eighth inning, and it was nice to see us play the game the right way. Leadoff double by Alvarez in the eighth, Dubovic comes in with a ground ball to the right side to move him over, and Milano with a sac fly. No matter what the score is, we're going to continue playing the game the right way, and you get rewarded for that.
DMoney: I want to ask about Alvarez a little more. You've been around so many great catchers, both as a player and here at Miami — guys drafted top 10, guys who did incredible things in the majors. What makes Alvarez unique?
J.D. Arteaga: Really the athleticism. We're at practice on Tuesday and he's taking ground balls at shortstop. At the end of practice he looked pretty darn good — if I didn't know he was a catcher, I'd think he was an infielder. Good actions and everything. But you line him up with the great catchers we've had here going all the way back to Charles Johnson. Yasmani Grandal was a great defensive catcher from the get-go but didn't really swing the bat the way he was capable of until his junior year. Zack Collins was an offensive threat from day one and got better defensively as it went. As far as a starting point, I think Alvarez is ahead of all those guys right now. What he becomes — that's up to him. The sky's the limit. He's got the potential and ability to be the best catcher to ever play here.
DMoney: It seems like he's playing even better lately, especially at the plate, even at this time of year.
J.D. Arteaga: With that freshman mentality, when he was starting once a week — midweek games, a couple weekend games early out of conference — it's awesome to watch him grow before our eyes now that the roles have changed and he's our starting catcher. He's approaching the game so differently. He's more serious about it, studying more, doing things you hope they learn on their own. He was kind of thrown into it and you just see it. It's just awesome to see. He's getting better every week.
DMoney: The resilience of this team — that loss to FSU in the first game of the series was the kind of loss that could have impacts beyond that day. The second day wasn't so good either, but then to bounce back on Sunday and come into the tournament and win the way you did. Just how were you able to get these guys back on track?
J.D. Arteaga: Resiliency is something I pride myself in. Life's tough, we're going to go through a lot of things, and that's what I love about baseball — you fail so much in this game and you learn how to deal with failure. That's something I'm always going to do my best to instill in my teams. I don't think we lost more than two consecutive games all season. We had some crushing losses, won some series where we got beat up pretty good on a Friday night and came back to win Saturday and Sunday. It's a combination of resiliency and staying neutral — you can't get too high in the big games, can't get too low on the bad ones. A loss is a loss. Lose by one in the ninth inning, it's the same as getting blown out by 15. Learn from it, move on. We're 0-and-0 every morning when we wake up. If we come in today overconfident because of what we did yesterday, we'll be in trouble. Play every game like it's your last one. The crazy thing about our sport is you don't know when your last game is going to be. Every day is an opportunity to play tomorrow, and this tournament is just a small taste of that.
DMoney: Yesterday, no errors and some really nice defensive plays. Just how important is that side of the ball going to be down the stretch?
J.D. Arteaga: We have the physical ability to make all those plays. We had a less than stellar practice on Tuesday — the mental focus just wasn't there. My message was I hope we got them all out of the way in practice and not saved any for the game. You've got to get 27 outs. There's no clock that's going to save you. When they give you outs, you've got to take them and stay focused on what we're trying to do.
DMoney: There's been some portal movement with some of your guys. How do you balance players who have different plans for their future while making sure this 2026 team is locked in?
J.D. Arteaga: You're either in or you're out. And by that, it's not just whether you're thinking of coming back next year or weighing your options. If you don't have a role — and that role could be a cheerleader, a pinch runner, whatever it might be — if you don't have a role, you're not helping us and you don't need to be here. We're not carrying guys around just to collect meal money and sit in the dugout. You've got to have a role. At the same time, you might not have the same physical ability as some of the other guys, but if you're in there cheering your team on or pushing guys in practice, that brings something. If you don't bring anything to the table that's going to help us win, then you don't need to be here. We're not going to carry you with us.
DMoney: Pitching-wise, we've got hopefully three games left here in the ACC Tournament. What's the plan in a single-elimination format?
J.D. Arteaga: We want to win. We want to win today, win Friday or Saturday, win the tournament — but we're not going to overextend anybody to win this tournament. Our goal, our real tournament, starts next weekend. Rob could have gone back out yesterday for the eighth inning — he was at 90 pitches through seven. No reason to do that. We might ask him to throw 130 pitches next week. We'd rather take him out early and have guys ready for next weekend. Today will be Collera, then Ciscar on Saturday. Coats is down now — he's been our fourth starter and a very good one, we only lost one midweek game all year, but he's got a little nerve issue in his elbow right now so he's out. We don't know what's going to happen for next week. We've got to worry about the guys that are here and available, and if we get to Sunday, we'll see who starts then.
DMoney: Boston College today at 3:00. When you guys lost a series to them earlier, people were saying, "I guess this team's not as good as we thought." Turns out Boston College is a really good team. What are you seeing from them and what do you guys need to do to win?
J.D. Arteaga: They present a completely different type of challenge. They call it Bird Ball — a lot of small ball, running, things like that. At times that hasn't been our strength, so we've got to be ready for it. We've talked about it, we've worked on it, now it's time for the players to perform and get outs when they give us outs. This is how our ACC season started, with Boston College. If you look back at our season — we're six outs away from being the three seed in this tournament, probably ranked somewhere in the teens, probably hosting a regional. The ninth inning on Friday against Boston College and the ninth inning on Thursday against NC State — we blow a two-run lead and a three-run lead. We get those six outs and we're sitting third in the conference hosting a regional. It's not about payback. We just have to play our best baseball and we'll be fine.
DMoney: Last thing — an update on Daniel Cuvet. I understood he was swinging off a tee.
J.D. Arteaga: Yesterday he swung with a light bat off a tee, so that was the next progression. Now we move on to bigger and better things — it's all on him and how his back responds. He's at the four-week mark now, so we're getting close. We'll see how he feels and go from there.
DMoney: 3:00 today, Miami Hurricanes vs. Boston College Eagles. Coach, appreciate you and good luck today.
J.D. Arteaga: Thanks, appreciate it.
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DMoney: Coach, just coming off that win over Stanford — what did you see, and how are you feeling going into Boston College today?
J.D. Arteaga: I feel great. The middle of this conference is so bunched up. You look at a team like Stanford — if they win one more game last weekend against Cal, they're the eight seed sitting in a bye. Instead they're the 12 seed. Anybody can beat anybody. They're a talented team, talented roster, really swing the bat. Rob did a great job — he gave up that one run early, and then the second inning was really the make-or-break. He got a leadoff single, then a double scored a run, man on second with nobody out, and the ability to just minimize there and not allow another run gave us so much life. Then we turn around in the bottom of the second and put up a three spot and answer right back. Just a great job by Rob — another great outing — and some of the young guys swinging the bat. What can you say about Alvarez? Four for five, two doubles, two home runs. And Gabo keeps putting up great at-bats. Another RBI in the eighth inning, and it was nice to see us play the game the right way. Leadoff double by Alvarez in the eighth, Dubovic comes in with a ground ball to the right side to move him over, and Milano with a sac fly. No matter what the score is, we're going to continue playing the game the right way, and you get rewarded for that.
DMoney: I want to ask about Alvarez a little more. You've been around so many great catchers, both as a player and here at Miami — guys drafted top 10, guys who did incredible things in the majors. What makes Alvarez unique?
J.D. Arteaga: Really the athleticism. We're at practice on Tuesday and he's taking ground balls at shortstop. At the end of practice he looked pretty darn good — if I didn't know he was a catcher, I'd think he was an infielder. Good actions and everything. But you line him up with the great catchers we've had here going all the way back to Charles Johnson. Yasmani Grandal was a great defensive catcher from the get-go but didn't really swing the bat the way he was capable of until his junior year. Zack Collins was an offensive threat from day one and got better defensively as it went. As far as a starting point, I think Alvarez is ahead of all those guys right now. What he becomes — that's up to him. The sky's the limit. He's got the potential and ability to be the best catcher to ever play here.
DMoney: It seems like he's playing even better lately, especially at the plate, even at this time of year.
J.D. Arteaga: With that freshman mentality, when he was starting once a week — midweek games, a couple weekend games early out of conference — it's awesome to watch him grow before our eyes now that the roles have changed and he's our starting catcher. He's approaching the game so differently. He's more serious about it, studying more, doing things you hope they learn on their own. He was kind of thrown into it and you just see it. It's just awesome to see. He's getting better every week.
DMoney: The resilience of this team — that loss to FSU in the first game of the series was the kind of loss that could have impacts beyond that day. The second day wasn't so good either, but then to bounce back on Sunday and come into the tournament and win the way you did. Just how were you able to get these guys back on track?
J.D. Arteaga: Resiliency is something I pride myself in. Life's tough, we're going to go through a lot of things, and that's what I love about baseball — you fail so much in this game and you learn how to deal with failure. That's something I'm always going to do my best to instill in my teams. I don't think we lost more than two consecutive games all season. We had some crushing losses, won some series where we got beat up pretty good on a Friday night and came back to win Saturday and Sunday. It's a combination of resiliency and staying neutral — you can't get too high in the big games, can't get too low on the bad ones. A loss is a loss. Lose by one in the ninth inning, it's the same as getting blown out by 15. Learn from it, move on. We're 0-and-0 every morning when we wake up. If we come in today overconfident because of what we did yesterday, we'll be in trouble. Play every game like it's your last one. The crazy thing about our sport is you don't know when your last game is going to be. Every day is an opportunity to play tomorrow, and this tournament is just a small taste of that.
DMoney: Yesterday, no errors and some really nice defensive plays. Just how important is that side of the ball going to be down the stretch?
J.D. Arteaga: We have the physical ability to make all those plays. We had a less than stellar practice on Tuesday — the mental focus just wasn't there. My message was I hope we got them all out of the way in practice and not saved any for the game. You've got to get 27 outs. There's no clock that's going to save you. When they give you outs, you've got to take them and stay focused on what we're trying to do.
DMoney: There's been some portal movement with some of your guys. How do you balance players who have different plans for their future while making sure this 2026 team is locked in?
J.D. Arteaga: You're either in or you're out. And by that, it's not just whether you're thinking of coming back next year or weighing your options. If you don't have a role — and that role could be a cheerleader, a pinch runner, whatever it might be — if you don't have a role, you're not helping us and you don't need to be here. We're not carrying guys around just to collect meal money and sit in the dugout. You've got to have a role. At the same time, you might not have the same physical ability as some of the other guys, but if you're in there cheering your team on or pushing guys in practice, that brings something. If you don't bring anything to the table that's going to help us win, then you don't need to be here. We're not going to carry you with us.
DMoney: Pitching-wise, we've got hopefully three games left here in the ACC Tournament. What's the plan in a single-elimination format?
J.D. Arteaga: We want to win. We want to win today, win Friday or Saturday, win the tournament — but we're not going to overextend anybody to win this tournament. Our goal, our real tournament, starts next weekend. Rob could have gone back out yesterday for the eighth inning — he was at 90 pitches through seven. No reason to do that. We might ask him to throw 130 pitches next week. We'd rather take him out early and have guys ready for next weekend. Today will be Collera, then Ciscar on Saturday. Coats is down now — he's been our fourth starter and a very good one, we only lost one midweek game all year, but he's got a little nerve issue in his elbow right now so he's out. We don't know what's going to happen for next week. We've got to worry about the guys that are here and available, and if we get to Sunday, we'll see who starts then.
DMoney: Boston College today at 3:00. When you guys lost a series to them earlier, people were saying, "I guess this team's not as good as we thought." Turns out Boston College is a really good team. What are you seeing from them and what do you guys need to do to win?
J.D. Arteaga: They present a completely different type of challenge. They call it Bird Ball — a lot of small ball, running, things like that. At times that hasn't been our strength, so we've got to be ready for it. We've talked about it, we've worked on it, now it's time for the players to perform and get outs when they give us outs. This is how our ACC season started, with Boston College. If you look back at our season — we're six outs away from being the three seed in this tournament, probably ranked somewhere in the teens, probably hosting a regional. The ninth inning on Friday against Boston College and the ninth inning on Thursday against NC State — we blow a two-run lead and a three-run lead. We get those six outs and we're sitting third in the conference hosting a regional. It's not about payback. We just have to play our best baseball and we'll be fine.
DMoney: Last thing — an update on Daniel Cuvet. I understood he was swinging off a tee.
J.D. Arteaga: Yesterday he swung with a light bat off a tee, so that was the next progression. Now we move on to bigger and better things — it's all on him and how his back responds. He's at the four-week mark now, so we're getting close. We'll see how he feels and go from there.
DMoney: 3:00 today, Miami Hurricanes vs. Boston College Eagles. Coach, appreciate you and good luck today.
J.D. Arteaga: Thanks, appreciate it.
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