© John Hefti-USA TODAY Sports
Two years removed from his 14-year major league career, former San Francisco Giants reliever Javier Lopez condoned not only Major League Baseball’s recent pace of play changes on Tolbert & Lund Tuesday afternoon, but also the use of earpieces between catchers and pitchers, saying it could add an amusing element to the sport.
“I would be for that,” Lopez said regarding earpieces. “But I don’t know how that would work. I guess I’m just wondering, do you learn some sort of language that the hitter’s not going to understand? Do you come up with your own form of communication? That’s what I’m wondering, how you’d do that actual part, but it would be kind of funny.”
Lopez finished his career on a seven-year stint with the Giants, starting when he was traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2010. Before that, he debuted with the Colorado Rockies in 2003, played a season with the Arizona Diamondbacks, and won the 2007 World Series with the Boston Red Sox.
Lopez joined the Giants just in time to be a part of their three World Series championships as integral part of their bullpen. Specifically in 2014, he was a part of San Francisco’s “Core Four” group of relievers; along with Jeremy Affeldt, Santiago Casilla, and Sergio Romo.
Two years later, Lopez announced his plans to retire after the 2016 season. Since then he’s gone from being a player to a spectator and occasional analyst, which changed his feelings towards MLB’s pace of play initiatives.
“I go back and forth about this,” Lopez said. “Now that I’ve been out of the game and actually watch a lot of baseball, I see where there’s a lot of gripe as far as there’s not a lot of flow in a lot of games.”
In particular, Lopez thinks communication between the catcher and pitcher would not only eliminate lengthy mound visits, but also provide the occasional unusual moment.
“Maybe you make a guy relax and start making jokes,” Lopez said. “Then, all of a sudden you just have Buster randomly laughing behind you while you’re trying to hit. There are really a lot of things that can come from this, which I think would be really entertaining.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and skip to 7:24 for Lopez on pace of play changes.