"Everything happens for a reason."
"I want to win championships."
"I've been on a bunch of teams in my career."
"There aren't too many Mookie Betts, Mike Trouts or Bryce Harpers out there to be grabbed. Those players only come around once every 10 years."
"Losing is incentivized now. You have 80 percent of the teams trying to lose."
"You can't say it's good when guys out there are signing minor league deals and they would be big league players on 80 percent of the teams, but why would a team sign a player when you can pay dirt, and they're not going to win anyway?"
"I'm a very analytical guy, I like to study my swing, I like to study what my back foot is doing, my elbow, whatever it might be, and there's a lot of guys nowadays that are like that. That's the trend of the game, that's the way the game has gone."
"My whole life, I've felt like I've always had to prove myself. It's never been easy, as easy as others who are in my position have had it."
"Rodney Linares really stuck his neck out in Greenville to play me, because they had their prospects, guys who they had invested money in."
"I love my story. I wouldn't change it. It gives it character. It's never been on a silver spoon."
"Everyone's path is their own."
"I told Pedro this story: I used to wear a freakin' Pedro Martinez jersey because it had 'Martinez' on the back."
"I grew up in Miami watching baseball down there, so you could see it from one extreme to the next. It was like, 'Well, this is what baseball is about.'"
"I love my country. I love this country."
"I stand by the Constitution and I stand by the Second Amendment and it's something that I take pride in. It's something that I'll back up."
"Everyone here has a right to their own political beliefs and everybody has the right to stand by what they believe in. That's what makes us American."
"We're all not going to agree on the same things, but that's what makes this country so great."
"I want to be on a team that's got a chance. That's what's fun. That's what you play the game for."
"I've lost a lot. I'm tired of it. It's not fun."
"It's fun coming to the ballpark when you're winning."
"Control what I can control. Study the pitchers, work hard, put the work in. That's all I can control."
"Let's say I have a new respect for guys who come off the bench every day. That's not easy to do."
"Obviously, I'm sad to leave Houston. I love the fans and players and everyone here."
"People are always asking if I was mad at Houston. Honestly, I'm not. The truth of the matter is that when I was there, I didn't perform and they actually did me a favor by cutting me loose. They could have really held me there, not let me leave, bury me in Triple-A, put me behind some prospects and I would never even play."
"Sometimes you just need a spark, and then boom, boom, boom, now the bats come alive."
