Evan Gattis on joining Astros: "We are on the rise."

Evan Gattis got introduced to Astros media on Thursday. Since he was on the phone, there is no way of knowing if he was wearing a white bear suit at the time. But, there's also no way of knowing that he wasn't.

General manager Jeff Luhnow said that Gattis was "one of the most popular Braves' players," and expected that to be the same with the Astros. His story is pretty great, as broken down by Brian here. But, he also seems like a guy who will ingratiate him with Astros fans pretty quickly.

Evan Drellich has an article up based on Gattis' introductory press teleconference from Thursday and Brian McTaggart has a Q&A up on his blog.

Here are some of the highlights from those chats.

On Houston's future:

We are on the rise. I think potential is there and then, you know, it's just a few extra games of margin - the difference is so small between a really good team and a .500 team. ... I'm anxious to talk to (Jose Altuve) about hitting and just kind of figure that guy out a little bit.

On growing up a Rangers fan:

I hate to say, I was a Rangers fan. Astros back in the day, they weren't doing too much, so it was easier to be rooting for your home team. But I've never been a big fan of teams. I've always just liked good players, I liked to watch baseball. That never really changed.

I think I work our pitchers well. I always felt like I did my homework and I'm underrated as a catcher. But I don't know if that's true or not.

Outfield, defense is below average, or it has been in the past. I've been working on trying to improve that. I think that's a weakness, and defense in general is average or less than average. But I think I can make up for it with our lineup, and I'm just eager to get better.

More on a transition to left field:

It's really too early. We'll see how it shakes out and see where our pieces end up at the end of spring. I think it's too early to say what I'll be playing more of. I'm not really worried about positioning and stuff like that right now. I'm just ready to get after it, you know? I was prepared to go play left field with the Braves situation, too, so it's not like anything will really change on my end.

On the lineup's thump:

And it kind of feeds off each, too. It's contagious, especially in the lineup. We've got back-to-back-to-back-to-back guys that can hit, hit for power. It could be scary, especially when you mix in guys like [Jose] Altuve and Dexter Fowler. They're getting on base all the time and there's going to be a lot of RBI potential, a lot of run-scoring potential.