A member of the Yankees organization for more than a decade, Kyle Higashioka is entering the 2020 season with a strong opportunity to make his first big league Opening Day roster. The 29-year-old catcher recently joined MLB.com to discuss the selling points of a California Christmas, aluminum bats, the addition of Gerrit Cole and more:

You’re from Huntington Beach, Calif. What was a typical holiday like in your house growing up?

Growing up, we would usually go to the East Coast to visit with my mom's parents and then my cousins and aunts and uncles on my mom's side, so we were usually in Camp Hill, Pa. If we were lucky, it'd be a white Christmas, which was cool. And then sometimes we'd take like a little trip after that.

Did you have any special traditions? Something you would look forward to every year?

Once we started having Christmas just at our house in my high school years, my mom would make the same Thanksgiving dinner for Christmas. It's our family's collective favorite meal, so that was cool. My mom makes an excellent Thanksgiving dinner. She does it the old-fashioned way in the oven, with the turkey that takes like eight hours to cook. Everything tastes amazing, so we always love that.

If you think back to when you were a kid, is there one Christmas that sticks out? Maybe something you were really hoping for under the tree?

One of the things I would always look forward to was that I would get a new a baseball bat. Usually those things only lasted like a year at a time, because they'd get dented or cracked or whatever. So usually Christmas time was when you would get your new bat for the year, which is always pretty exciting.

Which bats were you partial to? Do you remember any in particular that were your favorite?

As a kid, I think it was whatever was the one that was on sale. I had a Nike bat. I had a couple of Easton bats that were pretty good. I think Easton was the best metal bat company, in my opinion. When I was growing up, the Connexion and then the Stealth; I mean, the Stealth was like a rocket launcher.

What about favorite gifts that you were able to give?

As a kid, it was tough. I was working with limited funds; I didn't have a job yet. I just remember when we gave my brother his first PlayStation or PS2, and giving my parents a new bike. We'd hide it in the neighbors' garage until Christmas Eve and then go over there and sneak it back into our garage and then put it out in the morning. That was always fun.

Be honest. Did you ever peek at the presents early?

I would always look for them, but I never found them. I don't know what the deal was. My parents must have been good at hiding the gifts. I'd always look for them in all the closets and stuff, and I could never find any of them. Good for them.

I'm in New York, and as you’d imagine, it's freezing. Sell me on a California Christmas. What's good about a California Christmas?

In California, the good thing is you can you can still play baseball on Christmas. The weather is usually relatively warm, so I think I remember there being some sort of baseball tournament growing up over the Christmas holidays.

Favorite Christmas movie?

Jingle All the Way. Arnold [Schwarzenegger], the guy is a comedian in himself. Everything is so much funnier in his heavy Austrian accent. The way he says, "Turbo Man," or when he's yelling at Ted to "put that cookie down, now!"

Favorite Christmas song?

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. I always used to think it was funny as a kid.

We may have agree to disagree.

It’s my favorite, it’s not yours.

That’s true, this isn’t about me. On to baseball, how do you look back on the 2019 season, now that you’ve had a little time to absorb it?

Obviously as a team, we were disappointed to not get to the World Series. Our goal is always to win it. But you know, there were a lot of positives from that year, especially with us using so many different players from the 40-man roster. That just showed the depth in the organization. We know that we're going to be primed to compete, even more so this year. We're looking forward to it.

Now that Austin Romine has joined the Tigers, are you going in thinking that the backup catcher job is yours? And how are you preparing for that?

I'm preparing like I would every other year, which is that I'm fighting for a job. I'm not going to believe anything until I see my name on the roster come Opening Day. I don't know, so I don't want to be complacent or assume anything until it's actually done. I'm just going to go into camp fighting for a job.

What did you like about what you were able to show this past year? What positives do you take from it personally?

I had another good year receiving, and also at the plate. I had a good couple of weeks there where Romine and I were kind of switching off every day. I think I showed what I'm capable of. Now it's about just doing that consistently throughout the course of an entire season.

What are you looking forward to about having Gerrit Cole on your team?

We actually played together a little bit on the Angels' elite scout team in high school, so I'm looking forward to being back on his team.

What was he like in high school? What kind of teammate was he?

Great dude. I mean, I had a really good time with him. I think we played against each other once on some Orange County, North-South All-Star team. I hit a line drive up the middle and he was like, ‘Oh my God, you crushed that one!’ He’s always been a really good dude to me, and I'm looking forward to being his teammate again.

What do you think he will add to the rotation?

That probably speaks for itself. He was the best pitcher on the market this year, and we're going to expect a lot from him. But he's capable of a lot for us, so it's going to be fun.