The Yankees are actually 90 video games into their season, one which started with them overhauling their catcher place. Gary Sanchez went out, Ben Rortvedt got here in, and simply six days earlier than the season started, so did Jose Trevino.
Rortvedt has been a non-factor up to now, enjoying solely within the minor leagues, with an indirect damage and knee surgical procedure robbing him of any kind of constant enjoying time. As such, the catching duties have been dealt with just about solely by Trevino and Kyle Higashioka (Rob Brantly began one sport in May). The duo has mixed for 12 residence runs — simply two greater than Sanchez has for Minnesota — however their manufacturing is exhibiting up in massive methods at different spots.
Per FanGraphs, the Yankees’ are fourth within the league in Wins Above Replacement from their catchers. The uncooked offensive numbers don’t look nice (.218/.264/.379), however that’s considerably by design. The Yankees went all in on catcher protection, not offense, and boy is it working.
There isn’t any defensive place on the sphere that’s tougher to guage with the bare eye. But with the assistance of fancy numbers and computer systems, the affect of the Trevino-Higashioka tandem actually begins to sing. By FanGraphs’ Defensive Runs Above Average, the Yankees are lapping the sphere. That statistic has the Yankees at 23.0, 9 runs forward of the second-place Arizona Diamondbacks. On a person degree, Trevino is the perfect within the enterprise.
The first-year Yankee has been price 16.6 Runs Above Average, essentially the most of any catcher. Combine that along with his .422 slugging share and 106 wRC+ — good if not spectacular numbers — and also you get an All-Star within the age of poor hitting catchers.
“One of the reasons we’re in this position right now is because of you,” Aaron Boone advised Trevino within the video the place the 29-year-old discovered he had made the All-Star staff. “There’s a little break in the championship run next week. I think you should go to L.A. to be in the Midsummer Classic.”
The magic carpet journey for Trevino, who grew up rooting for the Yankees, is all of the extra spectacular when contemplating he principally needed to study his pitching workers on the fly. He performed all of 1 sport with the Yankees in spring coaching after getting traded from Texas. Through his 62 video games of motion within the common season, he’s the second-most beneficial catcher within the American League.
“If you had told me a year ago I wouldn’t have believed you,” Trevino mentioned of his All-Star nod. “A New York Yankee, and then an All-Star? I wouldn’t have believed you.”
Higashioka won’t be an All-Star. His .171/.214/.318 slash line is pretty obscene, and value him a hefty quantity of enjoying time, which has rightly shifted to Trevino. Higashioka has a 47 wRC+, that means he’s 53 p.c worse than the typical hitter. But his defensive acumen is a part of the cocktail that despatched Sanchez packing, and that’s nonetheless prevalent whilst he’s getting worse on the plate. Higashioka’s 6.2 Defensive Runs Above Average places him within the prime 15 of MLB catchers, as each he and Trevino have excelled within the effective artwork of framing.
Statcast tracks catcher framing — primarily the observe of stealing strikes by making pitches outdoors the strike zone seem like they aren’t — and quantifies the quantity of runs a catcher saves by doing it. Trevino is, but once more, on the very prime of the leaderboard. He has been price eight runs by that metric whereas changing a league-best 54.2% of pitches within the areas simply outdoors the zone into referred to as strikes.
He’s been significantly adept at fooling umpires on the backside of the strike zone. A staggering 65.1% of pitches in that area that hitters don’t swing at have develop into strikes because of Trevino’s tender fingers. In maintaining with the theme, that’s the finest charge in MLB.
Higashioka isn’t in the identical stratosphere as Trevino in these classes, however only a few are. What Higashioka is sweet at can be getting these calls on the backside of the zone and throwing out runners. In reality, each catchers are good at shutting down the operating sport. The Yankees have allowed simply 26 stolen bases this 12 months, the fewest in MLB, and whereas the pitchers deserve some credit score there as nicely, it’s one more tangible piece of proof that changing Sanchez’s energy bat with two pristine gloves was the appropriate resolution.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com