Any dialog about Jose Trevino’s 2022 season ought to begin with the positives.
The profession backup was traded to the Yankees simply days earlier than the season started and never solely put a vice grip on the beginning catcher position, he additionally made his first All-Star group, gained a Gold Glove, captured the Platinum Glove for greatest defender in the whole league, and guided a pitching workers that completed second within the American League in Wins Above Replacement.
Along the best way, he additionally slashed .248/.283/.388 (.671 OPS), respectable numbers for a catcher. However, he was, by almost each metric, a horrendous hitter within the second half of the 12 months. Long earlier than going 1-for-22 within the postseason, capped off by an 0-for-11 towards the Astros within the American League Championship, the indicators of his offensive decline had been evident for months.
Trevino’s journey to the All-Star Game was powered by a .251/.299/.415 (.714 OPS) first-half slash line. In his 184 plate appearances earlier than the All-Star break, he was three p.c higher than a league-average hitter. In 169 plate appearances afterward, Trevino’s 77 wRC+ displays a hitter who was 23% worse than the common joe.
September and October had been notably tough. In 21 common season video games throughout these two months, he struck out 14 instances and reached base 13 instances. The poor end-of-season numbers are possible a product of Trevino being behind the plate greater than he ever had earlier than. Prior to becoming a member of the Yankees, probably the most video games Trevino had ever performed in a season was 89 for the 2021 Texas Rangers. His ninetieth look of the 2022 season got here in late-August, proper as his bat started to shrivel.
One apparent factor that derailed Trevino’s All-Star season was his incapability to constantly punish fastballs. According to Statcast, Trevino hit .310 towards fastballs within the month of June with a .552 slugging proportion. His numbers towards fastballs from that time on go up and down like an elevator: .258 slugging proportion in July adopted by .400 in August, then all the best way all the way down to .107 in September. While he was fed a barely heavier food plan of heaters — 49% of the overall pitches he noticed in June had been fastballs, in comparison with 52% in September — that’s not a large enough distinction to clarify the immense drop off in manufacturing.
He was attacked largely the identical method all season, a minimum of when it comes to opponents’ pitch utilization. But in September, the person who hit for a excessive common towards breaking pitches all season all of the sudden stopped. From May to August, Trevino by no means had a single-month batting common under .261 towards breakers. In three of these months, it was above .280. But the beforehand dependable catcher spat out a .233 common towards breaking stuff in September, coupled with eight strikeouts that had been his most towards any pitch kind in any month of the season. That’s a part of the rationale why his batting common deflated so rapidly. Trevino was hitting .269 on August 17 and completed the 12 months at .248. Notching simply 18 hits in your closing 98 probabilities will do this.
Luckily for Trevino’s taking part in time, Kyle Higashioka by no means stepped up sufficient to take the beginning gig. Though Highashioka did put collectively a pleasant 19-for-56 stretch (.339) because the season wound down, Trevino’s protection and months of being within the Yankees’ good graces had been sufficient to maintain placing him on the market. Neither catcher has ever been one to impress scouts with their all-fields method or refined plate self-discipline. That’s the nicest approach to say that neither have ever been good at hitting. But with each strolling in lower than 5 p.c of their plate appearances — and, in flip, rising from the rubble with sub-.285 on-base percentages — pitchers discovered that they didn’t even have to get the ball within the zone to get the catching tandem out.
Ben Rortvedt is, theoretically, peering over each males’s shoulders. But Rortvedt, who at one level final offseason might need been in line to start out, was injured for a lot of the 12 months and has additionally by no means finished a lot with the stick. Rortvedt bought into simply 42 Triple-A video games and hit an underwhelming .221/.307/.396. He was additionally acquired, at the start, as a defensive-minded backstop, serving as a mandatory departure from Gary Sanchez, one of many gamers he was traded for. So even with Rortvedt’s general statistics trying very unappetizing, his 10.2% stroll charge in Triple-A is one other talent that the Yankees’ incumbent catchers do not need.
Rortvedt solely being 25 years previous, having one other minor-league possibility, and the superfluous nature of a 3rd catcher means he shall be in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre once more barring damage, a shock commerce or an impossible-to-ignore spring coaching. The Yankees are additionally extraordinarily unlikely to bench somebody who simply collected as a lot {hardware} as Trevino did. The Carlos Rodon pickup indicators that the membership is greater than okay with being a pitching-forward operation, and Trevino’s mastery of pitch framing and sport planning is a linchpin of that. He goes to play, and doubtless play loads, so the Yankees need to stay with no matter he does on the backside of the order.
Most of the present catcher state of affairs is supposed to bide the Yankees’ time till Austin Wells is able to deal with the large leagues. Wells, 23, simply lit Double-A on hearth, displaying the kind of discerning eye and slugging means that Trevino and Higashioka very clearly don’t possess. Wells’ .261/.360/.479 line would play properly in any group’s lineup, however these numbers got here in Double-A, and so they had been from only a 55-game pattern. This will not be Francisco Alvarez, the Mets’ catching wonderboy who can and may issue into their 2023 plans. Wells will want a 12 months or two of incubation, and Trevino is the person conserving his seat heat.
A extra two-headed deployment is the best way for Trevino to keep away from fatigue. Heading into final season, supervisor Aaron Boone was adamant that neither Trevino or Higashioka was the starter, quite that they had been a 1A and 1B duo. While Trevino performed properly sufficient to erase Higashioka, he might need in actual fact performed too properly, resulting in the overuse that made his time within the batter’s field much less of a revelation and extra of a chore.
The former Ranger was hitting the ball hardest in June and July, when his common exit velocity sat round 90 miles per hour. Severe dips got here in August and September, coinciding with him whiffing on over 23% of his swings, a troubling rise from the 19.5% in April-July. The hope is {that a} regenerative offseason can appropriate a few of that, in addition to perhaps an additional scoop of Higashioka to present him some relaxation days. But if the Trevino who hit like a cross-eyed drummer exhibits up once more subsequent 12 months, the Yankees might need to get extra inventive than that.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com