Future behind the plate is in good, soft hands
The Blue Jays have two years remaining of Russell Martin as the No. 1 catcher, at a hefty salary of $20 million U.S. per season. However, there is no buyer’s regret.
The original move to sign the veteran free-agent receiver prior to the 2015 season accomplished its goal. The Jays made it to the post-season in his first two seasons handling the pitching staff, ending a frustrating 21-year drought.
Meanwhile, under the radar and cover of Martin, the Jays have become a breeding ground for young catchers who don’t need to be pushed through the farm system before they are actually ready for the next step.
Whenever it is that Martin is done in Toronto, there will be a homegrown catcher ready to step up and take charge. In addition to the current backup — Luke Maile, 26, obtained last year from the Rays as a defensive upgrade over Martin’s other backups — there is catching quality percolating down on the farm.
Of MLB.com’s current listing of the top 30 Jays prospects, five claim squatter’s rights on the diamond and any one of them might be Martin’s replacement, depending on individual development and timing.
The five ranked Blue Jays catching prospects are No. 8 Max Pentecost, No. 9 Hagen Danner, No. 15 Riley Adams, No. 16 Dan Jansen and No. 21 Reese McGuire. This is the deepest set of receivers in the system since 2012, when J.P. Arencibia was the major-league starter with minor leaguers Travis d’Arnaud, Yan Gomes, A.J. Jimenez and Brian Jeroloman.
The Jays understand they need to have a consistency of philosophy behind the plate, so that no matter which level any of these catchers are at, they are handling the pitching staff basically the same way Martin is working with his hurlers at the major-league level.
To effect that goal, the Jays have a roving catching instructor who works closely with all of the receivers at the minor-league camp, then travels around the system during the season to make sure organization philosophies are being followed. That instructor is former Jays catcher Ken Huckaby, who fans might remember for his frantic race to cover third base on a heads-up play by the Yankees’ Derek Jeter on opening day of 2003, which ended with Huckaby crushing the captain’s shoulder and sidelining Jeter for 36 games.
“It’s something that we really made an initiative to put forward, to create a program where the players were teaching each other, and in that type of culture the players build a really, really tight bond with each other because it’s not me, or it’s not the other catching coaches, that are doing the instructing,” Huckaby said. “It’s each other, so that creates that bond of safeness where they can say whatever they want when they’re doing their work.
“In the game of baseball we are competing against each other, but at the end of the day our ultimate goal is to win a World Series and do it together up here in Toronto.”
At one time the golden boy of the Jays’ minor-league fraternity was the 25-year-old Pentecost, drafted in the first round in 2014, 11th overall out of Kennesaw State University in Georgia. His time behind the plate has been limited after two shoulder surgeries in six months in 2014-15, yet the Jays sent him to the Arizona Fall League with their top prospects and brought him to the Rogers Centre in January with other elite young players. They keep the faith.
“I imagine it’s really tough on their end, drafting a guy in the first round and then you can’t really get much out of him in three or four years,” Pentecost admitted. “They have been patient, but at the time they’ve really pushed me, which I greatly appreciate. (It’s) keeping me on top of my game, and at the same time letting me know that they still have a bright future for me.
“The fall league is something I’ve expected to go to for a few years, but with injuries and stuff I’ve never been able to. Going there, I learned a lot and coming to this (seminar in Toronto) was them saying, ‘We still have faith in you. We still want you to play a big role in the future of this program.’ I’m going to take it as a challenge and use it to motivate me, keep me progressing and make it up here one day.”
The catcher leading the way among the five is the 22-year-old Jansen, who, after a corrective procedure for astigmatism, finally saw the light and roared through the system in 2017 — from Dunedin to New Hampshire to Buffalo, combining for a .323 average in 104 games.
“There’s something to be said about our catching program,” Jansen said.
“It starts from the top and Ken Huckaby. He preaches that it’s a brotherhood and we’re all together. There’s no competition. Obviously it’s a competition sport, but when we’re on the same team, even in the same system, everyone’s pulling for each other. That’s just how we’re bred, just how we are. I think that’s why this system’s going to be so elite, this catching program.”
After Pentecost and Jansen, the most advanced is McGuire, 23, obtained from the Pirates in the deal for Drew Hutchison in 2016. McGuire may, in fact, be the best defender of the group, but was injured the first half of 2017 and finally replaced Jansen with the Fisher Cats.
Further down the system are a couple more quality young catchers: Adams, 22, who handled the league championship staff at Vancouver; and Danner, 19, who was drafted in 2017 out of high school, where he was a pitcher and a catcher. The Jays have chosen to have him focus on catching.