Juices already flowing for new battery
McCann wastes no time starting to get to know Cole and his stuff
Brian McCann is surely the envy of catchers everywhere. The same player who broke into the majors working with Hall of Fame pitchers John Smoltz and Tom Glavine will next season catch a rotation that on paper stacks up with the game’s best in recent years.
The projected starting five of the reigning World Series champion Astros has among them two Cy Young Awards and 10 All-Star Game appearances. Justin Verlander (who accounts for six of the All-Star nods), Dallas Keuchel and Gerrit Cole each started on opening day for their respective teams just last year. Charlie Morton, the only non-former All-Star of the group, was twice a Game 7 hero last fall.
“This is obviously right there at the top,” McCann said. “(With) the arms that we have, the quality arms we’re going to be running at you on a nightly basis, and then the bullpen, we’ve got arms, and we’ve got depth. Those two things are what win championships.”
McCann, a 13-year veteran and clubhouse leader, will work in tandem with fellow Astros catchers Evan Gattis and Max Stassi and pitching coach Brent Strom to try to maximize the weapons of the team’s ubertalented staff. McCann already has started studying video of Cole, the rotation’s newest addition, the beginning of a get-to-know process that will intensify next month in spring training. Never crossed paths
Before they spoke last week, the 33-year-old McCann said he knew the 27-year-old Cole only by name. McCann played in the National League only one of Cole’s five seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, in 2013. They have never faced each other.
“I just watched him pitch from afar. (He has) power stuff,” McCann said. “From what you hear, he’s got great makeup, wants the ball, loves to compete. He’s going to fit in nicely.”
McCann, who has caught in 1,467 career regular-season games, takes a lot of pride in building strong relationships with his pitchers. (In maybe his second conversation with manager A.J. Hinch after the Astros acquired him from the Yankees in November 2016, McCann requested video of each of his new battery mates. He had pored over it by the time he reported for last year’s spring training.)
That’s why he reached out to Cole a few days after the trade.
“We talked a little bit about his career and talked a little bit about mine, just to try to get to know each other a little bit,” Cole said of the conversation. “He gave me a few insights on his philosophy, how he likes to work, how he likes to communicate with his starting pitchers. But other than that it was more just kind of a ‘hello’ and ‘welcome to the club’ and ‘I’m excited to work with you.’ ”
McCann has spent his abbreviated offseason at home in the Atlanta area. He said he took about a month off after the World Series before resuming workouts. Of the Astros’ 18 postseason games, he caught 17 of them.
“It’s been a short offseason,” he said. “You pick up a month later. So we’re a month behind, but at the same time we have spring training to get going. We’ve got six weeks, almost two months, in spring training, so we’re going to have use those days wisely.” Not satisfied
McCann is coming off a season in which he batted .241 with 18 home runs and a .759 OPS in only 349 at-bats, the fewest of his 12 full major league campaigns. He missed time in the regular season for a concussion and a sore knee.
“If you take away six weeks I had last year, I swung the bat pretty well. But I had a six-week period there where I didn’t do much offensively,” he said. “I need to improve all phases of the game.”
McCann faces an uncertain future beyond 2018, as it’s the last guaranteed year of his contract. The seventime All-Star will make $17 million this season. (His previous team, the New York Yankees, will cover $5.5 of it.) The Astros hold a $15 million club option on McCann for 2019.
“I want to play for a lot longer,” McCann said. “I feel healthy. I feel really good. I’m just going to go out this year and see what happens.
“But I love playing here. I absolutely love the city. I love the Astros. So hopefully I’m playing here longer than just this year.”