HE’S THEIR ROCK
Angels pitchers can count on solid defense from their detail-oriented catcher
Martin Maldonado is a master class in defense He can expertly block balls, frame pitches and absolutely vaporize baserunners, sometimes from his knees.
But to understand Martin Maldonado’s command of defense, consider this: Maldonado can be a deterrent to the opposition even when he’s just looking at his pitcher.
It was between innings of one of his early starts last season that Parker Bridwell approached the Angels catcher in the dugout and asked why he kept shaking his head.
Because, Maldonado explained, he wanted Bridwell to shake his head right back as a way to convince the hitter that the two of them were scurrying through signs, struggling to agree on what pitch to throw.
Just one more thing for the poor guy to think about while attempting to concentrate on squarely hitting a tiny, spinning baseball with a skinny, round bat.
Stealing signs is generally considered a no-no in baseball. Faking signs, however, apparently is just fine.
“It shows his attention to detail,” Bridwell said. “He’s messing with the hitters all the time. He can slow his thoughts down in the heat of a game and think about stuff like that. Incredible.”
With a reloaded lineup built around Mike Trout, the Angels enter a season in which their fate figures to hinge largely on the health and performance of their rotation.
And no player will have a greater influence on that group than the 30-year-old Maldonado, who in 2017 was an everyday starter for the first time and also won a Gold Glove.
Such honors typically are earned over time, endeavors as nuanced as catching often requiring an accumulated body of work before being fully appreciated.
But Maldonado was recognized after his first season in which he appeared in as many as half his team’s games.
“He’s engaged, always,” starter Tyler Skaggs said. “He’s one of those guys where you can tell he’s going along with you pitch-bypitch. He knows exactly what I want to throw.”
During a spring training game against Seattle, Skaggs escaped a particularly thorny first-inning situation by freezing Nelson Cruz with a changeup for a strikeout.
Though the changeup isn’t a pitch Skaggs has relied on heavily in the past, he and Maldonado had discussed using it more during their pregame meeting.
An hour or so later, with two strikes on Cruz, Skaggs wanted to throw the changeup, a decision he made at the exact instant Maldonado called for the pitch.
“He gives you confidence because he has confidence in himself,” reliever Blake Parker said. “And his confidence isn’t overwhelming. It’s a quiet confidence.”
Maldonado threw out 29 of 75 baserunners for a 38.7% caughtstealing rate and had the secondbest fielding percentage among catchers. He was third in defensive WAR, meaning he was stellar by measures both old and new school.
Perhaps the most telling statistic, however, was the fact no catcher in baseball played more innings than Maldonado, defensefirst manager Mike Scioscia simply unwilling to compromise.
That remained the case even as Maldonado’s offense faded late in the season, something he now concedes was an issue. To combat the problem, Maldonado said he will tweak his in-season workout regimen. In the winter, the Angels added veteran Rene Rivera with the idea that he would be a more capable backup, an option easier to turn to in the best interest of all involved.
Still, Scioscia admitted that not playing Maldonado will be one of his most difficult lineup decisions.
“With Rene, there’s no doubt that we can work him in to keep Martin a little fresher offensively,” he said. “But it still comes down to the defensive component that a catcher brings, and Martin had an unbelievable year last year.”
Bridwell called Maldonado “an advanced scout,” “another coach” and a “cheat sheet,” so comprehensive is his understanding of the opposing hitters and his own pitchers.
Known for his tireless video work, Maldonado regularly will watch an hour or more to prepare for an upcoming series on the road as soon as the Angels’ plane lands, something that routinely can happen well after midnight.
He and Steve Soliz, the team’s catching coach, will gather, order room service and begin to devour the opponent’s tendencies.
Because of this relentless desire to prepare, no one in the Angels organization spends more time with Maldonado than Soliz, who said the two are “like a husband and wife. We have our good days and our bad days. But we both know what the goal is.”
Shortly after joining the Angels in a December trade in 2016, Maldonado requested video on all the pitchers who would enter spring training with a chance to make the team.
General manager Billy Eppler sent him an iPad loaded with hours of innings. Two weeks later, Eppler received an extensive email in which Maldonado had broken down each pitcher’s pluses and minuses.
“I knew Martin took this job very seriously, and that’s so important in a catcher,” Eppler said. “You could just trust the person, the character. Trust what we were getting back there. Trust the passion.”
And the Angels pitchers could definitely trust Maldonado’s every action, even the ones designed to cause mistrust among the other team.
“It’s nice to have that security as a pitcher,” Bridwell said, “to know there’s a wall back there.” A wall and a rock, one the Angels’ rotation will cling to all summer long.