Stallings among elite defensively
CHICAGO — Jacob Stallings sat atop the brick backstop at Wrigley Field Sunday and smiled. Having crashed into the protective netting to snag a foul pop from Chicago Cubs shortstop Javier Baez, Stallings chuckled at his brief brush with disaster and matter-of-factly tossed the ball back to pitcher Sam Howard, another fine defensive play in the books.
While the Pirates’ season thus far has certainly been a struggle — losses in seven of nine games,
Stallings hitting just .143 — one hidden gem has been what Stallings has done behind the plate. Quietly, because that’s his nature, Stallings has morphed into an elite defensive catcher, perhaps the best in baseball.
According to FanGraphs, Stallings this season has a mark of 2.4 Defensive Runs Above Average (DEF). Not only is that the best at his position, but it’s also tops at any position throughout Major League Baseball. By a pretty good margin, too. Second to Stallings is Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez at 1.5.
Looking strictly at catchers, Stallings has been worth 3 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) thus far, per FanGraphs, which ties him with Wilson Ramos of the Mets for the No. 1 spot.
“It would be hard for me to say that he hasn’t been the best defensive catcher in baseball,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He’s thrown guys out. He’s blocked balls that have been outstanding. He’s received well. Then, the intangibles that we talk about in terms of what we want out of our catchers, I
think he’s done a really nice job with it.”
For Stallings, the defensive evolution isn’t new. The process actually started last year, when he really started to dig in to catching analytics with former bench coach Tom Prince (a catcher himself), as well as bullpen catchers Jordan Comadena and Heberto Andrade.
This year, Glenn Sherlock has replaced Prince as one of Stallings’ primary coaches, although much of the work is done with Comadena, the two of them routinely nerding out on the intricacies of catching.
As far as pitch-framing, that has included all kinds of stuff that normal people probably don’t think about. Nuance such as where Stallings would set up or how long he would let the ball travel.
Also, softening his hands so there was no sudden motion that might set off an umpire. Even something as simple as the position of his glove or where he moves it while receiving the ball.
“It’s something I worked on really hard last year,” Stallings said. “In August and September, I really felt like I found what I needed to do in terms of receiving pitches. Jordan is probably more obsessed with it than me. We clicked right away. He’s been great. Glenn has been great. Herbie has been great. Whatever we want to work on, they’re there. Jordan, we’re texting after just about every game I catch. He’s watching film of pretty much every close pitch. We’re in constant communication. Jordan is one of my good buddies.”
The numbers backed that up, as Stallings blossomed into one of the better receiving catchers in all of baseball last season; FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus both had him 11th. Furthermore, Baseball Prospectus’ numbers had Stallings ranked sixth in blocking and 17th in throwing, making him just one of seven backstops to rank in the top 20 of all three categories.
While framing stats for 2020 are not yet available to the public, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to say that Stallings has taken a couple steps further in 2020, specifically at the top of the strike zone.
“He’s the best in the big leagues at what he does,” starting pitcher Trevor Williams said. “He’s really, really good at stealing strikes for us. We’ve gotten spoiled with the work that he puts in and what he does behind the plate.”
But it’s hardly just the framing that has made Stallings special. His throwing has been quite good, too. Stallings has thrown out three of the five runners who have tried to steal on him this season and 35% (14 of 40) for his career.
For context, Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto — FanGraphs’ leader in Defensive Runs Above Average in 2019 — has thrown out 36.5% of runners throughout his career.
Stallings also has controlled the running game with aggressive throws to bases and made a couple strong plays on throws from the outfield, a reason the Pirates lead MLB in outfield assists with four.
“I had some lofty goals coming into this year defensively because I felt like I improved a lot,” Stallings said. “It’s nice to see some of those turn into some good results. I wish it led to a few more wins, but, for me personally, it’s nice to do well.”
The next task for Stallings, like many Pirates players not named Colin Moran, obviously will be to produce more at the plate. Stallings would be the first to say that .143 (and a .182 on-base percentage) isn’t going to cut it.
But Stallings slashed .262/.325/.382 last season, contributing six home runs, 16 RBIs and a .708 OPS. It’s not Realmuto or Yasmani Grandal, but Stallings also isn’t paid like those guys. For example, the Phillies paid $5.9 million for Realmuto’s 5.7 Wins Above Replacement in 2019 — about $1.04 million per WAR.
The Pirates got 1.3 WAR out of Stallings for just $564,000 last year — or $433,846 per WAR.
And, if the start to this season is any indication, it seems like Stallings has become an even better catcher and bigger bargain.
“I’ve been playing with ‘Stalls’ since Class AA,” Steven Brault said. “He’s always been pretty good at defense. He was one of those guys who just kind of gets better every year.
“These last two years, he’s been working with [Comadena]. They really get into the analytics and looking at how different catchers do it in the big leagues, how the best catchers are receiving and all that stuff. They’ve really hit that hard. It’s a ton of fun to watch two guys with so much passion talking about something, really getting into the nitty gritty of stuff that I don’t even understand because I’m not a catcher.
“But, it obviously has shown up. Nobody compares to him. He’s just that good back there. Everybody loves talking to him because he’s very good at communicating. He’s a joy to throw to. Always has been.”