The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Defense comes first for Perez
Tribe starter Bieber: ‘Everybody knows how good he is’
Shane Bieber could not have shown more disbelief if he had been on the mound and the home plate umpire called a thigh-high pitch right down the middle ball four on a 3-2 count with the bases loaded and two out in a tie game.
The Indians’ starting pitcher, while speaking to a group of reporters at Tribe Fest earlier this month, was informed MLB Network failed to include the Tribe’s Roberto Perez among the top 10 catchers in baseball heading into 2020.
Bieber could be excused for being partial toward his own catcher, but consider the following: Perez played 118 games, 114 of them starts in 2019, and did not allow a passed ball the entire season. Perez was the American League Rawlings Gold Glove winner for catchers — a distinction awarded to only one player at leach position in both leagues as a symbol of defensive prowess.
Indians’ pitchers allowed 53 stolen bases, the fewest in the American League. Perez threw out 20 of 49 potential base stealers (40.8 percent) in 2019, which was the best in the American
League.
And we haven’t even touched on what Perez did at the plate in 2019 in his first season as the Indians’ primary catcher.
“You’re seeing my reaction right now,” Bieber said. “I can’t really understand that, especially him being a Gold Glover, so he obviously has to be top two, right? But I guess not.
“Everybody knows how good he is. Everybody that’s seen him, everybody that’s thrown to him respects the work he puts in. If anything, it’s going to fuel the fire a little more and he’s going to be even better this year.”
Two of MLB Network’s top five catchers are in the AL Central, but neither is named Perez. Yasmandi Grandal of the White Sox is ranked first. Mitch Garver of the Twins is fourth. The others in the top five are J.T. Realmuto of the Phillies (second), Wilson Contreras of the Cubs (third) and Gary Sanchez of the Yankees (fifth).
Perez hit 23 home runs in 2019 – fifth among catchers and the second most by an Indians catcher in a single season (John Romano hit 25 in 1962) in franchise history. Perez drove in 60 runs in games in which he was the catcher. He homered and drove in three runs as the DH in a game with the Yankees on June 8. He scored 46 runs.
For Perez, though, defense comes first.
Reporters and Bieber were discussing baseball experimenting with an electronic strike zone in spring training games, which prompted Bieber to say, “Fast balls away, you’ll probably get fewer calls. Roberto is the best of the best at framing pitches and doing what he does in receiving.”
That comment from Bieber prompted the reporter to inform him about MLB Network’s rankings.
“Right now, baseball is about framing,” Perez said at Tribe Fest. “I’m not focusing on framing. I can frame, I can block and I can throw. I think I help my team win more games blocking the ball and throwing guys out than framing.”
Perez, 31, was bothered by a painful right ankle most of 2019. He fought through the injury and had surgery Oct. 17 to remove to remove bone spurs from his right ankle.
Perez is fine as the Indians continue their spring training in Goodyear, Ariz., but manager Terry
Francona said Perez won’t be playing in any Cactus League games for about for the first week of the exhibition season. He will instead spend the time working with first base coach Sandy Alomar, Jr., a former catcher, whom Perez praises every chance he gets for the success Perez had last season.
It is also a time for Perez to get to know the Indians new pitchers, such as reliever Emmanuel Clase. The Indians acquired Clase from Texas in the trade that sent Corey Kluber to the Rangers. The Indians also received outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. in the trade.
“I always try to get that relationship going in spring training,” Perez said. “That’s when you get to know your pitchers when you have new faces coming in. I’ll see what (Clase) likes to do, how he wants me to set up and stuff like that and what I can help him with. I just always tell the pitchers in spring training to trust me.”
Pitchers trusting Perez is a perfect segue into what Perez can do to prevent the Astros or any team from decoding the signs Perez is sending to his pitchers and knowing and type pitch is coming before it’s thrown. Perez’ answer: Keep changing the signs more frequently than some teams might so by the time the Astros figured out what three fingers might mean in one inning it would mean something else in the next.
“I take a lot of pride behind the plate,” Perez said. “I wasn’t really paying attention. I was more worried about following the game plan with my pitchers and getting through the game rather than the guy on second is giving signs to the hitter.
“We played (Houston) well. I kept trying to change signs every inning.”
The Astros were found guilty of stealing signs electronically when they won the 2017 World Series. Perez was referring to his experience in the 2019 season.