McCann reaping rewards from trade to Astros
In almost every way, Brian McCann’s choice of the Houston Astros as the team to join when the New York Yankees decided to trade him has worked like a charm.
McCann has rediscovered his swing, he’s playing for the team with the best record in the big leagues and he’s working with a youthful pitching staff that appreciates his experience.
Now if only Astros fans could tell who he is.
You’d think a seven-time All-Star with a burly physique and distinctive beard wouldn’t have an identity problem. Then again, the sight of teammate Evan Gattis — a bit bigger, nearly as bald and equally bearded — makes the confusion understandable.
“I get called Evan Gattis every day,” the 6-3, 225pound McCann said. “Every day I walk out to the bullpen at home I get people screaming, ‘Gatti, Gatti, sign.’ ”
The former Atlanta Braves teammates, reunited as a powerful tandem on the American League’s second-highest scoring team, have signed baseball cards depicting the other. Sometimes that’s easier than correcting fans.
But there’s no mistaking how much the Astros have benefited from adding McCann in a November swap for two prospects. Armed with the power to exercise a no-trade clause, McCann had a major say in where he landed when the Yankees opted to move him and go with power-hitting wonder Gary Sanchez as their everyday catcher.
The Astros offered a chance at an everyday job along with the likelihood of making the playoffs, so they were his top choice. The Houston brass knew it was getting a solid defender with a wealth of knowledge and a knack for handling a pitching staff. The offensive contributions were more of a mystery.
Though McCann, 33, has six Silver Slugger awards to his name, five came during his heyday with the Braves before he signed a five-year, $85 million contract with the Yankees before the 2014 season. He never batted better than .242 in three years in New York, and while he averaged 23 home runs a season, McCann’s best on-baseplus-slugging percentage (OPS) was .756 in 2015. He topped that figure in seven of his eight full seasons in Atlanta.
“What we were buying was the whole package,” Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow said, “and everything I’d heard about Brian McCann, from people in Atlanta, people in New York, people who have known him throughout his career, was so overwhelmingly positive about his work ethic, his drive, his ability to help those around him, that I knew he’d be working to better himself.”
Indeed, McCann spent two hours most days during the offseason fixing a swing he believes had become too “one-dimensional.” He had become too pull-happy, partly because of a 2012 shoulder injury that eventually required surgery and also because he was enticed by the short porch in Yankee Stadium.
Though his older brother Brad, a former college star at Clemson who played four seasons in the minors, implored him to return to the approach that yielded six seasons in Atlanta with batting averages of .270 and above, McCann resisted until this offseason.
“After 2016, I knew it was time for me to make a wholesale change,” said McCann, who batted .235 during his Yankees tenure. “I was still driving in runs and I was still hitting home runs, but I knew that, where the game’s at with the shifts, I needed to get back to using the whole field and keeping my hands inside the baseball a lot longer than I was.” Jorge L. Ortiz @jorgelortiz USA TODAY Sports
The payoff has come in the form of a .274 average, with 10 homers, 37 RBI and a .845 OPS this season, the last three figures ranking among the top three for AL catchers. More strikingly, the left-handed-swinging McCann is hitting .302 with a 1.086 OPS against lefties, a weak spot last season.
He’s catching about twothirds of the games and Gattis the other third, making for a potent combination. They hit a total of 52 homers in 2016, and even with Gattis delivering only four this season, Houston catchers rank in the top three in the majors in home runs, slugging and RBI.
“There’s not a lot of drop-off in power production no matter who I play back there,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “More times than not, we’re going to have the most power at that position when the game starts.”
Gattis, the lesser defender of the two, averaged nearly 26 home runs over his first four seasons in the big leagues, the first one serving an apprenticeship under McCann.
Though he has lost atbats at designated hitter with Carlos Beltran’s arrival, Gattis has made strides in his selectivity at the plate, striking out at a career-low rate of 15%, down from 25.5% last season.
Noting that he hit 19 of his 32 homers after the break, Gattis said, “They do come in bunches.”
The catchers’ contributions behind the plate might even be more important for a club that used eight rookie pitchers during last week’s four-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics.
“The one common thing with both the guys is the pride they have in preparing for an outing,” Astros pitcher Joe Musgrove said. “They’re both really religious with their film work and their studying of the hitters. It’s a good feeling when you have your catchers just as prepared as you are.”