Catching attention

Leon’s been revelation behind the plate

Before David Price was rolling, when he had a 4.89 ERA going into his start on May 17, Alex Cora made a one-game change. Instead of Christian Vazquez catching, like he had in Price’s first eight starts, Sandy Leon would. Price threw a complete game on 95 pitches. Vazquez was back behind the plate for Price’s next nine starts, in which the lefthander posted a 4.50 ERA while hitters surged to an .800 OPS and 10 homers. A catcher doesn’t single-handedly affect a pitcher’s results as drastically as that; Price must’ve made other mechanical and pitch usage adjustments. But the truth was in the numbers when Leon was behind the plate, and it showed again when Vazquez hit the DL with a broken pinkie. Price has looked as sharp as he ever has in a Red Sox uniform. In his last seven starts, all with Leon, he has a 1.50 ERA and he’s holding hitters to a .542 OPS. “He puts in the work, he puts in the time,” Price said of Leon after throwing eight shutout innings on Thursday. “He now has enough time in the American League to know all these hitters. He thinks back there. He doesn’t take his at-bats out to the field. He does a really good job.” It added to the dump truck of compliments from other Red Sox pitchers, mostly Chris Sale and Rick Porcello, who can’t seem to go one postgame press conference without thanking their copilot for calling the right pitches. After his one-hitter on June 30, Sale said, “I was just following Sandy’s lead.” When he struck out nine on May 22: “Sandy was nails back there again today.” Sale never won a Cy Young Award with the White Sox, but finished second in 2017 and is considered a favorite in 2018, depending how long he’s out with a shoulder injury. He had a 3.00 ERA in seven years with the White Sox, and has a 2.52 ERA in Boston. “Sandy has caught probably 99 percent of the pitches I’ve thrown since I’ve came here,” Sale said. And Leon confirmed what is now folklore: “He’s never shaken me once. Go watch the video.” On their way to a historic season, the Red Sox are thriving with Leon, going 29-5 in his last 34 starts behind the plate. They have a 3.08 ERA with Leon calling the pitches, and a 3.84 ERA with anybody else. The impact has been substantial, surely more than former general manager Ben Cherington could’ve thought when he acquired Leon from the Nationals for “cash considerations” in spring training, 2015. “I’m not going to hit 20 homers, I know that,” Leon said. “But behind the plate, I have to do what I do.”

‘The Indians won 28 out of 30 last year and I was watching like, ‘Shoot, they’re not going to lose.’ Then you see this with Sandy behind the plate.’ — ALEX CORA, on the Sox’ 229-5 mark in Sandy Leon’s last 34 starts

“Boston got a gem,” said Matt LeCroy, former Twins catcher who is now a coach and manager in the Nationals organizawhat tion. “We all knew what kind of talent he had.” But Leon’s story isn’t one of pure talk ent. He didn’t unlock power potential to catapult his career or teach himself a new pitch to accelerate to stardom. He was brought to America as a 17-year-old from Venezuela who couldn’t speak a word of English, and needed to learn in order to survive. A year earlier, Leon was playing Little League in Venezuela when a scout noticed him at third base and guessed Leon would be better as a catcher.

“Because I have a good arm,” Leon said. “And he said I can handle the bat real well. Next day I went to practice and I was really bad. But they liked me. I started working on it. And seven months after that, I got signed as a catcher.” Just like that, Leon was away from his family and alone in the Gulf Coast League trying to figure out how he was going to make it in Florida. “It was hard,” he said. “I’m a family guy. It’s hard being away from your family, especially when you don’t have a visa. It’s just going to be me for four or five months. First couple months was tough. A catcher, whose entire career has been built on his ability to communicate, could hardly at all when he first arrived in Naposition, tionals camp. “I was at a new position had never caught before in a real game,” he said. “I just did tryouts, throw to second base and run 60 yards and hit BP so it was different just playing the game, communicating with pitchers, calling the game.” Every other day, the Nationals held an hour-long session to teach English, but Leon wanted to accelerate that and began teaching himself. “I had a couple coaches they would teach me,” Leon said. “But the first two

months was tough, like, `I want to go back home, I don’t want to stay here.’ My family was like, `You have to stay. That’s your dream. You have to play baseball.’ That was the same conversation my first year almost every day. They always supported me. My mom, dad all my family. “I got into the Gulf Coast, the first year was like, `I have to learn English.’ Not communicate, but have to understand what they’re saying. (Catching instructor) Bob Henley, he was my dad on that team. He was a catcher, too. He taught me a lot, how to be prepared, communicating with the pitcher, calling the games. The more games you play, you learn how to call a game.” If he couldn’t communicate, he couldn’t make it as a catcher. “He went from being a guy who couldn’t say hello, to someone who could come up and ask me questions about my experiences,” LeCroy said. “Next year, he comes back and he can run meetings.” “I had never seen that happen in such a young kid so quickly,” said Henley, now the Nationals third-base coach. Leon said it took him three years until he could speak English comfortably. By that time, he was slowly advancing through Aball. “Three years and then we can say, `What sign do you want to use on second base?’” Leon said. “Situation, man on third, how you want to work this hitter? I’m going to say three years. I was in GCL, I made the team to go play in Low-A as a backup and still, every level is like more American guys . ... And they’re your friends, your teammates, you have to be able to communicate with them too.”

Building relationships

Once Leon could speak the language fluently, the game started to look natural for him. He could study video and work with pitchers in their bullpens, then talk about it afterward. And his ability to catch was never in question. “When it came to his development, as far as blocking and throwing and receiving and calling a game, I tell you right now, whenever Sandy came in as a teenage kid and I watched him throw and the way his feet moved, how quick he moved and how accurate he was, it was evident we were not going to touch him at all,” Henley said. “There was nothing fundamentally incorrect about how he threw or received at the time, at such a young age. It wasn’t that it was all polished, but he had a very good infrastructure that he could build on just by playing games and repetitions. “He wanted to be great at blocking, receiving and throwing. And if he dropped a ball, he took that personal. He took a lot of pride in it.” Leon was never considered a top prospect, but he was so solid behind the plate, coaches in the Nationals organization found it impossible to ignore him. On May 14, 2012, Leon made his major league debut as a 23-year-old. He played only sparingly the next three years until the Red Sox, desperate for a catcher after Vazquez needed Tommy John surgery, traded for him at a cost of just cash. “I hate that we lost him when we did in D.C.,” LeCroy said. “He just picked up on things people don’t pick up on. As a catcher, it’s, `When do I need to get on somebody? When do I need to have some compassion? When do I need to back off ?’ “Sandy would catch people’s bullpens when he was playing. Most guys don’t do that anymore. The conversations he has with the coaches and players, it’s more than just blocking balls and throwing all day. He had a relationship with each guy.”

Trust like few others

After Porcello threw a seveninning gem against the Phillies last week, striking out 10, his praise for Leon reached a new height. “No disrespect to any other catcher that I’ve thrown to, but he’s the best catcher I’ve ever thrown to,” Porcello said. “His game calling, he’s prepared for every pitcher, starter or bullpen. He’s kind of the heartbeat of our pitching staff. “We rely on him a lot and he’s always on point, always knows what pitches to throw. Gives guys different looks. He’s as good as it gets as a game-caller and a catcher.” To Cora, the Red Sox’ record with Leon is getting ridiculous. “We talk about getting hot,” he said. “The Indians won 28 out of 30 last year and I was watching like, `Shoot, they’re not going to lose.’ Then you see this with Sandy behind the plate and yeah, it feels that way when he goes out there.” Leon doesn’t feel it. He still thinks about the thousands of players behind him who would love to take his job. He still looks up to his dad, also named Sandy, who is playing men’s league in Venezuela and talks with his son frequently. Even with more than $4 million in career earnings, Leon is fighting to get better daily, like a 17-year-old trying to learn English. And his pitchers have fed off that. “He developed trust,” LeCroy said. “And once he developed trust, the pitchers had no doubt. They threw what Sandy wanted. That’s what makes guys lead really great. “Look at Jason Varitek. I looked up to him. Why did people trust him? He did the work and they trusted him. He put his time in with each pitcher. It’s like Sandy. That was something that we talked about. But a lot of times guys don’t do it. “Sandy saw it, lived it, and now the Boston Red Sox are benefiting because of it.”