Pain gets dished up behind the plate

Phillies’ minor-league catchers are all part of a tough fraternity

Donny Sands’ path to professional baseball was challenging.

He was 15 when his father died of a heart attack. The Tucson, Arizona, native spent months the next year living out of a 2006 Toyota Camry while his mother went back and forth to Mexico to find work.

Sands’ determination was rewarded when he was selected in the eighth round by the Yankees in the 2015 Major League Baseball draft. He used his $100,000 signing bonus to buy his mother, Alma, a car and house.

The third baseman batted .309 in his first 55 games of pro ball with the world’s most famous organization. His hours of hitting pinto beans with a broomstick in Mexico were paying off.

Life was good.

Then came a nasty curveball from Josh Paul, the Yankees’ roving catching instructor, and Gary Denbo, the vice president of player of development.

During a prospect camp ahead of 2016 spring training Paul and Denbo “asked” Sands if he would consider switching positions from third base to catcher — arguably the most grueling position in any sport.

Sands, hardened by his life’s challenging upbringing and dedicated to a sport he loved, didn’t flinch. He revered Paul, so he took Paul’s suggestion and followed his lead.

Life’s emotional scars and his daredevil personality allowed Sands to shake off all the physical pain he was about to endure.

“I’m a very strong-willed person,” he said. “I took it as a challenge to me. Jorge Posada was there then.

“He was a converted guy [to catcher]. He set the [South Atlantic League] record for passed balls. I got there and broke it.”

Sands spent the 2016 spring training and extended spring making the transition. It was painful for him. It was painful for anyone watching.

But the 26-year-old is now a Triple-A catcher with the IronPigs, an injury, a slump or a trade away from the majors.

“I credit a lot of my career to Josh Paul,” Sands said. “He saw something there.”

It has been a grueling path for Sands and other catchers in the Phillies organization. There are daily reminders from foul tips that require ice baths or hospital visits.

Despite the pain they have no regrets.

“In extended [spring] I got one of the worst concussions the Yankees ever saw,” Sands said. “Two months into it and I’m like, ‘What did I sign up for?’

“I used to use a two-piece helmet. I went for a ball, the batter fouled it off. The ball hit me straight in the jaw. It pretty much knocked me out.

“I almost had to relearn how to walk, but I came back and finished the year. Welcome to catching.”

Sands’ first game as a catcher out of Yankees extended spring in 2016 was not much better. It came on the back fields at the Phillies’ complex in Clearwater, Florida.

“There’s a guy on first,” he recalled. “I had no clue how to block a ball. There’s one in the dirt. I blocked it with my cup.

“The ball almost rolled to second base. I’m like, ‘All right. Here we go.’ ”

Rafael Marchan could have been Sands’ infield mate. He spent his formidable years as a shortstop in his native Venezuela until his agent suggested that it might be best if he became a catcher.

“He thought it was my best chance to get a pro contract and hopefully make it to the big leagues,” Marchan said. “I loved that decision.”

Four years later Marchan took a ball off his face mask for the worst of his several concussions.

A year later he made his majorleague debut with the Phillies. He’s been up and down with them since.

A couple of Sands’ tattoos are tributes to his mother. Others pay homage to his late father, who started playing catch with Sands when he was 2.

The IronPigs’ third catcher, Karl Ellison. started catching at age 11 or 12, when his father realized his youngest son didn’t have the range to continue playing shortstop.

The 27-year-old Cincinnati native was thrilled to follow his older brother Joel. Ellison played the position in high school and college.

“I’m sick enough in the head to enjoy [catching],” Ellison said. “It was always for me.

“It’s a pride thing for a catcher when you get hit. Let’s see how fast you can get back in the game so nobody noticed you got struck.

“When I first started blocking balls off a machine, I was used to taking ground balls. I took one off my index finger, broke it. That was the last time I kept my hand over my glove the wrong way.”

Double-A Reading catcher Vito Friscia first put on the catcher’s gear as a 5-year-old, but then not again until his high school coach thought Friscia would have an easier path to college ball if he tried it again.

The 25-year-old Bethpage, New York, native played at Hofstra before the Phillies drafted him in the 40th round in 2019.

He’s taken balls off the throwing shoulder, fractured a finger or two and had balls ricochet up under the mask, but it was a spring training drill in 2021 that Friscia remembers most.

“A machine in the outfield was skipping balls to us at home plate,” he said. “It skipped off the grass.

“I guess my cup wasn’t on right. It missed the cup. That wasn’t too much fun.”

No matter where a catcher gets hit and no matter the pain, they are expected to wear it. The last thing they want to see in that painful moment is the team trainer kneeling next to them.

“It’s funny,” Friscia said. “[Close friend and former Reading catcher Logan] O’Hoppe would get mad at me if I was telling you things hurt.

“The worst thing we can do is break the rhythm of a pitcher. We don’t want it to be about us. The more we dwell on what hurts in the moment, the more we’re helping the other team.

“It’s not an injury; it’s just pain in the moment. The more you think about it, the more it hurts. Just wear it.”

After Sands survived his first season as a catcher in 2016, Paul offered him another opportunity — to stay with him at his Tampa area house to continue training.

Sands didn’t flinch. He spent a few hours each day at the Yankees complex on defensive work, then a couple hours in the weight room.

“I wasn’t flexible at all,” Sands said. “I wore a 40-pound weighted vest in the sitting position receiving balls off a machine. I was super stiff. Slowly, the blocking started to come.

“I had 50-some passed balls that year. It was a process. It was like [Paul] was Mr. Miyagi from ‘The Karate Kid.’ I’d do all that work at the complex, then come home and he’d say, ‘You have to power wash my driveway.’ ”

Sands was down to 25 passed balls in Class A ball in 2017, when he worked a lot with catching coach Hector Rabago. The two continued to work together in the offseason in California, where both of them lived.

By 2018 Sands was in stellar physical condition ready to endure a full season of catching. But two days before camp broke he took a bat to the forearm.

“To quote Paul’s mindset in the catcher’s handbook, no [complaining],” Sands said. “My arm snapped in half, but I finished the inning. After that, I went straight the hospital and was out for three months.”

Sands was added to the Yankees’ 40-man roster after the 2021 season, then traded with pitcher Nick Nelson to the Phillies.

His catching continues to evolve while he continues to hit (.316 entering Saturday’s game).

IronPigs bench coach Greg Brodzinski, who started catching when he was 10, wore a T-shirt with a Phillies logo and a spine running through a catcher’s mask. It is representative of the group’s attitude and willingness to accept all responsibilities and pain that comes with the position.

“You’ve got to love catching,” he said. “I joke with them that it’s why you wear the gear. Every day you get beat up back there. If you love it, you don’t even think about it.

“You wear it and get right back in there. You tell the umpire, ‘I’m fine.’

“There’s nothing worse than seeing the trainer on the top step of the dugout. [You say] ‘Do not come out here; I’m good. I just need about 10 seconds [to] shake it off.’ ”

Behind all the equipment and attachments is a guy who must do whatever he can to help the pitcher during his most challenging moments.

Sometimes, it’s a pat on the back. Sometimes, it’s a stern reminder. Sometimes, it’s a “Bull Durham” meeting.

“We had a pitcher this year,” Friscia said. “He was all messed up in the head based on all the analytics and his velocity. I walked out there and asked him, ‘How do you make peanut butter?’

“He’s like, ‘What? Dude, what are you talking about?’ I told him that I’ll stand here all day until the umpire gets me. How do you make peanut butter?’

“He said, ‘Peanuts.’ I’m like, ‘What else?’ I think he was more mentally screwed up on that than before. It worked. He got a ground ball for a double play.”

Behind all the equipment and attachments is a guy who most times has pain radiating from one or more body parts — no matter how many ice baths he’s taken.

But you’ll never hear them complain because, well, catchers are a little crazy.

As for all the equipment designed to protect them?

“The pads are just for style points,” Sands said.