After nearly winning Gold Glove, Stallings working to fix one last flaw in defensive game

BRADENTON, Fla. -- A lot of things didn’t go right for the 2020 Pirates. That’s usually the case for teams that finish with the worst record in baseball. 

Making Jacob Stallings the starting catcher was one of the few things that did go right. It went about as well as the Pirates could have hoped for, even. Not only did he finish second for a Gold Glove, he provided league average offense for his position and was named the team’s most valuable player.

And even in this spring training of competition, Derek Shelton has always named Stallings as one of four or five players that has a spot cemented for this year. He’s the starting catcher. Case closed. More than a couple times, he was the first person the skipper mentioned in those lists.

Now one of the few veterans in camp, most of the discussion around Stallings this spring has been on him being a team leader, especially with a large batch of young pitchers experiencing their first major league spring training. 

“I can tell you I challenged him on becoming a leader on the field,” Shelton said. “That's not leading in the clubhouse or being vocal, that's just running the game. It's something that's extremely important to me for a catcher's role is on the field, specifically to the position, and it's important to Sherls [major league coach Glenn Sherlock], too. We've talked about it a lot. I challenged Jacob on it last year on the field, be a leader and control the game, and he's done a really good job of it.”

Shelton wants the catcher to be the one running the show on the field. It’s why the Pirates have emphasized catcher defense and an ability to manage a pitching staff above all else since he and Ben Cherington took over. With those two benchmarks, there are few who are a better fit what the Pirates are looking for than Stallings.

Stallings has accepted those leadership challenges. He’s also trying to contribute more on offense, working on his stride length to make sure he can consistently use his legs and hips better while in the batter’s box.

But even with a gold glove nomination already in the bag, Stallings feels there is a part of his defensive game that he can better.

“There’s room for improvement for me to frame pitches up at the top of the zone,” Stallings was telling me before Wednesday’s game against the Rays. “That’s the way the game is going as a whole. It’s not just our team. More and more guys are throwing at the top. Just like the low pitch, you’ve got to figure out how to get strikes at the top of the zone too.”

While Stallings was one of the game’s better pitch framers last year -- FanGraphs tracked him at 2.3 runs saved, the seventh best in baseball -- his ability to steal strikes was somewhat dependent on where a pitch was thrown. 

Going by Baseball Savant’s data, on pitches on the edge of the strike zone, but low and off the corner, Stallings got a strike call on 60.5% of borderline pitches. The league average in that range was just under 50%, so Stallings got his pitchers an extra strike than expected in one out of every nine opportunities. On borderline pitches towards the top of the zone and off a corner, the league gets a strike call 47% of the time. Stallings’ rate in that zone was only 13.3%.

Even with this gap in his framing game, Stallings was still graded as one of the best receiving catchers in baseball. Those bonus low strikes and to each side just off the plate more than made up for that one hole. 

“A lot of guys talk about how it’s difficult to cover everything,” Stallings said. “[Bullpen catcher] Jordan [Comadena] and I and Glenn have challenged myself to be in a position to catch every pitch. Even if I’m in a position to catch a high fastball’s coming, still being able to catch the misfire low and catch it in a good position. I don’t think I buy into the fact that if you’re good in one spot, you can’t be good in the other. My goal is to be good at every pitch location.”

It would really benefit Stallings and the pitchers for him to get those extra strikes high because that’s a part of the zone the Pirates want to use more.

For years, the Pirates’ pitching philosophy was built around sinkers and pitching low in the zone. Oscar Marin has taken a different approach, emphasizing pitch tunneling with his pitchers. When done correctly, two pitches will have similar flight paths to the plate up until the batter has to make a decision to swing or not. After the batter makes that decision, the pitches would ideally break in different ways, making it harder for the hitter to identify if they are swinging at a strike or junk.

One of the most effective tunnels is usually high four-seam fastballs and low curveballs. Even if a pitcher can’t tunnel pitches that way, throwing high spin fastballs up in the zone tends to get better results than low sinkers. The Pirates have been targeting those types of pitchers too. All four of the pitching prospects on the 40-man roster that the Pirates acquired in trades this offseason -- David Bednar, Wil Crowe, Roansy Contreras and Miguel Yajure -- get about 2,400 RPMs of spin on their four-seamers, an above-average rate. High fastballs are going to be an important part of their potential success in the majors.

So Stallings has a simple mindset for those high pitches: “Don’t let it beat me.”

Fortunately for him, he has someone new to bounce ideas off of: Michael Pérez, who was claimed off waivers from the Rays in October. Last year, Pérez was basically the inverse of Stallings. His overall framing numbers weren’t good, but he excelled at stealing strikes in the zone. In fact, going by Baseball Savant’s measurement, he was the second best in baseball at getting that high strike, getting the call roughly 65% of the time. 

And for the Rays and how they pitch, that was enough.

“In Tampa, they had a ton of guys that just throw up, up, up,” Stallings said. “I’ve picked his brain a lot on that.”

Those conversations have centered around Stallings’ body positioning and making sure that Stallings is leveraged right to get that high call. To make sure he’s in “a strong position” to either pull a ball up into the strike zone if it’s low, or down if it’s high. If he isn’t, the velocity of the pitch is going to move the glove, rather than the strength of his hand, wrist and forearm being the force that moves the glove.

While there aren’t a lot of results to go off of, the early returns seem to be better:

The Pirates are expected to continue to throw more of their fastballs up in the zone in 2021. For a young pitching staff, having someone who could get those extra strikes would help, both in the short and long term.

Some of those young pitchers may not make the opening day team. Some may need a few more years until they reach the majors. But it’s an exciting group, and where the Pirates have added the most so far in their rebuild.

“I’m sure we’ll see them sooner rather than later,” Stallings said. “It’s a great group.”