Detroit — The San Diego Padres slugged the play out of relevance Saturday night. But long before Luis Campusano’s 401-foot blast landed in the left-field seats to cap their 14-3 win, Jake Rogers very quietly saved a run with a play that’s been the subject of much debate within the industry in recent weeks.
With Ha-Seong Kim at third base and two outs in the first inning, and Manny Machado at the plate, Rogers, the Tigers’ catcher, had to move quick and make an across-his-body block of an 0-1 slider in the dirt from pitcher Matt Manning.
If the ball gets by Rogers, or skips off his body, the speedy Kim scampers home. Maybe not the end of the world in the first inning, but what if it was the ninth and Kim represented the game-winning run?
That’s what happened to the Tampa Bay Rays last Monday in Texas. In a tie game, bottom of the ninth, catcher Christian Bethancourt couldn’t corral an errant 100-mph two-seam fastball from Pete Fairbanks and the winning run scored.
Fairbanks’ pitch was more of a misfire than Manning’s, but both catchers had to move quick and across their bodies to flag it. And both catchers deploy a one-knee-down stance, which has been at the center of the debate.
For a hundred years, catchers have been trained to squat on both feet, especially with a runner at third. That setup was long believed to put catchers in a more athletic position to move laterally and block balls in the dirt.
Recently, though, metrics have shown that receiving baseballs with a one-knee-down stance greatly helps frame strikes at the bottom of the strike zone and it has minimal impact on a catcher’s ability to block balls in the dirt.
It certainly does, as Bethancourt could attest, make it tougher to get to sweeping pitches that move to the catcher’s right or arm side.
“There’s always a trade off,” said Tigers manager and former big-league catcher AJ Hinch. “I’m still of the belief that catchers are more athletic with both feet on the ground. That being said, there has been immense value in catchers going to one knee. And the data hasn’t shown that it hurts you blocking the ball.”
But isn’t it a different risk-reward debate with a runner on third base?
“It doesn’t pass the eye test with a guy on third base because of the ramifications in a situation like that,” Hinch said. “I don’t know how much or how little that played into (the Rays’ play), other than I would have been uncomfortable in that setup.
“But a lot of people are teaching it. A lot of people are OK with it.”
Including the Tigers’ development department. Tigers’ catchers at all levels are being taught to receive balls with one knee down. Eric Haase, who came up through the Guardians’ system catching with both feet on the ground, has been a late convert to the new method.
Not only have his framing scores improved this season, so have his blocking stats.
“There’s no data that supports I’m going to be a better blocker with both feet on the ground,” Haase said. “I’m already close to the ground (on one knee). My eyes are close to the ground. Unless a pitch is sailing wide or up over my head, we just have a much better chance of blocking it or picking it outside of the white lines with one knee down.”
Haase shakes his head thinking about all the hours he spent in the traditional two feet-down stance throwing his body in front of pitches in the dirt and, consequently, all the low strikes he was unable to get for his pitchers.
“So many times I’d be on two feet and there’d be a yanked slider,” he said. “You do everything you can to get your body there and it bounces off you and goes a couple of feet outside and the guy scores anyway.
“You can pick it apart if you want to but we have so much data to show that getting those extra strikes is much more valuable than saving the occasional run.”
But what about, in an abundance of caution, using the old-school method when there is a runner at third?
“That’s tough,” Rogers said. “Obviously, you don’t want that run to score, but you almost have to treat it like there’s a runner on first. Like, I’m not going to change my setup. It’s the same as it would be if I was a two-feet up guy. I wouldn’t change in the middle of a game. It’s just a blocking style.
“It would be like changing your swing. You don’t want to do that.”
Haase agreed.
“At that point, we’ve taken every single rep with one knee down,” he said. “It would be worse for us to go two feet there. Honestly, there is nothing to support being on two feet would be easier.”
Rogers ranks in the top 16 percentile in baseball in framing. His Statcast defensive rating is a plus-6 (he’s worth five runs framing and one run blocking). Haase has zero runs saved, which is an improvement from the minus-3 he was last season. His blocks above average rating is a minus-2, up from minus-11 last year.
Bottom-line, a catcher’s priorities are the same as they always have been when there’s a runner at third. Stop the ball the best way you can. That’s why Hinch doesn’t legislate the catchers’ technique in that situation.
“The catcher knows it’s his responsibility to keep balls in front of him,” he said. “If that’s the best way for him to do it, I believe them. We’ve talked a ton about that as an organization. It’s a fun debate. It’s not just about what I used to do as an ex-catcher.
“JT Realmuto (arguably the best defensive catcher in the game) swears by it and you don’t see him miss a ball.”
Can’t drive 55
Tigers reliever Brendan White ran afoul of home plate umpire Todd Tichenor in the fifth inning Saturday.
He walked Kim and Fernando Tatis, Jr. back-to-back. The fourth ball to both hitters was assessed on a violation. Tichenor, who had warned White earlier, felt he was quick-pitching both hitters.
“It’s a judgment call,” Hinch said. “They want to see both players engaged and ready to go. His judgment was that Whitey was going too quick and their hitter wasn’t ready twice. And, unfortunately, it was with three balls.”
White hadn’t been called for that before, not even when he was pitching in Triple-A earlier this season. Hinch didn’t love the judgment.
“When you are warned, you’re in big jeopardy of getting pulled over for going 56 in a 55-mph zone,” Hinch said.
White was optioned back to Toledo after the game as the corresponding move for the return of Alex Faedo.
Giants at Tigers
First pitch: 1:10 p.m. Monday, Comerica Park
TV/radio: Bally Sports Detroit, MLBN / 97.1
Scouting report:
RHP Ross Stripling (0-3, 5.92), Giants: He’s working back to form after missing several weeks because of a lower-back strain. He went six innings for the first time this season in his last start at Cincinnati. This will be just his 10th start of the season.
LHP Tarik Skubal (0-1, 5.25), Tigers: He will be looking to bounce back from an erratic outing in Kansas City, where he ended up getting tagged for seven runs in four innings after he’d set down the first six to start the game. He lost the shape and sharpness on his secondary pitches and ended up enduring a 32-pitch, five-run, fourth inning.
Twitter: @cmccosky