How Does the Twins Catching Tandem Stack Up Defensively?

[Jamie Cameron]

The Twins signed Christian Vázquez to a three-year, $30 million contract in mid-December. The move, in line with so many the Twins made this off-season, pushed a player who previously started (in this case Ryan Jeffers) to a backup role. Vázquez provides an upgrade at a position of need for the Twins. What will his impact be defensively?

 

Image courtesy of Kyle Isbel, USA Today Sports

The Twins are off to a great start, underpinned by an excellent rotation and strong bullpen. Rotation upgrades, including a now-healthy Kenta Maeda, Tyler Mahle, and newly-acquired Pablo López have been discussed in depth. An improved catching battery, less so.

The Twins signed Christian Vázquez to a $30 million contract in December. What will his impact be defensively?

Statcast recently released additional catching metrics with new leaderboards for framing and blocking. While catching performance is some of the most complex to assess (see how a catcher calls a game), the additional data provides us with a clearer picture of how the Twins stack up defensively. Let’s dig in.

Pop Time
Let’s start with an established metric, pop time. A combination of exchange and arm-strength, this measures the time from the ball hitting the catcher's mitt to the receiving point at the center of the base they are throwing to. 

Ryan Jeffers struggled to control the running game in 2022. He threw out just 18% of prospective base runners, an issue the Twins were keen to curb with Vázquez with steal attempts up due to larger bases in 2023. Vázquez has thrown out 34% of would-be base stealers in his career, about 10% above average.

Among qualified catchers (minimum 15 attempts), Vázquez has the 15th best pop time (1.94) out of 59 qualified players. Vázquez has the fourth best exchange in the majors (0.67), with an arm ranking 37th (80.4 mph). Jeffers, meanwhile, has a slow exchange (0.74, good for 42nd), and a slightly better arm than Vázquez (82.4 mph, good for 24th). This is a good illustration that arm strength is one of several factors in controlling the running game.

Headlines: Overall, Vázquez checks in as 14th best in pop time, Jeffers 32nd (out of 59). Eric Haase is the best of the rest in the AL Central, checking in at 19th in pop time. Maybe the Twins should be stealing more?

Framing
Framing is the art of receiving the ball. For catchers, there’s value to be added in receiving the ball in such a way the umpire calls borderline pitches as strikes instead of balls. The Statcast metric gives an overall output (Catcher Framing Runs) describing the number of runs a catcher saved via framing. Additionally, the metric affords us a breakdown of particular zones around the strike zone that catchers are most successful in framing. Here’s the breakdown.

Jeffers is a good, not great framer, coming in at 2 CFR (Catcher Framing Runs), good for 22nd out of 60 qualified catchers in 2022. Vázquez checks in at 1 CFR, 24th overall. Both Jeffers and Vázquez are particularly successful in framing directly above the strike zone (zone 12). The White Sox are the class of the AL Central in this category, with both Yasmani Grandal and Seby Zavala accumulating 4 CFR each in 2022.

Headlines: The Twins are good at improving catcher framing. Between 2021-2022, Gary Sanchez improved from -6 CFR (56th overall) to 1 CFR (25th overall). Jeffers and Vázquez both have a solid platform here that would make them the second best tandem in the AL Central, assuming they repeat their 2022 production.

Blocking
Blocks Above Average expresses catcher effectiveness at preventing wild pitches and passed balls. Each block converts to approximately 0.25 runs saved. Here, we see a significant discrepancy between Vázquez and Jeffers. Vázquez checks in 15th among qualified catchers at 6 BAA, Jeffers -3 (good for 51st out of 66 qualified catchers). Jeffers has a significant weakness in blocking pitches thrown to his left. For additional context, the majority of AL Central catchers are poor blockers. Mike Zunino (-8), Eric Haase (-11), Yasmani Grandal (-11), and MJ Melendez (-25) occupy four of the bottom five spots on the MLB leaderboard. 

Headlines: Blocking is a tough skill. Jeffers has a clear, discernable weakness moving to his left. It will be interesting to examine how the Twins try to improve this throughout the season.

Bottom Lines: A deep dive into defensive metrics for catchers confirms some of what we already knew. Christian Vázquez is above average to good at all measurable defensive aspect of catching. Combine this with a 96 wRC+ over his last four seasons and it’s easy to see what the Twins prioritized him in free agency. As with many areas of their roster, barring injury, the Twins have one of the highest floor tandems in the American League.

What are your thought on the new catching leaderboards? How do you feel the Twins tandem stacks up against other teams in the AL Central?

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[Oldtimer]

Although we have just a small sample of the new season, it appears the acquisition of Vazques has pushed Jeffers game to another level, both at bat and behind the plate. 

[Melissa]

Vázquez looks so confident and competent behind the plate. Haven’t seen this level of catching defense on the team for a while now.

[The Mad King]

Great article! I really think Jeffers has the ability to improve upon these numbers. Handing him the starting position last year may have been a tad too soon in his development. Next week... How did Garver stack up on these metrics?

[jmlease1]

10 minutes ago, The Mad King said:

Great article! I really think Jeffers has the ability to improve upon these numbers. Handing him the starting position last year may have been a tad too soon in his development. Next week... How did Garver stack up on these metrics?

Who cares about Garver? He's long gone, and seems likely to play at least half his games at DH now, assuming he can stay on the field at all. (people rip Buxton all the time for struggling to stay healthy, but Garver has played only 368 games since coming up in 2017 and Buxton has played 453)

I'm liking the tandem of Vazquez and Jeffers quite a bit. If Jeffers has found his power stroke again it adds a nice dimension to the pair, and Vazquez all-around skill on defense is fun to watch. I agree, it seems to have pushed Jeffers a little. They've certainly worked with the pitchers very well so far and the starters sure look comfortable throwing to them both.

[Doctor Gast]

Vazquez is expected to be a pretty good defensive catcher but his hitting hasn't been shabby either. Jeffers' CS% is very low 18% while Vazquez is 34% that is almost 2X as much. Yet you say Jeffers' arm is stronger than Vazquez (I've always heard that Jeffers had a weak arm). That tells me either the way they measure arm strength is off or  arm strength isn't as important as the experts say. If arm strength isn't as important than pop up time, quick release & accuracy and that's what the Twins need to focus on throughout the system.

Blocking still needs to be improved. Those are 2 very important traits that need be improved on. 

[stringer bell]

Agree that blocking pitches is important. Supposed defensive star Maldonado probably cost the Astros the game yesterday with three “wild pitches”. 
 

Mostly due to outstanding pitching, the running game hasn’t hurt the Twins, but some teams really have put their foot on the gas when it comes to stolen bases. We shall see. 

[twinfan]

Framing is important but not as important as blocking pitches or throwing out runners (though much depends on the pitcher as well). If we ever go to automated balls/strikes calling (a possibility soon with all the home plate umps have to do now), framing may not mean much. I wonder how umpire's calls are actually influenced by framing since they are supposed to call balls and strikes as the pitches cross home plate. We had a former umpire give a speech here a couple of years ago and he said framing may have influenced about 10% of his calls.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Good. timely article. Good metric measurements. I agree that the way a catcher calls a game is critical and is difficult, if not impossible, to measure statistically. But it is like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart wrote in 1964 about his test for obscenity: "I know it when I see it." The Twins pitching staff and coaching staff know a well called game when they see it. 

[4twinsJA]

Great article, enjoyed the detailed information. In regard to automated balls/strikes, many calling for the review instead of automated calling of all pitches. If that is the case, framing would still be an important skill. Defense for a catcher is the most important part of their game, look at Twins game yesterday, tying run scored on passed ball. 

[Ricky Vaughn]

A good deal of a catchers success throwing out base runners is on the pitcher. How well he holds runners and how fast he delivers the ball is crucial in stopping steal attempts.

[Doctor Gast]

Last year game calling was absolutely horrible. Vazquez is vital to our pitching staff, the way he handles the pitchers. He's a big reason why the rotation is doing soooooooo well.

[stringer bell]

5 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Last year game calling was absolutely horrible. Vazquez is vital to our pitching staff, the way he handles the pitchers. He's a big reason why the rotation is doing soooooooo well.

Boy, I didn't think there was any problem with game-calling in '22. I thought Twins' pitchers overall overachieved considering the talent level.

[Doctor Gast]

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Boy, I didn't think there was any problem with game-calling in '22. I thought Twins' pitchers overall overachieved considering the talent level.

The difference between Vazquez & last season core is like night & day. Vazquez is constant dialogue with his pitchers because he has a sense of what needs to pitched & last season I did not see that. The whole rotation underacheived last season & one reason was the game calling. It's very rare that a SP will critize his receiver & some SPs will praise him even if they are not that good but Gray came out & said he did not want Sanchez. It was not because Jeffers as that good it was Sanchez was that bad.

I didn't follow each & every pitcher but I did follow Archer. He basically didn't have a ST, so he mainly went with his FB/ slider which are his main pitches (which he had very good success) & gradually worked his CU back in, Eventually hitters started to be on his FB/ slider (although they didn't make good contact on them they kept fouling them off), yet by this time he got his CU working. Even though his CU wasn't his primary or even secondary pitch he was getting swings & misses w/ it. A good catcher would see Archer getting whiffs w/ his CU they'd use it as their SO pitch to get them off of his FB/ slider, therefore getting many more SOs & not drive up those fouls. pitch count and allow him to go deeper in the games. But they never used his CU as his SO pitch, they used his CU only to try to set up his FB/ slider. So hitters continued to look for Archer's FB/ slider and they continued to keep fouling them off driving up his pitch count & prevented him from going deeper.

Since they grossly mishandled Archer, I presumed they grossly mishandled the entire rotation.

[stringer bell]

Jeffers made an absolutely perfect throw today to nab a base stealer. I haven't seen many throws like that from him. If his throwing improves, I think he's pretty solid as a defender.