DALLAS — After the Rangers put another piece of their staff in place, adding hitting coach Luis Ortiz from the Dodgers on Wednesday, they turned their attention to finishing their quest to find another catcher.
Texas was without a veteran backstop after declining to pick up Robinson Chirinos’ reasonable $4.5 million option at the start of the offseason. At first, the move was perplexing – after all, Chirinos had a reputation for being an easy backstop to throw to from the veteran pitchers and had played in at least 57 games in Texas every season since 2014. The 113 games from Chirinos in 2018 proved a career high, signaling that perhaps he was becoming a bigger part of the present.
Chirinos also had a knack for hitting well in the clutch for stretches at a time and was a power-minded bat, slugging over .400 in each of his full seasons with the Rangers. He finally stayed healthy for a full season – despite ranking fifth in all of baseball with 19 hit-by-pitches and suffering countless whacks from fouls and bats behind the plate.
Chirinos was well-liked and well-regarded in the clubhouse, had become a leader in the community, and, as mentioned above, was reasonably cheap for a non-contending 2019 Texas Rangers club.
The Rangers picked up Jeff Mathis instead.
With that, the mentality of the Rangers’ approach to catching shifted course. Offense is nice, but with a new hitting coach, and a new manager, perhaps the big bats that should be producing more – Nomar Mazara, Rougned Odor, Joey Gallo, Jurickson Profar – and a healthy Elvis Andrus can help to hide a hole in the lineup. A fresh voice in the clubhouse and an eye down the road at shepherding in young pitching allows Texas to become more defensively-minded behind the dish.
As previously mentioned, the veteran pitching staff of the last two years – your Cole Hamels, Bartolo Colon, Yu Darvish types – enjoyed throwing to Chirinos. He was prepared, he was informed and he understood his pitchers and where they were coming from. Going into 2019, however, the Rangers have precisely two locked down starting pitchers -–Mike Minor and Drew Smyly (the latter isn’t even really a definitive, coming back from two years off due to injury).
While some veteran depth is sure to be acquired, Jon Daniels appears to want some assistance for his budding pitchers in areas other than just game calling. In this regard, Mathis is one of the most highly-regarded backstops across the league, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports and Zach Buchanan, who covers the Diamondbacks for The Athletic.
Mathis, who is going into his age-36 season, only caught 69 games for Arizona last season, but won a very nice Fielding Bible award, despite the low inning total. He was highly valued for his pitch-framing abilities and pitch-blocking techniques.
In short, JD and new manager Chris Woodward know that their young guns are coming up sooner rather than later, despite their best advances, and they’re going to need some help from behind the plate. Mathis led all of MLB with 17 defensive runs saved and posted a 36% caught stealing rate.
Robinson Chirinos had negative eleven (-11) defensive runs saved and caught just 10% of would-be base-stealers.
Also, consider Jose Trevino. Thought to be one of the future franchise catchers for the Rangers, one of the biggest knocks on the 26-year old has been his hit tool. With a minor-league slash line in 2018 of .234/.284/.332, it’s easy to see the concern. Trevino, however, is a two-time Minor League Gold Glove award winner behind the dish.
Under the tutelage of Mathis, already sound behind the dish, the Rangers might see an opportunity to speed up Trevino’s path to full-time big-league catcher by simply accepting the fact that the hit tool might have to develop in Arlington instead of Frisco or Nashville.
But what about the durability? Surely a catcher who hasn’t played in more than 100 games in any given season can’t be seen as the “primary” catcher? Don’t forget that Texas already added some insurance in that area with Jett Bandy. Bandy, signed to a minor league deal earlier this month, is another defensive minded catcher, who has a little more pop in the bat than either Trevino or Mathis and boasts a career 32% caught stealing rate.
Isiah-Kiner Falefa, strong candidate for the Rangers’ Rookie of the Year, is also in the fold as a part-time catcher, full-time super-utility player.
Going into the winter meetings, it looks like Texas’ catching depth chart lines up like this:
- Jeff Mathis
- Isiah Kiner-Falefa
- Jose Trevino
- Jett Bandy
You could flip-flop Trevino and Bandy if you’re looking to keep Trevino for one full season in Triple-A Nashville. I, personally, don’t think they’ll do that, but there’s a whole winter to go. There’s a lot that could change between now and February but one thing looks clear, in giving Jeff Mathis a two-year deal as the first free agent out of the gate, the Rangers are shifting how they value the catcher position.
Do you think Jeff Mathis will bring value to the Rangers as a defense-first catcher despite his historically poor bat? Share your thoughts on the signing with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB