Stallings tops Bucs' catching options?

PITTSBURGH -- Spring Training is nearly here, and with that comes roster decisions and fresh looks at those in the Pirates’ pipeline.

So, with the recent trades and the new season coming into view, why not break down the options at each position on the roster? This week, we start with catcher -- an area the Pirates have struggled in recent years, but one that general manager Ben Cherington has made a focus this offseason, especially in terms of depth.

The starter: Jacob Stallings
Stallings earned the starting job in 2019, and he hasn’t given the Pirates much reason to turn to anyone else. The 31-year-old provides a serviceable bat near the bottom of the lineup, slashing .256/.326/.380 with 12 doubles and nine homers across the past two seasons.

? How does the NL Central stack up at catcher?

Where Stallings excels is on defense. There isn’t an area where he’s below average behind the dish. His pop time of 1.99 seconds is league average, and it helped him throw out nine runners in 2020, which was tied for the second-best mark in baseball. Pitchers have spoken highly of his ability to call games and put his body on the line to keep wild pitches in front of him. Stallings’ framing ability has also become a highlight; last season, he ranked seventh in catcher framing (FRM), per Fangraphs. Combine that with the rest of his defensive skill set, and he ranked second among all catchers with seven defensive runs saved.

“Every pitch that you throw, you know that he’s working his tail off to get [a strike] for you,” Mitch Keller said of Stallings last season. “If it’s three baseballs outside, he’s going to try and get you that strike. … It’s a real big confidence boost for all of us pitchers having him back there, knowing he’s working really hard for every pitch for us.”

The backup: Michael Perez
Perez has been a depth option for the Rays over the past three seasons, seeing his most playing time in 2020. But with more starts came less success on offense for the 28-year-old, who slashed .167/.237/.238 with three doubles and a homer in 38 games.

Though power is not Perez’s calling card, he showed in 2019 that he has the potential to provide increased pop, slugging 13 home runs in 52 games at Triple-A Durham. His left-handed bat could be a good fit with the shallow right-field fence at PNC Park.

Statcast did not provide run defense metrics for catchers in 2020, but the season prior, Perez’s 84.1 mph average throw speed was 13th best among all catchers (minimum five steal attempts). His pitch framing is below league average, but he’s racked up four defensive runs saved through a combination of his arm and his pitch blocking.

The next man up: Andrew Susac
Susac is one of three catchers who received a non-roster invite to Spring Training, and he gets the edge as the next man up given his Major League experience.

As a backup to Buster Posey from 2014-15 with the Giants, Susac slashed .249/.309/.407 with 15 doubles, two triples and six home runs in 87 games. Since then, he’s played in only 27 games in stints with the Brewers, Orioles and Pirates. The second-round Draft pick in 2011 posted an .806 OPS in 26 games in ‘19 at Triple-A.

Depth: Joe Hudson, Christian Kelley
The Pirates signed Hudson, 29, to a Minor League deal on Jan. 25. He has played 18 games in the Majors over the past three seasons, a span which included stints with the Angels, Cardinals and Mariners. Hudson has hit 5-for-30 (.167) in the Majors, and in the Minors, he posted .806 and .704 OPS marks in 2018 and ‘19, respectively.

Hudson is strongest behind the plate, where he’s thrown out 218 of the 505 runners to attempt a stolen base. He’s committed only 39 errors in 4,232 1/3 innings.

Kelley, an 11th-round Draft pick by the Pirates in 2015, reached Triple-A Indianapolis for the first time in 2019, but he struggled at the level, batting .179 with nine doubles, one triple and five homers in 80 games. In five Minor League seasons, Kelley has hit .229 with a .617 OPS and 17 homers.

In the pipeline: Endy Rodriguez, Jason Delay, Arden Pabst
Rodriguez has the highest projection of any catcher in the Pirates’ farm system. Unlike Delay and Pabst, he was not offered an invite to Spring Training, but he’s only 20 years old, his ETA is 2023 and he has not played a game above Rookie ball. The Dominican native, who signed for $10,000 with the Mets in 2018, is a switch-hitter who makes good contact (44 strikeouts to 35 walks in 217 at-bats) and has room to grow.

Though Rodriguez got reps in the outfield with the Mets, Cherington said the plan is to develop him as a catcher. At No. 22 on the Pirates’ Top 30 Prospects list per MLB Pipeline, he is the club’s highest-ranked catching prospect since Elias Díaz (No. 9) in 2016.

Delay was a fourth-round Draft pick by the Pirates out of Vanderbilt. His power has begun to tick up, as he reached a .398 slugging percentage with 12 doubles, one triple and eight homers in 67 games at Double-A Altoona in 2019. Pabst, an 11th-round selection in the 2016 Draft, showed positive signs in ‘18 as he rose from Class A Advanced to Triple-A, finishing with a .264/.306/.472 line with 26 extra-base hits in 66 games. But after posting a .540 OPS at Double-A Altoona in ‘19, he’ll need a strong showing when game action resumes.

Both Delay and Pabst are glove-first catching options, as are many in the Pirates’ catching ranks. Between them, in a combined 395 games, they’ve allowed only 25 errors (12 for Delay, 13 for Pabst).