TORONTO – At the end of April, as the Boston Red Sox arrived in Toronto for a three-game series with the Blue Jays, hitting coaches David Popkins, Lou Iannotti and Cody Atkinson had some ideas for Brandon Valenzuela.
The rookie catcher, recalled when Alejandro Kirk broke his thumb at the beginning of the month, was struggling badly in the box, batting .147/.171/.235 through his first 13 big-league games, with 14 strikeouts in 35 plate appearances. Factoring into the poor results, the hitting coaches believed, was a big leg kick that caused Valenzuela to jump at the ball and led to head movement that made pitch identification and tracking tougher.
For example, here’s a strikeout on a chase slider from Arizona’s Ryne Nelson on April 19.
So, drop the leg kick, they told him, because timing up a big move is hard, especially with inconsistent playing time. You’re strong enough that you don’t need to generate extra force with your body, they added. The general principles were, “relax, go for line drives, simplify your body, do it for a few days, don't move your body a lot,” Valenzuela remembered.
On April 29, in an 8-1 win over the Red Sox, he did just that, shifting from the leg kick to a rock back and forth as the trigger on his swing, going 2-for-3 with a home run (on the swing below) and a walk as a result.
“It clicked right away,” he explained. “I started seeing the ball better. I feel like I have better ABs and I'm giving the team a chance with my ABs.”
Since then, Valenzuela is batting .294/.396/.565 with six homers and 14 RBIs in 30 games and has 15 walks against 16 strikeouts in 102 plate appearances. His work behind the plate has also improved during that span, with ace Kevin Gausman saying his pitch framing “is getting close to Kirky's level where you think you're throwing way more strikes than maybe you are.”
Those gains mean the Blue Jays are facing a difficult decision with their backup catchers as soon as Friday, when Kirk — whose rehab assignment moves to triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday — might be ready to return to face the New York Yankees, said manager John Schneider.
From an asset preservation standpoint, optioning Valenzuela and not exposing the out-of-options Tyler Heineman to waivers, makes clear sense. A claim on Heineman would leave the organization’s depth perilously thin, with Willie MacIver as the third-string backstop.
Heineman ranks among the major-league leaders in pitch framing, throwing and blocking and knows the pitching staff exceptionally well, making him an important part of the team. But unless the Blue Jays decide to carry three catchers — something Schneider described as “not ideal,” but didn’t entirely rule out — demoting a Valenzuela who’s earned the right to stay won’t be easy.
“Kirky and Heinie worked really last year," Schneider noted over the weekend, adding that when Kirk does return, he’ll need a build-up before he gets to a normal workload of catching five out of every seven games. Still, “the honesty of it is like, there's not a whole lot of depth behind Valley. Yeah, there are guys that are on the roster. But it's, you just look at who's doing what, are you going to lose a guy if you move a guy, or something like that?”
The Blue Jays have plenty of that push and pull to weigh on the pitching side this week, too, beginning Tuesday, when they need to make room for Dylan Cease, who returns from a hamstring strain to start against the Philadelphia Phillies.
Then, Max Scherzer comes off the injured list Wednesday, necessitating another pitching move. With limited flexibility in terms of optionable arms — lefty Adam Macko is pitching well and will be needed for the Yankees’ left-handed hitters this weekend, while Braydon Fisher and Mason Fluharty aren’t going anywhere — they’ll have to risk some of the pitching depth they’ve worked hard to reassemble in recent weeks.
That would include Simeon Woods Richardson, whose fastball velocity was up over four strong innings of one-hit ball behind a shaky Patrick Corbin in Monday’s 5-2 loss, and Connor Seabold. Both were recently acquired in trades, are out of options, and at the end of the bullpen depth chart.
Shane Bieber, slated to start again for Buffalo on Thursday, might be in play the following turn if all goes well and he gets into the 75-pitch range, adding to the positive pressure suddenly on the roster, something the Blue Jays had hoped to have all season long.
Whatever they end up deciding behind the plate, Valenzuela has made an impression on both sides of the ball, building upon a strong spring training.
Gausman praised the way “he’s really honed in on pitch-calling and that part of the game, turning into a really good receiving catcher. … Especially on some of those fastballs in on lefties. He's just really good at bringing it back and presenting like a strike. He's just getting better and better.”
At the plate, he’s shown power to spare, even without the big leg kick, with three homers in his previous four starts underlining the point. After Valenzuela went 3-for-4 with two doubles in Saturday’s 6-4 win over the Orioles, Ernie Clement said “he's got to be the most improved player in the big-leagues this year,” and added that “I love the way he's swinging the bat. It looks like he's looking to do damage every single swing.”
“Unlike me, he has a lot of thump to the middle of the field, so he has great direction in his swing,” Clement continued. “When he's being aggressive and swinging the bat like he has, even when he swings and misses, you hear it in the dugout, everybody's like, ‘Ooh.’ That's what you want to hear. Nobody does that when I swing. He's been awesome.”
Hitting coach Popkins believes that level of production for Valenzuela is sustainable, too, because he’s simplified so much of his movement at the plate.
“When you can do that and limit how much your head's moving, it kind of helps your decisions a little bit,” explained Popkins. “His at-bat quality the past 30 days has been as good as anyone on the team. He's been doing a great job.”
Over the course of eight minor-league seasons, Valenzuela joked that he’s “tried everything” in the batter’s box, from leg kicks to toe taps to the current rocking back and forth.
“With the rock, if my body wants to go forward, it will go forward,” he said. “But I'm not thinking about my move anymore. It's just like, start early, and whatever happens, happens.”
Good things at the plate, as well as behind it, have followed, making him among the complicated decisions looming for the Blue Jays, as a result.
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