Houston Astros: Evan Gattis: The Forgotten Man of 2017
3. Dial “D” For Defense.
As a natural catcher, Evan Gattis has had his fair share of problems behind the dish. Admittedly, there is still much of his defense that can use a tune up, since his numbers are below average thus far.
In 2017, he is sitting with a mere .984 fielding percentage, only a 16.7 percent caught stealing ratio, and five errors committed as a catcher, which is 5th among all catchers in the American League. His catcher ERA has also ballooned to a 4.32, which is almost a half a run more than the league average of 3.9.
In all fairness to Evan Gattis, which I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt on everything, McCann has nearly the same numbers in CS ratio at 19 percent, as well as passed balls. BMac has 3 PB’s, and Gattis has 2. The innings numbers obviously favor McCann, since he has still handled this pitching staff incredibly well in the midst of the injuries.
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Freeze Frame!
Don’t let the 2017 defensive stats on Evan Gattis fool you. Over his career, his catcher ERA is a well above average 3.43, a league average .993 fielding percentage, and a near league average CS ration of 27.3 percent. (League average for throwing out base runners is 30 percent, and Gattis had 46 percent just last season.)
Additionally, El Oso Blanco has been pretty solid at framing pitches, having eight percent (league average is 7.2 percent of pitches outside the strike zone called for strikes, or oStr%, over his career. Gattis also has 119 assists, including 10 this season, and only 14 passed balls and an equal amount of errors in over 200 full games and over 1,800 full innings caught in 4.5 seasons.
The bear is still very serviceable back behind the dish! No matter what way you slice it, he knows just as much how to work with a pitching staff. Having the duo of him and McCann just makes things that much more exciting, as I highlighted before this past Spring Training.