Catching Curiosities

One of the fun parts that came from the Twins signing Castro as a free agent over the winter was we had numerous writers take deep dives into the value of catcher framing. Castro has long been considered to be excellent at presenting pitches, and the numbers indicate he’s having another good season.

Castro ranks ninth in the league in framing runs above average, but what about his game calling and ability to manage a pitching staff? Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any good way of quantifying those things.

Twins pitchers have performed significantly better when throwing to Castro than Gimenez. Is that trend likely to continue? That I’m not sure. In terms of framing, Gimenez is no slouch, either. He ranks 31st among the 83 catchers Baseball Prospectus has ranked.

Gimenez also controls the running game well and, at least from the outside looking in, seems to be one of the more fun guys to be around on the team. Plus, he’s provided valuable versatility and has even hit better than Castro this year.

If it sounds like I’m trying to butter him up before I drop the hammer, it’s because that’s exactly what’s happening. I like Gimenez, and think he’s a good backup catcher, but the following numbers don’t put him in a positive light.

Overall team stats

Pitching to Castro: 587.2 IP, 4.13 ERA, .758 OPS against, .286 BABIP

Pitching to Gimenez: 267.9 IP, 6.30 ERA, .882 OPS against, .324 BABIP

Castro: 26 of 65 starts (40%) have come against teams with OPS above league average.

Gimenez: 10 of 31 (32.3%) starts have come against teams with OPS above league average.

Broken down by pitcher (minimum 50 IP total this season)

Ervin Santana

Castro: 96.2 IP, 2.61 ERA, .664 OPS against, .244 BABIP

Gimenez: 33. IP, 5.18 ERA, .745 OPS against, .172 BABIP

Kyle Gibson

Castro: 56.2 IP, 6.19 ERA, .879 OPS against, .323 BABIP

Gimenez: 38.0 IP, 5.92 ERA, .912 OPS against, .342 BABIP

Jose Berrios

Castro: 42.0 IP, 3.00 ERA, .558 OPS against, .254 BABIP

Gimenez: 37.2 IP, 4.06 ERA, .776 OPS against, .297 BABIP

Adalberto Mejia

Castro: 55.2 IP, 4.04 ERA, .754 OPS against, .279 BABIP

Gimenez: 14.2 IP, 4.91 ERA, .915 OPS against, .308 BABIP

Hector Santiago

Castro: 60.0 IP, 4.65 ERA, .715 OPS against, .242 BABIP

Gimenez: 10.1 IP, 11.32 ERA, 1.109 OPS against, .387 BABIP

Phil Hughes

Castro : 28.2 IP, 6.91 ERA, 1.046 OPS against, .388 BABIP

Gimenez: 25.0 IP, 3.96 ERA, .709 OPS against, .263 BABIP

I’m confident in concluding that Castro has been much better at the game calling/pitcher handling aspect than Gimenez this season. I’m less confident saying Gimenez has been downright bad at it.

Santana has thrown by far the most innings for the Twins this season, so his numbers weigh heavily on the team stats. So this could be the case where, for whatever reason, Ervin is much more comfortable pitching to Castro and his splits have skewed the big picture.

There is some debate whether looking at catcher ERA between two guys on the same team is even valuable, but it really doesn’t hold much value when comparing guys on different teams. I’m going to do it anyway. For what it’s worth (maybe nothing) Gimenez has the worst catcher ERA among all players with at least 10 starts behind the plate.

If it sounds like I’m having a hard time drawing conclusions from all this info, it’s because I am. That’s where you come in. Let me know what you think.

Full disclosure: I am a huge Mitch Garver fan, but I see no reason why he can’t coexist on the roster with both Castro and Gimenez (assuming they use a four-man bench). Along with catching, Garver has played some left field and first base down in Rochester. He’s having a fantastic season, but his ability to hit lefties (.996 OPS) would be particularly valuable on the big club. So I see Mitch more as a bench bat who can catch than a threat to take over as the primary backup catcher.