Athletics Rookie Catching Corps Doing Battle with History in 2020
From Philadelphia through Kansas City and into Oakland, the A’s have been playing baseball for 12 decades now.
Over that stretch, the A’s have made the postseason 28 times. And in all that time, no A’s team has ever made it to the postseason with a rookie catching the majority of the games.
So, the A’s will be swimming against the tide of franchise history with two, and possibly three, rookie catchers on the 2020 roster. Sean Murphy got into 20 games for the A’s last year. Austin Allen caught 34 games for the Padres last year. Jonah Heim has only played 35 games at Triple-A.
Combine all their MLB experience into one man, and Oakland’s three catchers for 2020 would still qualify as a rookie for this season.
And they’re going to have to come of age in the midst of a COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The A’s have seen Murphy, their third-round draft pick in 2016 out of Wright State (Dayton, Ohio), as their catcher of the year since at least 2018. They didn’t use him much in Spring Training I as he was coming back from October knee surgery. He’s healthy now, and his strong arm and healthy bat – a .308/.386/.625 slash line with 10 homers in 31 games for Triple-A Las Vegas last year – has him the front runner for playing time.
“(There’s) no doubt he’s advanced,” manager Bob Melvin, himself a former catcher, said. “We have a number of young players brought up in the middle of a pennant race (in 2019). It’s one thing to be in the big leagues. It’s one thing just to be a September callup. But when he’s asked to be a starter down the stretch in the pennant race, it means we have a lot of faith in him.”
Murphy says he can’t see himself wearing a mask while catching, and even while catchers have to be up close and personal with both umpires and opposing hitters, there was never any doubt he was going to play in 2020.
“I didn’t have any other thoughts about it,” Murphy said. “I wanted to play. As long as we could get something that would guarantee safety for people, or do their best to guarantee safety. Some of the protocols are going to go a long way. So, I’m feeling good about everybody.”
Allen came to the A’s when Oakland shipped second baseman Jurickson Profar to the Padres in the offseason.
He’s with Murphy on the wearing – or in this case non-wearing – of masks, saying “if the league puts something in place where that’s required, then we’re going to have to figure it out.”
Beyond that, Allen, who put together a .330/.379/.663 slash line with 21 homers in 67 games for Triple-A El Paso last season, doesn’t see the rookie thing being an issue.
“The catching group we have here, we believe in our ability,” Allen said. “We know that we’re one of the most talented catching ground in all baseball. I don’t know that there’s a better 1-2-3 punch with me, Murph and Jonah.
“The only way to gain experience for us is to get out there. And the pitchers, they trust us. And the coaches and staff, they trust us to go out there, lead the staff and get the job done.”
Murphy, who is right-handed and Allen, who is a lefty, are locks to make the team. Not so for the switch-hitting Heim, but because there is a 30-man roster, Heim, who had a .359/.412/.557 slash line with four homers for Las Vegas in 35 games in 2019, is thought to have a very good chance to make the opening day roster. And while the roster will eventually settle at 26, even if Heim isn’t on the roster, he won’t just fade away.
MLB rules for this pandemic season calls for a taxi squad. And one of the three men on each team’s taxi squad must be a catcher. And as the taxi squad will travel with the team, Heim would almost certainly be part of the A’s ensemble.
Through it all, Melvin will be entering the season with the belief his group of rookie catchers can do what no other rookies have done in A’s history.
“Sean and Austin have known each other in the past, and Jonah we’ve had in our organization for a while,” Melvin said. “The catching position is an important position for me. They have relationships with the pitchers. We talk about the importance of scouting reports.
“All of these guys have bought into this. They’re great in meetings; they do their studying. There’s a lot of information they digest.”
Now they just have to do battle with history.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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