Converted Catcher Dave Stewart Raves About Converted Catcher Jordan Weems
During his 10-day stint in Spring Training 1.0, Dave Stewart took the time to watch a bullpen session of an A’s rookie pitcher he didn’t know anything about, Jordan Weems.
He came away impressed.
“It was a chance for me to watch him and offer my two cents,” the one-time A’s ace said Thursday, one day ahead of the A’s season opener in the Coliseum against the Angels. “Right way, I just liked his mechanics. And I liked his stuff. He throws pretty hard, throwing from three-quarters.
“He’s one of those guys, where when the hitter swings and miss, they realize that they’re going to have to pick it up.”
What Stewart did not realize at the time is that he and Weems have a bond. They both came into pro baseball as catchers. Stewart, drafted by the Dodgers, never caught a pro game. Los Angeles scouting him as a catcher, but always saw him as a pitcher. Weems didn’t get to the mound until his batting average at Double-A Portland, Maine, in 2016 was sitting at .119.
He was just getting back from lunch, manager Carlos Febles called and asked him to come to his room.
“That’s never good news, never a good thing,” Weems said this week. “I immediately thought like, `This is it. They’ll probably release me or send me down.”
Instead, he was put on a conference call with, among others, Red Sox farm director Ben Crockett. He was being moved 60 feet, six inches.
“The Red Sox had done nothing but lead me down the right path,” Weems said. “I trusted those guys.”
That trust has been repaid. Thursday Weems, signed by the A’s as a minor league free agent and a man who has never spent a day in the big leagues, was officially put on the A’s 30-man roster to start the season.
Stewart said he liked Weems’ size (6-3, 175) and his two-pitch selection (fastball, slider/curve). And he said learning that he started out as a catcher suggests success.
“Being converted catcher to a pitcher is actually a plus in my opinion,” Stewart said. “You’re already thinking the game. And in this day and time, catchers are controlling the game, putting the fingers down and controlling the game. Now you take that, and you put it on the mound.
“The most difficult thing about the conversion is mechanically, you are going from a guy who’s generally been a short-armed thrower to lengthening the arm out. That’s the biggest part of the conversion. Being a catcher and getting on the mound, Dave Duncan is the classic example of a guy who caught and who became one of the greatest pitching coaches in history. You take that mindset from behind the plate to the mound, and you don’t have to use your catcher as much to help you with pitch selection.”
Weems said getting the word this week from Melvin was “emotional, for sure.” And he buys into what Stewart preaches, saying "I always tried to be a pitcher's catcher."
“It’s been a long, long, tough grind for me from 2016 to here, going from a catcher to a pitcher,” Weems said. “It was a leap of faith.”
Four months ago, Weems was a good bet to make the staff – at Triple-A Las Vegas. But as Melvin said, the way the hitters raved about Weems’ stuff, he forced his way onto the big-league roster in a year when the minor league season has been scratched.
“He earned his way here,” Melvin said. “You hear the feedback from the hitters – we (the staff) can see all we want, see the numbers and the strikeouts and he throws hard – but when you get the feedback from the hitters, it’s impressive (given) where he’s come from.
“He should be proud of himself because baseball’s a tough gig, and to switch positions on the fly like that and make it to the big leagues is really impressive.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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