Yankees should be confident in Higashioka
The New York Yankees let it be known early in Spring Training that there was no catching controversy.
Trading Gary Sánchez to the Minnesota Twins is symbolic for a couple of reasons. For starters, General Manager Brian Cashman and co. waved the white flag on him. Second, the team instills full confidence in Kyle Higashioka.
Both should be in the best interest of the team’s success in 2022.
Higashioka turns 32 on April 20 and has never played more than 67 games in an MLB season. While his defense is an improvement over Sanchez’s, there are concerns about his offense, especially with more playing time.
He slashed .181/.246/.389 with a wRC+ of 71, 0.6 fWAR, 10 home runs and three runs extra strikes (RES) last season. At face value, nothing on offense jumps off the page. However, his framing was in the 84th percentile. Even with the concerns, Yankees fans should be optimistic about a full season with him as their primary backstop.
Leading off, his batted ball profile (BBP) is impressive. Yes, the actual slash line is pedestrian, but his expected one is eye-opening. In 211 plate appearances, his expected slash was .233/.297/.504 with a .340 xwOBA. While the .297 xOBP isn’t impressive, there’s still a 166-point boost in his OPS.
Among hitters with at least 100 batted ball events last season, Higashioka was the second-unluckiest hitter in baseball by wOBA-xwOBA (-.068). While being tied for 100th in xwOBA sounds like nothing, it’s a jump from where he ranks in actual wOBA (tied for 351st).
Higashioka also ranked 28th in barrels per batted ball event, tied for 58th in hard-hit rate and tied for 87th in average exit velocity. Is he a top 100 hitter in baseball? No, but the quality of contact lays a foundation for that possibility.
Second, defensively, the Yankees will see major improvements. There was a lot of public criticism for Gerrit Cole opting for Higashioka last season; sacrificing offense for the sake of his comfort.
Those criticisms never make much sense –– guilty as charged –– as comfortability with a catcher goes a long way. Pitchers have excuses made for them nightly. Well, what did you expect? It’s hard to pitch when you feel like you have to strike everyone out to get the win.
Why can’t that same logic apply to their battery-mate?
If Yankees pitchers are more comfortable throwing to Higashioka, then he simply should play more. It puts less strain on the offense, as they don’t have to compensate for a potential defensive mishap late. It also puts less stress on pitchers, as they can shoot for the call six inches off the plate. They also can have enough confidence to bounce a curveball with a runner on third. The man behind the plate needs to have the full confidence of his staff.
While there’s no reason to suggest Sánchez wasn’t a hard worker, it became clear that the pitching staff was more comfortable with Higashioka.
Catcher ERA isn’t always the best metric to use, especially since Higashioka’s is skewed by Gerrit Cole’s numbers, but the Yankees posted a team ERA of 3.38 when Higashioka caught versus a 3.97 with Sánchez.
Might his BBP not translate to improved results with more playing time? Sure, it might not. However, it isn’t like there’s an abundance of elite offensive catchers. Last season, there were only seven that had a wRC+ above 110 and 200 plate appearances. Only five eclipsed a 125 wRC+ and 300 plate appearances.
The catcher doesn’t need to be an epicenter for offensive production. Making sure they don’t have to hit to be playable is vital. With Higashioka, the Yankees committed to that philosophy. Their run prevention should improve, and maybe Higashioka can provide a spark offensively.