Steve Webb
LOS ANGELES — As the Dodgers continue their road trip to the East Coast, let’s continue our own trip, a look back at the first half of the season, and a position-by-position review at how the team is doing at the midway point of the season. Today, we look at a fairly positive part of the team: the catching corps.
Catcher
Preseason Grade: B- / Midseason Grade: B
The good news is that both of the Dodgers’ catchers have been healthy all year (knock on wood). Although, if one did go on the IL, we are luck in that Keibert Ruiz is absolutely mashing in Triple-A. However, given the number of injuries everywhere else on the diamond, we should be thankful that these two catchers have been basically untouched by the injury bug.
Smith looks good, but streaky
So far, Will Smith has gotten more starts and more AB’s than Austin Barnes. This makes sense; Smith is a much more dangerous bat than Barnes in the lineup. So far, Smith is hitting .263 with 10 home runs and an OPS of .838, which is a little bit off his numbers from last year, but still productive. We’d like to see a little more consistency out of his spot in the batting order, as he can get a little streaky at times.
Austin Barnes is having an off-year at the plate
Barnes, though he has hit a couple of big pinch-hit home runs is also a little bit off of his production from 2020, when he benefited from hitting ninth in front of Mookie Betts because of the DH. Barnes continues to be a favored backstop for Clayton Kershaw, so he’s sure to stay on the roster, but it is tempting to want to call up Ruiz for a bit to see what he can do in a more extended stay with the big club.
Stolen bases remain problematic
However, the biggest problem for the catching crew this year has been something that isn’t completely their fault. The Dodgers, catchers AND pitchers, have been doing a poor job of catching runners who are trying to steal. Will Smith has been stolen on 39 times and only caught twelve, whereas Barnes has been stolen on 25 times and only caught seven.
But as I said this is mostly a problem of pitchers not doing a good enough job of working from the stretch, not paying attention to baserunners and not even giving the catchers a chance to throw a runner out. This might be a problem if the Dodgers face the Padres in the playoffs, because San Diego loves to run. Pitchers and catchers need to work on this in the second half to keep runners honest, and so walks in the late innings don’t automatically turn into doubles.
Still, Dave Roberts has to be pretty happy with what he’s getting out of his catchers this season. If we can get Will Smith to go on a little run here, it can make the odd stolen base here or there irrelevant.
