How profound were the offensive struggles of Seattle Mariners catchers last year? The club just picked up a new starter who batted .188 in 2015 — and that’s an upgrade over the incumbent option. Easy punch line aside, newly-minted M’s GM Jerry Dipoto might have landed a bargain when he signed Chris Iannetta to a one-year, $4.25 million deal (with an option for 2017) that relegates former third overall pick Mike Zunino to a backup role.
Iannetta, 32, retains the core offensive skills that Dipoto no doubt remembers from his tenure as the Angels GM. Iannetta still drew plenty of walks last season (12.9% of his plate appearances) and displayed solid power for a catcher (.147 Isolated Power), but his .225 batting average on balls in play was more than 50 points below his career average (.277). With better luck, he should produce well enough for a player at a typically light-hitting position (the Steamer projection system expects Iannetta to post a .677 OPS next season, which is a dead ringer for the overall MLB average for catchers in 2015).
And defensively, Iannetta looks like he might have actually improved during an otherwise nightmarish final season with L.A.
Prior to 2015, Iannetta didn’t do his batter mates many favors. With Iannetta behind the plate from 2012-14, pitchers received fewer called strikes on pitches taken within the strike zone (79.2%) than the MLB average (81.9%). That might not sound like much of a difference, but that equates to 192 lost strikes over that three-year span for pitchers paired with Iannetta, compared to if they worked with a league-average backstop. All of those lost strikes made him one of the worst pitch-framers in the game: According to StatCorner, Iannetta was -5 runs worse than an average defensive catcher in 2012, -15 runs in 2013, and -5 runs in 2014.
Something seemingly changed in 2015, however. Iannetta’s called strike rate on in-zone pitches soared to 85.4%. Among catchers playing at least 80 games, only Miguel Montero (86.8%), Buster Posey (86.3%), Yasmani Grandal (86.3%), Tyler Flowers (86.1%), Jason Castro (85.9%), Zunino (85.8%) and Francisco Cervelli (85.5%) snagged in-zone strikes more often. Iannetta showed an especially large improvement on pitches thrown to the lower third of the strike zone:
Iannetta’s in-zone called strike rate on low pitches, 2012-14
Iannetta’s in-zone called strike rate on low pitches, 2015
Umps are calling more low strikes overall in recent seasons, but Iannetta’s improvement in that region is dramatic. From 2012-14, his in-zone called strike rate on low pitches was 63%. Among qualified catchers, only all-time pitch-framing albatross Ryan Doumit (53.6%), Joe Mauer (58.4%), A.J. Ellis (58.6%) and Carlos Santana (60.1%) fared worse over that time frame. In 2015, Iannetta’s in-zone called strike rate on low stuff was 82%, which ranked in the top 15 among catchers. By getting far more lower-third calls for his pitchers, Iannetta actually saved +14 pitch framing runs compared to an average defender, per StatCorner.
It’s unfortunate for the M’s that Zunino’s 80-grade power has been rendered useless so far due to his lack of strike zone control, but Iannetta should boost Seattle’s OBP behind the plate in the short term. And, if Iannetta’s pitch-framing gains from 2015 stick (they should, given the huge sample size of pitches involved), Dipoto’s first free agent signing could work out splendidly.