Sandy Leon says he feels ‘at home’ with the Marlins. Here’s how he fits with the team
Sandy Leon made his way behind home plate at loanDepot park on Wednesday. A familiar feeling, one he had felt for the past nine years, rushed over him again.
“I felt at home,” Leon said.
A day earlier, Leon received the news he was hoping to hear. The Miami Marlins, who signed Leon to a minor-league deal in January, needed his services. They were down a catcher after placing Jorge Alfaro on the injured list with a sore left hamstring.
So Leon made his way down from Jacksonville, where he was training at the Marlins’ alternate training site.
And he made his presence noticed.
Offensively, Leon went 2 for 3 at the plate and scored a run in his first Marlins appearance, a 3-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Defensively, the veteran guided rookie Trevor Rogers to the best start of his career — seven shutout innings with eight strikeouts.
He even showed his instincts on the basepaths, going from first to third on a sacrifice bunt after realizing the Orioles didn’t have anyone covering third base.
“Sandy’s solid,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.
And he’s not taking the opportunity in front of him for granted.
“I feel blessed,” Leon said, “just to be back in the big leagues.”
Why Sandy Leon chose the Miami Marlins
Leon, 32, has already carved out a solid MLB career.
He has played in 417 career big-league games, including 351 starts behind the plate. He also started five games in the playoffs for the Boston Red Sox in their run to the 2018 World Series title — including all four games in which Red Sox ace Chris Sale was on the mound.
He’s a switch-hitter with a career .216 batting average with 27 home runs, 52 doubles, 127 RBI and 133 runs scored. His presence, however, is most felt behind the plate. Leon has ranked in the top half of catchers in framing each of the past four seasons.
So what intrigued him about the Marlins? Look no further than the pitching staff.
“It’s a young team, it’s a really good pitching team, and they have really young guys who can really pitch and can throw the ball here,” Leon said. “I’m good at calling games and recognizing the guys on the mound.”
That was clear Wednesday as he helped Rogers reach a new level in his young MLB career. Rogers, making just his 11th career start, held the Orioles to just five baserunners over seven innings. No Baltimore hitter made it past second base. Nearly 40 percent of his pitches were either called strikes or swings and misses.
Rogers credited Leon’s work behind the plate for a lot of the success even though they had minimal work together during spring training and no experience as a battery in live game action.
“He pretty much took all the thinking away from me,” Rogers said, “and made my job really easy.”
How will the catching reps be split
Maybe he’ll make Mattingly’s job easy, too.
The Marlins manager had little doubt about Leon’s ability and noted how beneficial it was for the organization to have a player of his caliber at their alternate training site as their No. 3 catcher.
“It’s hard to find guys behind the play with that kind of experience and can handle staff,” Mattingly said, crediting general manager Kim Ng and the front office for signing him in the offseason.
Leon figures to get his share of playing time until Alfaro returns, splitting time behind the plate with Chad Wallach.
“I don’t think it’s like [an] every-other-day-type thing with these guys,” Mattingly said. “It depends. I think we could look at matchups a little bit. Obviously, Sandy’s a switch-hitter. I think it’s pretty close. I don’t think either guy you’re going to say, ‘I’m going to run him out five, six days a week.’ And the other guy gets to play every once in a while. It’s going to be more probably a general split.”
Leon is ready for it.
“If I can help them get better,” Leon said, “I’ll do everything I can.”
This story was originally published April 22, 2021 at 9:30 AM.
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