Now ‘more familiar and comfortable,’ will Jacob Stallings bounce back in Year 2 with Marlins?
Jacob Stallings had a gift waiting for him when he arrived at the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex on Friday.
Inside a red box sat a Cartier watch, a gift from Miami Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara to the catcher who was behind the plate for every pitch of Alcantara’s Cy Young Award-winning 2022 season.
“It meant a lot having Jacob catch all of my games,” Alcantara said. “You saw what he did with me last year. We were always together. We were always competing together. I’m looking forward to having the opportunity for him to catch me again. Let’s see what we can do.”
Stallings said that catching every one of Alcantara’s pitches last season was one of the highlights of his career.
And it’s a point he takes solace in after he underachieved overall by his standards in his first season with the Marlins after being acquired in an offseason trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
One year after winning a Gold Glove and hitting .246 with a .704 on-base-plus-slugging mark and 53 RBI, Stallings saw his offensive numbers dip (.223 batting average, .584 OPS) and saw his defensive metrics regress as well (minus-nine defensive runs saved and minus-0.5 overall defense in 2022 after having 21 defensive runs saved and a 16.4 overall defensive rating in 2021, according to FanGraphs).
With that said, Stallings did improve in the second half of the season last year.
His offensive numbers after the All-Star Break: .281 batting average with a .742 OPS in the final 43 games he played. His defense was better as well.
The improvement naturally came as he became more familiar with his pitching staff. Remember, Stallings was acquired right before the league-mandated lockout last offseason as MLB and the players’ association worked out a new collective bargaining agreement. He had no communication with his coaching staff until spring training started and wasn’t able to do much work with the pitchers he would be working with all season until teams reported to a shortened spring training, which resulted in Stallings feeling like he was “cramming everything in” as he tried to learn his pitchers’ tendencies.
“It’s just a lot more familiar and comfortable,” Stallings said. “Not only just with the pitchers and the guys, but just with the surroundings and everything. We have more time this year. ... You can take your time and set your normal spring training schedule and get ready to go.”
While Stallings continues to catch the likes of Alcantara, he plans to use these next six weeks to get as familiar with new pitchers as possible.
Stallings was the exclusive catcher for Alcantara and also caught most of Trevor Rogers’ starts in 2022, while Nick Fortes primarily caught Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera. The two mixed and match behind the plate when Jesus Luzardo started.
Now, Johnny Cueto is added to the mix in the rotation and the team has a slew of new relievers that have been added into the fold, including high-leverage guys in Matt Barnes, A.J. Puk and JT Chargois on top of top prospects who have been added to the 40-man roster.
“The great thing about Jacob is he’s won a Gold Glove but he has that growth mind-set,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “He’s disappointed in what his year was like last year, and he wants to get better. He’s asking all the right questions. He’s a smart kid. And he still caught the Cy Young Award winner, but as many conversations as he’s having with Sandy, he’s having the same amount with Rogers, which is obviously what you want from the leader back there.”
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