Deep Dive: Caratini impacts all facets of the game for Cubs
Victor Caratini’s fingerprints are all over the defining storylines of the Cubs’ 2020 season.
On Sunday when he sat behind home plate for all 27 outs of Alec Mills’ no-hitter, many of the advantageous counts Mills found himself in transpired because of Caratini’s framing. The 27-year-old catcher has been a consistent framer since the statistic became a commonplace barometer of catcher defense. In each of the last two seasons, he has graded out as above average in popular public framing statistics (via Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant).
This season, Caratini ranks 7th in the league in a Statcast statistic called “runs extra strikes,” which calculates what percent of non-swing pitches a catcher converts to strikes on the edges or “shadow” of the strike zone.
In Mills’ no-hitter, Caratini took 6 pitches that were considered out of the strike zone and converted them to called strikes (link to pitches). This was the highest number of converted strikes for any Cubs’ starting pitcher this season (link).
“It starts with the position of the body, the little body lean and pulling these balls back into the strike zone, making them appear as strikes,” Marquee Sports Network analyst Sean Marshall said on Cubs Live! “He’s been fantastic this season.”
There’s one spot in the zone that Caratini has been exceptional framing: up and in to left-handed hitters. This specific part of the zone is an area starters like Mills and Darvish target in order to balance out their attack across the zone, Mills with elevated four-seamers and Hendricks with sinkers in on the hands.
It’s not just Mills that Caratini has an impact on — he is also the National League Cy Young frontrunner Yu Darvish’s batterymate.
Darvish was second in the league with a 1.77 ERA entering Tuesday’s start, just .06 points behind the Reds’ Trevor Bauer. Since 1988 when two-strike average was first tracked, Darvish has allowed only a .129 average against in such counts, the lowest of any pitcher (link). And Caratini has been an integral part of Darvish’s success, especially this season as the right-hander has carved his way through the National and American League Central. His consistent framing allows Darvish to stay in competitive at-bats despite throwing nearly 47% of his pitches outside of the strike zone.
And when Caratini steps into the batters’ box, he is productive. Despite a small uptick in his strikeout rate this season, he is still posting an on-base percentage (OBP) 6 points above league average. In three of the last four seasons, Caratini’s OBP has been above league average with a strikeout rate at or below league average.
The Cubs have a pair of above-average framing catchers and two hitters with rock-solid OBPs. With the pace of the postseason this year leading to a lack of off days, versatility at the catcher position will be crucial for success on back-to-back days. Caratini has set up the Cubs well to stay in every game as the team strives to make it to Globe Life Park for the World Series.
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