Anthony Ranaudo remembers what Christian Vazquez used to be like behind the plate.
“My first year of pro ball in 2011, I played with him in Greenville,” Ranaudo recalled. “He was a younger guy and wanted to throw a lot of runners out, so anytime somebody got on base, it was a lot of fastballs away so he could get in a good position. I joke about that with him now.”
Vazquez’s arm has long been off-the-charts. He’s a game-changing catcher with his ability to control and to shut down a running game.
But that’s far from the only important aspect of a catcher’s defense. In fact, catching basestealers might be the least important aspect of a catcher’s defense. Blocking, receiving, game-calling — these are the less quantifiable subtleties of catching, and they’re where Vazquez has shown the most improvement of late.
“He was challenged leaving spring training to take pride in the game-calling, the blocking, the presentation of pitches — just like he has pride in throwing and being challenged with runners on,” Red Sox minor-league catching coordinator Chad Epperson said. “He’s done that.”
The main question regarding Vazquez’s major-league readiness centers on his bat, with which he’s hit a modest .267 with a .309 on-base percentage for Pawtucket this season. He’s shown extended flashes of a terrific approach — he had a .758 OPS in April — but there is obvious room for necessary growth there.
That’s the kind of development he’s shown this year behind the plate, as the coaching and pitching staffs at Pawtucket have noticed how much better Vazquez is at the less heralded aspects of being a backstop. He’s more aggressive when blocking the ball, moving toward the ball to take its spin off the bounce out of play. He’s a craftier framer now, quieter behind the plate having cut down the distance his glove travels to areas of the zone. That’s leading to more strike calls.
And his rapport with the pitching staff is one of the reasons it’s performing so well. Just ask Ranaudo, who’s in the midst of the best stretch of his professional career.
“When I’m on the mound, and there’s a pitch I want to throw — even if it’s an unconventional pitch to throw on that count — Christian usually puts down the number I’m looking for,” said Ranaudo. “When you’re on that same page, when you have that grip in your glove and the catcher puts down the number you want, there’s a confidence there. It just makes everything a lot easier.”
“I’m working with that,” Vazquez said. “I’m getting more experience with calling games and getting that with the veteran guys, the big-leaguers here, working when I’m not playing. When I’m not playing, I was talking to the pitchers in the bullpen about calling games. I’m getting there.”
Calling a game might be the hardest aspect of catching to master because, well, catchers don’t do it until they reach the pros. Even in the best college programs, the coaching staff calls most of the pitches. A catcher doesn’t even have to consider something as complicated as reading swings until he’s playing full-season ball.
