A Cubs Catcher Wins a Gold Glove Award
Just a few minutes ago, Minor League Baseball released the 2019 Gold Glove award winners. Within that group, Chicago Cubs farmhand, Jhonny Pereda won the award for the catcher position.
Pereda posted a .996 fielding percentage in 85 games behind the plate, making only three errors in 833 chances. He threw out 44 of a possible 132 attempts at stealing.
During the Cubs Convention this past year, several of the folks that work with the minor leagues had a lot of very positive things to say about Pereda. While he is still a couple of seasons away from a possible MLB call-up, he is another example of a catcher-rich organization.
For years and years, the Cubs were one of baseball’s worst organizations at finding and developing catchers. But today, they seemingly have two solid catching options at every level of the organization. Back in 2016, I spoke with the Cubs Director of Amateur Scouting, Matt Dorey, and asked him how they changed the organizational mentality when it came to the catcher position. Here is what he said.
“Like anything else in our organization, any and all success is a bi-product of a truly team effort with great input from both scouting and player development,” Dorey explained.
As for the influx of quality catching talent, Dorey credited that to the dedication of the organization to the position. “I would say it has been a point of emphasis both on the amateur and international side of scouting.”
The scouting side isn’t acting alone. Matt gives huge credit to the player development side, and especially their catching coordinator. “We have such great instructors on the development side led by Tim Cossins our catching coordinator, that it has given us great confidence in sending catching prospects into our system knowing they will get better immediately.” Matt continued, “Tim is the best and has helped tremendously by communicating to my staff the things that he looks for in young catchers and sharing both the physical and mental attributes he feels are the most important for future success.”
Not only does Tim communicate what they would like, Matt’s team takes it to heart when out on the trail. But like any great teammate, Matt gives the credit to Tim and his staff. “He has spoken to our group on a number of occasions and has given us a great framework to take with us out on the scouting trail,” Matt commented. “I give a lot of if not most of the credit to Tim and his staff for what he has done with the catching group we have in place now in the system.”
It isn’t just the player development side, Matt’s team has owned the catcher position. Their success hasn’t just been from scouting pure catchers either. “From a pure scouting perspective we pride ourselves on looking at catching through a wider lens, taking in consideration with specific body types, athletic attributes, baseball IQ, leadership qualities, and as always with any position player their ability to manage their at bats in addition ability to drive the baseball.” Matt continued, “We have had some success with converting some college infielders behind the plate as well and I give our area scouts a lot of credit with having the ability to scout outside the box.”
“They [area scouts] get to know the player on a personal level and really determine if they have passion for the position as this often time becomes the separator for long term success behind the plate,” Matt explained. “The catching position is not for the faint of heart and you have to be completely bought in, unselfish, and committed to the grind both physically and mentally to be able to progress through the minor leagues and impact a big league roster.”
The now and the future looks very good for the Cubs in terms of the catcher position. While Willson Contreras seems to have a stranglehold as the MLB team’s starter, and Victor Caratini will likely remain as the backup, whatever happens in the future should continue to produce solid catching options for the Chicago Cubs.
