The Pirates' Low-Level Minor League Catchers Are Making Progress -- Part One
Improvements after a down 2022 season
Catching prospects are an unpredictable lot. First, there’s the old saw that catchers develop more slowly. And it’s true. Second, there’s attrition; it’s a tough position physically, so just getting a catcher to the upper minors isn’t easy. Third, there’s the emphasis on defense over offense, which is even greater these days than it is at shortstop. For all these reasons, you might see somebody like Jacob Stallings, who was never on a prospect list, winning a Gold Glove. As long as a minor league catcher isn’t obviously making little progress, you can’t count anybody out.
The Pirates may be seeing a little of that now. The catching at the lower levels — I’m referring to Bradenton in the Florida State League and the rookie-level FCL Pirates — had a pretty rough year in 2022. Everybody struggled. This year, the overall performance is a lot better, including some guys who struggled last year. Starting with the Marauders, we have the current two catchers, Geovanny Planchart and Omar Alfonso.
Planchart, who’s from Venezuela, wasn’t a prominent signing, but he hit .368 in the DSL in 2019, although with no power. After the 2020 season got wiped out, he hit .321 with a bit more power in the FCL in 2021. His 2022 season wasn’t a good follow-up. After posting a measly .494 OPS at Bradenton, he got demoted to the FCL and didn’t hit there, either.
Back at Bradenton this year, Planchart’s been the team’s most frequent catcher since Wyatt Hendrie moved up to Greensboro. At the plate, Planchart isn’t exactly having a breakout season, but he’s hitting the ball with a bit more authority. He’s batting 243/346/335 in a league where the average is 239/344/371. He has a very good walk rate of 13.8%, but also has a strikeout rate of 23.0%. Planchart’s receiving has improved quite a bit, based on my observations, and he’s throwing out 32% of base stealers, better than the league norm of 24.3%. Not exactly enough to mark him as a prospect, but it’s still prospect. On the downside, he’s almost 22, making him about ten months older than the FSL average.
Alfonzo, also from Venezuela, was more prominent a signing, partly because his father, Eliezer, caught in parts of six seasons in the majors. He was expected to be an offense-oriented catcher with some power potential. He started off fairly well in the DSL in 2021, but batted just .144 in the FCL in 2022.
This year, Alfonzo was assigned to Bradenton in mid-May, but went just 4-for-24 and was sent to the FCL. He posted a 1.040 OPS in eight games, and the Pirates moved him back up to Bradenton, where he’s more or less sharing the job with Planchart. Through 23 games, he’s hitting 232/403/339. He’s always shown a good eye at the plate and currently has 16 walks and 17 strikeouts with the Marauders. Between the two levels this year, there’s at least some reason to think the power potential may be starting to emerge. Alfonzo’s a good receiver and, with Bradenton, he’s throwing out 31% of base stealers, so he’s doing well there.
Next time, the FCL.
Planch has a cannon on him. I remember seeing a video of him during 2022 spring training and was shocked at how yoked he was. He looked 245 lbs of pure muscle.