Brandon Valenzuela Stepped Up

[Leo Morgenstern]

Entering this past weekend, Brandon Valenzuela had played exactly one full MLB game in his career.

The Blue Jays acquired the catcher ahead of the trade deadline last summer. They selected his contract last fall to prevent him from leaving in minor league free agency. When Alejandro Kirk fractured his thumb earlier this month, Valenzuela got his first call to the show. 

The 25-year-old started once against the White Sox and once against the Dodgers, although he didn't finish the L.A. game; Tyler Heineman pinch-hit for Valenzuela (and went down on strikes as the final out of a 4-1 Blue Jays loss). Valenzuela also came in to catch the final innings of the other two games against the Dodgers after Heineman was removed for a pinch-hitter in one and a pinch-runner in the other. 

Before the Twins series, that was the extent of Valenzuela's big league experience. One base hit and four strikeouts in eight plate appearances. Twenty defensive innings behind the dish. A couple of bad throws and a couple of wild pitches past him. 

Then, Valenzuela stepped up. 

With Heineman suffering from back spasms, John Schneider asked Valenzuela to start all three games over the weekend. The schedule gave him less than 20 hours to rest between each. He caught 11 different pitchers over 27 innings, and he may deserve more credit than the overall results suggest. Although the Blue Jays lost two of three, giving up 19 runs on 21 hits and six home runs, it was only the starters who struggled. That was Patrick Corbin, who was making his first start after missing spring training and pitching only one ramp-up game in the minors; Eric Lauer, who was getting over a bad illness; and Max Scherzer, who is pitching through forearm tendinitis. Meanwhile, the relievers combined for a remarkable 15.1 innings of scoreless baseball, giving up just five hits and striking out 20. I'm much more inclined to give Valenzuela credit for helping the bullpen than I am to blame him for the starters' struggles.

Valenzuela also recorded his first career caught stealing and his first infield assists, while showing off great framing skills (53.1% called strike rate on takes in the shadow zone), elite pop times (avg. 1.88 seconds), and an ability to work well with the ABS challenge system. 

Brandon Valenzuela catches Austin Martin stealing second base (pop time 1.86 seconds).

Then there was what he did when he was standing at the plate instead of crouching behind it. The Blue Jays aren't asking Valenzuela for much at the plate. As a defense-first catching prospect thrust into a major league role, he only needs to be slightly better than a black hole in the nine hole. The jury is still out on whether or not he can do that long-term, but he certainly succeeded on Friday. He had his first multi-hit game, scored his first runs, and earned his first RBIs. That included crushing his very first big league homer (and, just as importantly, receiving his first Gatorade-esque sports drink drenching to celebrate). At 111.4 mph off the bat, it was Toronto's hardest-hit home run of the season. 

Valenzuela went hitless in the next two games of the series, though he drew his first big league walk on Sunday. His discipline has always been solid in the minors, but it took him 17 plate appearances in the majors to take a base on balls. Hopefully, that walk was another sign that he's getting a little more comfortable against this new level of competition. 

We talk a lot about small sample sizes here at Jays Centre, especially at this time of year. One weekend of baseball is, of course, a small sample. Yet, for Valenzuela, this weekend series against the Twins was so much more than just the 27 innings he caught and the 11 times he came to the plate. It was his first real taste of what it means to be an everyday MLB catcher, and it was a signal that the Blue Jays trust him to take on that role, at least temporarily. It was a big weekend for a player who's taking on more responsibility than he or his team expected he would. The pressure was on, and Brandon Valenzuela stepped up. 

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