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Pirates Notes: The Book on Jacob Stallings; Marte Returns to the Lineup

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CHICAGO – Last night, the Pirates ran into a tough situation where they only had one healthy catcher, limiting their pinch-hitting abilities in the late innings. Chris Stewart has been banged up lately, and is dealing with a left knee issue. The Pirates called up an extra position player yesterday, but for some reason they went with Jason Rogers, rather than calling up an additional catcher. They corrected this today, sending Rogers back down and calling up Jacob Stallings.

“We brought Stallings in because we need to give Stewart some time down off that knee,” Pirates’ Manager Clint Hurdle said. “Hopefully it’s a minimal period of time down. That being said, it’s not a very comfortable position to have one catcher on the field. So unfortunately, we had to turn Jason Rogers around, send him right back and put Jacob in play and have two catcher options on the club. I’m working with the trainers, as we’re working with Stew on what he’s feeling, and the doctors. Try to keep him off this thing for a couple of days and see where we’re at tomorrow.”

Stewart has been banged up a lot in the last week, and hurt his knee on a slide at the plate in New York. However, the recent downgrade to his knee isn’t due to that alone, but the overall wear and tear of the position.

“That’s the hard part with catchers,” Hurdle said. “Because they’re blocking balls, they’re moving around. That’s what Stew said. This happened. This wasn’t because of the other situation. This happened somewhere along the road of just normal activity and the challenge of physical activity that comes with catching.”

Stallings got the start for Indianapolis last night. After the game, he was back at home when he got a call from Dean Treanor.

“Dean called me and said ‘Alright, you need to get back here.’ He told me in the office, and it’s been kind of a whirlwind ever since,” Stallings said.

Hearing the news from Treanor was big. A few weeks ago, Brian Peloza wrote about how Treanor told Stallings that his number one job was to help develop the Indianapolis pitching staff, while also asking what his personal goals were. Stallings didn’t give a strong enough answer for Treanor, so the manager told him to go back and think it over. He eventually changed his answer to wanting to become a Major League catcher. And now, he’s reached that goal, if only for a temporary assignment.

“We shared a pretty special moment last night,” Stallings said of his talk with Treanor. “He’s been good. He’s been really supportive.”

After he found out he was getting the call, Stallings called his family, and they actually arrived in Chicago today before he did. One of his first calls was to his Dad in Pittsburgh, Kevin Stallings, who is the head coach of the Pitt basketball team.

“I called my dad and kind of tried to play him off a little bit,” Stallings said. “He had team camp, and I asked him how long team camp was going to be. I said ‘Anyway you can get to Chicago tomorrow?'”

The fact that Stallings is now up in the majors makes for a very impressive story. He was originally drafted in the 7th round of the 2012 draft as a college senior. The main purpose of drafting him there was to save money for first round pick Mark Appel. Stallings received $10,000, which was well below the $148,000 slot for his pick. That was the biggest initial value he had — the ability to save $138,000 for Appel. Of course, Appel didn’t sign, and the Pirates used that money towards signing other players, including Max Moroff. They also got a compensation pick in 2013 for Appel, which they used for Austin Meadows. So it’s safe to say that it all worked out.

But it was still a long road from “signability pick and likely organizational guy at the lower levels” to catching in the majors. That’s especially the case when you consider who he caught with. In 2013, he split time in Bradenton with Elias Diaz. He was behind Jin-De Jhang in 2014 at the same level. The Pirates signed Sebastian Valle in 2015 to serve as potential catching depth out of Altoona, but Stallings eventually passed him and got the starting job. This year he was supposed to be behind Elias Diaz again, until Diaz went down with elbow soreness.

“My mentality in the off-season was I’m just one injury away from maybe being a September call-up, or something like that,” Stallings said. “I just need to be ready. As things unfolded throughout the season, I knew it was possible. I don’t think it’s really even hit me still yet.”

Stallings got to this point mostly due to his defense and his work with the pitching staff. He gets strong reviews from his pitchers, with top prospect Tyler Glasnow calling him his favorite catcher to throw to. He doesn’t have much of a bat, but does have the ability to get some hits, and projects to be a Chris Stewart type backup in the future. For now, the defense will be the big asset, along with familiarity with the pitching staff.

“Jacob has done a fine job,” Hurdle said. “Jacob has been a very calming influence on the staff, on the pitchers. Good target, sets up well, blocks, calls a good game. He caught just about every one of Jameson’s starts. He’s grown on everybody since he’s been in our player development system. Has always been the other guy, and then that guy gets hurt. Jacob gets an opportunity to play, and he just continues to take advantage of the opportunities that we presented him. This is a really cool story in his own right.”

Stallings will make his MLB debut tonight, starting behind the plate with Taillon on the mound. That makes a lot of sense, as he’s caught Taillon so much this year, while Erik Kratz hasn’t caught Taillon at all.

“That definitely makes it nice,” Stallings said. “Obviously I’ve caught him pretty much every time he’s thrown in Triple-A this year. It makes it a little easier. Not too much, but it makes it a little easier.”

The biggest challenge will be getting adjusted to everyone else on the roster. A lot of the bullpen guys right now are guys that Stallings has caught in Indianapolis this year. But for the rest of the guys who have been in Pittsburgh all year, Stallings has very limited work, only spending time with them in Spring Training.

“I was able to catch most of them in Spring Training, so I have at least that foundation of what they try to do,” Stallings said. “Anytime I’m not playing, I try to get out there and catch them in the pen as much as I can, and just get caught up. Just try to help these guys win some games.”

This is kind of familiar territory for Stallings, and something he has done every year of his pro career. In fact, the first time I talked to him was in State College in 2012. He had just signed with the Pirates shortly after the draft, and in the span of a week he went to State College, and learned an entire pitching staff with various backgrounds. That included college pitchers from major programs, high school pitchers making their pro debuts, pitchers from Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Lithuania, among other backgrounds. And Stallings adjusted with no problem to each guy, all in the span of a week. So this should be no problem for him.

“You kind of go through that every year,” Stallings said, in reference to the minor leagues. “In Spring Training, you catch them maybe two or three times. But it’s not like you get to catch the guys who are going to be on your team every time. I went through that again with these guys. … It’s nice to have that foundation for sure.”

Stallings should be up at least until Tuesday, since the Pirates can carry an extra position player until then. At that point, they will have to re-evaluate Stewart, and make a decision from there. Stallings might not provide much better offense than Kratz — he was hitting for a .199 average in Triple-A, where Kratz was batting .237 — but his familiarity with the pitching staff makes him a better option right now. If Stewart can return, Stallings would be the better backup. But the Pirates might want to send Stallings down at that point, opting to preserve depth, which isn’t a bad idea with all of the injuries they’ve had this year at the position.

Sean Rodriguez as the Emergency Catcher

One of the interesting things last night was that Sean Rodriguez has never played a game in his career behind the plate, yet was the emergency catcher. I asked Hurdle what went into this decision, pointing out that Rodriguez has never played there.

“I was aware that he’s never caught in a game. We’ve had that conversation,” Hurdle said laughing. “It’s kind of funny, isn’t it, that he’s the emergency catcher? I figured that would come up sooner or later.”

The key thing here was that the Pirates are limited with their current roster, and Rodriguez is the most athletic defender they have.

“He’s always got defensive work going on with the glove,” Hurdle said. “Have we sent him into a flat-out bullpen and caught? No, we haven’t. Has he done some flat ground work, or just fooling around? Yeah. He’s the most athletic defender we have. He kind of told me the first base thing, he said ‘that will be no problem.’ I’m like ‘Really? You haven’t played much.’ So when we’re talking about catchers, ‘It really won’t be a problem.’ Okay, sliders? Breaking balls? It’s where we are. We don’t have a third one. And he’s the best option of anyone else.”

This really shows how deep the Pirates are having to go with their catchers. Francisco Cervelli, Elias Diaz, and Chris Stewart are hurt. Stallings just came up to help out, but they don’t have a typical emergency catcher on the roster because John Jaso can’t play the position anymore due to his concussion history. And they’ve come dangerously close to needing that emergency catcher this year.

“It’s been a bunch of games this year where we’ve gotten to that position,” Hurdle said. “It’s not for lack of anything. It’s just consequences. The hand you get dealt sometimes during the game, and the decisions you have to make with rosters. Put a guy out of play for 15 days, versus trying to do a couple. Challenges that can come with the injuries.”

Starling Marte Returns to the Lineup

Starling Marte makes his return to the lineup tonight, after leaving on Wednesday in New York following getting hit in the face with a ball that bounced up after a missed diving catch. Prior to the game, Hurdle said that Marte was going to put in a full afternoon of work, hitting in the cage, running, exercising, and taking batting practice. He did return last night as a pinch runner and a fielder, but wasn’t ready to hit yet. He’s obviously cleared for that now.

This wasn’t the case earlier in the week. He tried some swings on Thursday, but immediately shut that down. He took some swings on Friday and was okay. Yesterday, he took swings and did cage work.

Hurdle shared a funny story about his own history with getting hit in the head, and the struggles of coming back to the game. He was hit in the head twice, once by Dwight Gooden and once by Dickie Noles. After the latter one, Hurdle ended up spending a night in the hospital, although the testing for head injuries wasn’t as detailed as it is today.

“You get hit in the head back in the day, you come out of the game and they tell you to go lay down,” Hurdle said. “They’re checking on you every couple of hours, put a mirror under your nose. At the end of the day, the trainer goes ‘Are you okay?’ I go ‘You know, I think I am.'”

Hurdle lived next door to the stadium, but drove his car that night. He thought he would be fine to leave after getting hit by Noles, but quickly found out that wasn’t the case.

“I go outside, and this was before the days of the [keyless remotes],” Hurdle said. “I go outside, and I’m outside for 15 minutes. I can’t remember where I parked my car. So I go back in and I say ‘Larry, I’m not doing very good man, I have no idea where my car is. It’s here, but I don’t know where it is. I don’t even know where to look.'”

Hurdle spent the night in a head trauma center. He returned several days later, and his first game back was in Montreal, against Bill Gullickson, who had one of the biggest curveballs in the game, according to Hurdle. The first at-bat didn’t go so well.

“The first pitch he throws is a big right-handed curveball, and I walk right out of my stride,” Hurdle said. “And the dugout, they’re just shaming me. They’re just absolutely shaming me. So I’ve got to pull my pants back up, I’ve got to get back in the box, I’ve got to hit. But it’s crazy. It’s a right-handed curveball. But whatever was still going on in my head for the first pitch, after that I was fine, but the first pitch I was out of there.”

Hurdle recalled that he thought Gullickson went on to throw him two more curveballs after the reaction to the first one. As for losing his car, his teammates pranked him a few times by moving his car that season.

Fortunately, Marte’s case doesn’t seem that severe, but the time off for him was to make sure he was back when he was ready, and not before. That’s a long way from when Hurdle was playing. And after hearing the story, I had to ask Hurdle, was the original concussion protocol “Can you find your car?”

“You know what, you can use that,” Hurdle said laughing. “You can say I was part of the expedition concussion protocol team. Prove that you’re okay. Go find your car.”

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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