Kevin Gorman: Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings showed leadership when no one was watching
As a former third-stringer who was designated for assignment last May, Jacob Stallings understands how unlikely it is that he’s slated to become the starting catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates, let alone a leader.
Stallings isn’t taking anything for granted, even though he was endorsed the starter in spring training by the most unlikely of sources — the catchers competing for his job.
When free-agent additions Luke Maile, John Ryan Murphy and Andrew Susac arrived at Pirate City last month, they spoke in deferential and even reverential tones about Stallings.
“We’ve got a really good front-line guy with Stallings,” said Maile, signed from Toronto to a one-year deal. “He had an excellent year last year. He’s got a good rapport with these pitchers. I’m going to piggyback some of the momentum he’s built with some of these guys.”
The Pirates went from having one of the most productive backstop duos in baseball to one of the worst last season when Francisco Cervelli was out with concussions and backup Elias Diaz struggled behind the plate. The 30-year-old Stallings might have been viewed as a stopgap solution but he brought back some respectability.
Where Diaz finished last in baseball in both Defensive Runs Saved and framing pitches, according to Fangraphs.com’s catching metrics, Stallings ranked fourth in DRS and ninth in framing pitches. But it was what he did behind the scenes that earned Stallings the respect of the Pirates’ starting rotation.
Stallings learned to be a leader when no one was watching. He spent the first half of the season mostly on the bench, preparing for his opportunity by studying both the Pirates’ pitchers and opposing hitters. By the end of the season, he was the starter. Stallings played in 36 of the final 53 games, starting 30 and finished the season with a slash line of .262/.325/.382, with five doubles, six home runs and 13 RBIs.
“I’m super excited about Jacob Stallings,” said Pirates right-hander Chris Archer, who used Stallings as his personal catcher last season. “The way he showed the ability to hit, obviously, but he grew as a defensive catcher. Getting better during the season is something that is really hard to do, and he showed that you can do it. I know even with the growth that he’s not satisfied.”
Maybe that’s because the Pirates never stopped searching for Stallings’ successor. They released Cervelli in August and Diaz after the season, but made acquiring a catcher the central focus of trade talk in the offseason. Ultimately, Stallings received a vote of confidence when the Pirates opted instead to sign three veteran defensive-minded backstops in free agents Maile, Murphy and Susac.
Even then, Stallings still didn’t feel secure as the starter.
When new Pirates general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton met with Stallings, they didn’t officially ordain him the starter. The duo did something more meaningful: They told him they were impressed by his hard work in the second half and encouraged him to continue to be a clubhouse leader.
“They were very complimentary and talked about wanting me to take a leadership role on the team, that guys respect me and that I would need to do that for the team,” Stallings said. “We didn’t really get into role. I’m not taking anything for granted. I’m obviously hoping to be the starting catcher, but I’ll do whatever the team needs from me.”
Despite his reputation as a defensive catcher, Stallings is turning heads this spring with his bat. He leads Pirates regulars with a .417 batting average (5 of 12) in his first five Grapefruit League games, including a 2-for-3 performance in a split-squad game against the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday.
That stems from Stallings’ willingness to work on his weaknesses, whether it’s spending the offseason strengthening the back that bothered him last year, improving his approach at the plate or taking advantage of his downtime by studying the starting rotation even when he wasn’t catching.
The son of former Pitt basketball coach Kevin Stallings, Jacob is nothing if not opportunistic. He played in only 24 major-league games from 2016-18, and had to clear waivers last May. One benefit of his extensive experience at Triple-A Indianapolis is that it allowed Stallings to spend considerable time catching many of the pitchers now on the 40-man roster. Amid a season that spun out of control, he proved to be a calming, consistent clubhouse voice.
“I think leadership can manifest itself in a number of ways,” Stallings said. “Just the role I had last year, for the first three or four months of the year I was the backup and didn’t play very much. To stay sharp personally and to know what the pitchers were working on to get outs, I thought it was important to be with them in their bullpens and to watch video work and all that.”
That certainly made an impression, not only on the Pirates’ pitchers but also on a former minor-league catcher who is now their manager. Shelton complimented Stallings for his hard work and credited how critical his game-calling and pitch-framing will be to the team’s defensive-minded approach this season.
Whether Stallings remains a stopgap or becomes a long-term solution remains to be seen, but he has proven that his value is as much about what he does behind the scenes as it is about what he does behind the plate.
The Pirates shouldn’t take that for granted.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.
