Battle of the Battery-mates: A Breakdown of the Men Behind Home Plate in the 2017 World Series

The wait is nearly over! In less than twelve hours, the first pitch of the 2017 World Series will scream across home plate and one of two teams will begin the process of dismantling their own respective streaks. Will the Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate their first World Series title since 1988? Or will the Houston Astros prevail for their first championship ever and continue to help rebuild their home city struck by disaster earlier this fall? 

Central to the efforts of the winning club will be the work done behind home plate. The Astros and Dodgers will deploy a quartet of sluggers that were lights-out in the regular season, but have nearly all struggled to some degree in the postseason. Which duo will emerge as the superior battery-mate? 

The Case for the 'Stros (Brian McCann & Evan Gattis)

The Houston Astros will most likely employ the power hitting duo of Brian McCann and Evan Gattis behind home plate for this year’s World Series. I say most likely because there is technically another catcher on Houston's roster in the form of Juan Centeno. While Centeno could conceivably be in the mix for time behind home plate, it is far more likely that Evan Gattis would draw the start behind home plate were McCann not to play (Centeno has yet to have a plate appearance this postseason). The bald and bearded former Atlanta Braves products combined to hit .252 with 30 home runs and 117 RBI. In the postseason, McCann has been ice-cold, batting only .156 with an uncharacteristically high strikeout percentage (28.1% combined in the ’17 postseason vs. 17.2% for his career). 

Brian McCann has stumbled throughout the '17 postseason. Can he rebound in time for the World Series?

In a season hampered by injury, Evan Gattis blasted twelve home runs in 84 games to go along with 22 doubles and 55 RBI. Gattis followed his scorching hot ALDS performance (.400 avg. with two doubles) with a hypothermia inducing ALCS (.100 avg.). That being said, the glove-less wonder did hit a Game 7 home run off CC Sabathia which helped send the Astros to the World Series so who knows what’s in store for the stocky power hitter? After all, considering where he has come from, there is simply no way to count out the pride of Bishop Lynch High School.

Evan Gattis helped launch his Astros into the World Series on the back of his Game 7 home run.

The Case for the Boys in Blue (Austin Barnes & Yasmani Grandal)
The Los Angeles Dodgers will employ their own power hitting duo in the form of Yasmani Grandal and Austin Barnes. Yasmani Grandal's full season of work doesn't look horrible on the surface. Across 129 games, Grandal crushed 22 home runs, drove in 58, and threw out nearly a third of all would-be base stealers. However, his season was a bit of a club sandwich: the meat of the season, May and July, was fantastic (.337 and .313 averages respectively). The bread of the season surrounding and in between the meat, however, was stale and, quiet frankly, pretty putrid. In April, June, and August, Grandal contributed a .220 average with 69-to-22 K-to-BB ratio. In September, Grandal bottomed out, hitting only .159 while over 44% of his at-bats ended in a strikeout. Yikes!

Dodger blues? Catcher Yasmani Grandal has struggled mightily over the past two months.

Grandal's late season struggles opened the door for teammate Austin Barnes to step in behind home plate. Of the four primary catchers of the 2017 postseason, Barnes has been the most consistent performer, notching a .261 average with a home run, 3 RBI, and even a stolen base to his credit. Barnes doesn't have as lengthy a track record as Grandal, but the Arizona State product has a good batting eye (360-to-345 K-to-BB ration) and has long been one of the top prospects in the Dodgers' minor league system.

Austin Barnes is finally starting to make the transition from prospect to major league ballplayer.

Who has the edge?

There is an old saying that offense wins games, but defense wins championships. By offensive output, the two duos match up fairly well. Yasmani Grandal and Austin Barnes posted a combined 31 home runs and 96 RBI to go with a .268 average. By this standard, the Houston Astros would seem to have a leg-up with the hitting prowess of McCann and Gattis (.252, 30, 117). However, it is behind home plate that the Dodgers have an advantage and it is because of the defensive deficiencies of the 'Stros backstops that I would have to give the edge to the Boys in Blue.

Offensively, Evan Gattis and Brian McCann can go toe-to-toe with any other catching duo in the sport. To say that Evan Gattis and Brian McCann are a liability behind home plate, though, does a disservice to liabilities (statistically, they’re one of the worst batteries in the majors). Opponents were successful on the spaghetti-armed Gattis and McCann 89 out of 101 times (88.1% success rate).  On the flip side, the Dodgers' duo allowed 68 stolen bases while nabbing 28 runners (70.8% success rate). In addition, though I find it to be a hard metric to measure, Yasmani Grandal and Austin Barnes are among the league leaders in pitch framing (the amount of balls that they are able to get called strikes due to the way they catch the ball). While I believe that this metric is often more dependent on umpire tendencies than player skill, Grandal and Barnes rank very highly on this scale while McCann and Gattis round out the bottom of this metric.

Simply put, whatever offensive contributions that Houston's backstops make will likely be offset by their defensive deficiencies. Because if there is one thing that is certain, speed can and will be a factor in the postseason.