The complicated relationship between pitchers and popups

With two outs and two on within the second inning of a scoreless second recreation of final yr’s American League Championship Series, a popup sailed skyward.

Had pitcher Luis Severino adhered to custom, to baseball dogma, he would have deferred to his protection, capitulated particularly to his catcher and let this valuable potential out in a postseason recreation fall safely into the glove of an knowledgeable after being referred to as off.

Instead, the Yankees right-hander jogged off the mound, prolonged his gloved hand above his head, and — awkwardly however successfully — made the catch himself.

With that, he had ended the inning however damaged an unwritten rule that pitchers aren’t imagined to discipline pop flies.

“To me,” Severino mentioned later, “that [unwritten rule] is stupid.”

Quite a daring assertion from Severino. Baseball blasphemy, some would say.

Apparently, although, he’s not alone in that assertion, as a result of the speed of pitchers catching popups is popping.

In current days, we’ve seen the likes of the Nationals’ MacKenzie Gore, the Mets’ David Peterson and the D-backs’ Andrew Chafin not simply placing themselves in place to make the play however really sprinting off the mound like males possessed whereas waving off those that are historically entrusted to drag the popups in.

We noticed this final postseason, too. Severino was really certainly one of 4 pitchers to catch a popup throughout the 2022 playoffs — a brand new postseason document! (All 4 have been within the League Division Series or later, so the document was not a product of the expanded format.)

As of this writing, we’re on tempo for 71 popups caught by pitchers this yr. Last yr, there have been 66. The common within the first 23 full seasons of the 30-team period had been 58.7.

This is going on, by the best way, at the same time as the speed of infield popups in 2023 is simply 9.4% — the second-lowest since 2002, when FanGraphs’ popup information is first accessible.

Is this a revolution proper beneath our noses (or, extra precisely, beneath these popups)? Or only a statistical fluke?

Um, most likely the latter, actually.

But we will a minimum of entertain the notion that, within the time since MLB instituted the common designated hitter on a full-time foundation, pitchers are taking cost on extra popups as a result of — bereft of the chance to hit — it’s a approach for them to point out off their non-pitching athleticism.

Or perhaps extra pitchers have simply determined it’s, as Severino mentioned, “stupid” for them to not catch a popup that’s simply in play for them.

“I’ve been able to play this game since I was 2 years old,” Berríos mentioned. “I was a shortstop, a second baseman, an outfielder. I had a good ability to catch the ball. So now I’m a pitcher, but I still have that feeling, that passion to play the sport. So as soon as I throw that pitch, I convert myself to a position player.”

Berríos was happy to study he’s second amongst lively pitchers in popups caught, with seven. He vowed to catch and surpass the lively chief — wily veteran Johnny Cueto (eight), who has greater than 1,000 innings on him.

“I remember [in Single-A] in 2013, there was a popup to the visitors’ dugout, to the foul side, and the catcher couldn’t find the ball,” Berríos mentioned. “So I ran and laid out for it and made the play. After it was done, the pitching coach came to me and said, ‘Hey, don’t do that again.’ I said, ‘Why? We are playing baseball.’ I understand they’re trying to take care of me and don’t want me to get hurt. But that’s in my blood. I can’t stop that.”

It is a bit incongruous that, in a sport by which each out is valuable, knowledgeable athlete carrying a glove just isn’t anticipated to make what typically qualifies as a simple play.

But typically talking, pitchers are succesful. Instead, the job is left to different fielders who usually must hustle farther to get in place to make the play, generally even climbing the mound whereas trying as much as observe the ball.

“For infielders, it’s tough to run and then they don’t know where the mound is,” Severino mentioned. “So sometimes they trip or something can happen.”

Still, the custom persists, largely as a way of pitcher preservation.

“I would rather my corner guys get in there and catch the ball,” Mariners infield coach Perry Hill mentioned.

That hasn’t stopped Hill, who has coached on the Major League degree for greater than 30 years, from getting ready pitchers for the potential for catching very specific popups.

“We did it during the shift, because you get two strikes on certain left-handed hitters, and the third baseman is actually playing shortstop in the hole,” Hill defined. “So those foul balls around by the coach’s box, the pitcher has to get those.”

With essentially the most excessive defensive shifts restricted this yr, Hill has felt no must work on that play anymore (though there are actually nonetheless many cases by which the third baseman is way from the bag). And typically talking, groups don’t dedicate valuable apply time to this matter.

Pitchers’ fielding apply, or PFP, is an annual ceremony of Spring Training. But PFP doesn’t usually embrace PFP — Pop Fly Protocol.

“There’s never five minutes in Spring Training to work on popups with pitchers,” Blue Jays third base and infield coach Luis Rivera mentioned. “They just work on ground balls, covering first and stuff like that, but never popups. But while you’re watching those guys take ground balls, you can tell right away who has good hands and who doesn’t and then the infielders know which guys can handle it.”

Sometimes they really feel they must deal with it. Like final season, when the Phillies’ Zack Wheeler induced a popup to the third-base facet from the Rangers’ Brad Miller. Wheeler got here off the mound, regarded rapidly to his proper and didn’t instantly see third baseman Alec Bohm hustling towards the ball, so he took cost.

“It’s just funny, more than anything, when it happens,” Wheeler mentioned. “You come back to the dugout and say, ‘Hey, Bohm, were you over there sleeping?’”

Don’t sleep on what may be an rising pattern in MLB: More pitchers taking cost on popups. Because if it may well occur 4 instances in a single postseason, it may well occur anytime.

And if pitchers hold making the play, effectively, perhaps this custom — what some would name “stupid” — might be referred to as off.