OC Register: Angels catcher Max Stassi looks for answers amid ‘horrible’ season

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM — After two seasons good enough to earn him a $17.5-million extension, Max Stassi isn’t running from what a disappointment this year has been for the Angels catcher.

“Way below my standards,” Stassi said. “It has not been good. Horrible. My coaches, everyone, has been helping me out. I’m just the one not getting it done.”

Stassi, 31, is hitting .179 with a .564 OPS, which is a dramatic decline from the .250 and .784 numbers he posted in 2020 and 2021, combined. That, along with his defense, prompted the Angels to buy him out of at least two years of free agency with the March contract extension.

Now, Stassi knows he has to do something different.

“I’m going back to the drawing board,” Stassi said. “I’m trying to do whatever I can to be in a good place. I’m going to figure it out. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do yet.”

Stassi’s season started poorly, but there was a stretch in the middle when he seemed to be back on track. In the first three weeks after the All-Star break, Stassi hit .259 with a .768 OPS. He said he had been more focused on getting the ball out in front of the plate.

Since then, though, Stassi has gone 4 for 72. It’s been reminiscent of the 3-for-42 stretch immediately after the Angels acquired him in a July 2019 trade. If there’s any consolation, he reworked his swing the following winter and had two productive seasons.

“You go through times like this and I’ll overcome this,” Stassi said. “That’s the only thing I’ve got right now. If I knew exactly what was going on, I would tell you. It’s a combination of a few things. I’m not trusting my swing at times. It’s been hard, but I’ve got to keep working. I’ve been in situations like this throughout my career and I will come out on top.”

If he’s not able to turn it around, the Angels will have to look for alternatives. Matt Thaiss has shown some promise in his first real opportunity behind the plate in recent weeks. The Angels’ top prospect is catcher Logan O’Hoppe, who was acquired last month in a trade. O’Hoppe has hit .306 with 11 homers and a 1.174 OPS in 29 games with the Angels’ Double-A team.

While Stassi’s offense has been a disappointment, manager Phil Nevin still sees positives in what he’s done with Angels pitchers. He’s caught 23 of Shohei Ohtani’s 25 starts. The Angels have a 3.82 ERA this season, down from 4.69 in 2021.

“He’s done a phenomenal job, catching Shohei each time obviously,” Nevin said. “He really does a great job with our younger pitchers. When he’s not playing he’s engaged, helping with (Matt Thaiss). Both him and (Kurt Suzuki). They talk about the game a lot. We’re better with him behind the plate, because of how he handles our pitching staff, and how he does things when he’s not playing. I know the offense has been a struggle, but I’m proud of him for the way he goes about his business behind the plate, which to me is just as important.”

Stassi’s job behind the plate might be changing somewhat in the future. The rule changes for next year will likely increase stolen bases, which is going to increase the pressure on catchers to shut down the running game. Stassi is reserving judgment to see exactly how much base-stealing increases.

Stassi, who takes pride in pitch framing, also has been closely following the sport’s move experiments with an automated strike zone. Baseball has tried a fully automated zone in the minors, but it’s worth noting that this year the Arizona Fall League will be using a challenge system. Instead every single ball-strike call being automated, the pitcher, catcher and hitter will be able to challenge a few calls a game.

“I think that the challenge system is good,” Stassi said. “(Umpires) are human too. They’re going miss a ball or two balls up or out,  but if you have a challenge system kind of equals it out. It takes five seconds and then you move on.”

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NOTES

Mike Trout was not in the lineup on Monday. Nevin said it was the last scheduled day off of the season for Trout. The Angels have 15 games left after Monday. …

Left-hander Tucker Davidson is scheduled to pitch on Wednesday in Texas. The Angels gave Davidson a few extra days after his last start to work on a mechanical change. …

Infielder Michael Stefanic was working out at first base before Monday’s game. “You never know what can happen,” Nevin said.

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 5-9, 2.99) at Rangers (LHP Cole Ragans, 0-2, 5.68), Tuesday, 5:05 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM

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[failos]

I’m skeptical Stassi will find those answers. It’s possible, and I hope he does, but he looks extremely bad at the plate and his defense at C leaves a lot to be desired. I honestly wonder why he’s regressed so much, but he’s very lucky Ohtani likes him so much.

[Jason]

I say he should hit the ball more and good things will happen 

[Tank]

Just now, Jason said:

I say he should hit the ball more and good things will happen 

[Angel Oracle]

Fatigue setting in from catching more games than he ever has in a season?

Good news is that he should be much better prepared now to catch at least 100 games in 2023 and not see the offense suffer like it did the past SIX weeks (since August 10).

OPS has sunk since then from .657 to .569 !!!

Of course, the lack of hitting support in the bottom half of the lineup has no doubt contributed as well.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Angel Oracle

[Taylor]

First he needs to find the right questions.

[Second Base]

Stassi will improve some, but it seems evident that 2020-21 were the high points of his career. Because of his defense, experience and contract he'll remain a fixture for the Angels for another couple years or so, mostly serving as a mentor for O'Hoppe and Thaiss, until Quero is ready for a role in the majors. 

But I think 2022 is the final season where he's a featured catcher. The Angels will likely keep Thaiss as a third catcher that players 3B and 1B, but having his bat should eat into some off Stassi's starts. By June or July next season I expect O'Hoppe will be up and will enter into a timeshare where he gets the bulk of starts. 

I'm thinking Stassi will drop down toward 70 starts in 2023 and closer to 50 in 2024 and beyond, as opposed to the 80-100 the Angels have offered him. 

[beatlesrule]

-0.2 fWAR -0.7bWAR all for the low price of 3 million this year and 7 million the next 2 years.

[angelsnationtalk]

"I’m going back to the drawing board,” Stassi said. “I’m trying to do whatever I can to be in a good place. I’m going to figure it out. I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do yet.”

Maybe hit lefty....

[Angelsjunky]

A good candidate to come into ST in the BSOHL.

His defense is more worrisome than his hitting, imo. Catchers can tend to be inconsistent with the bat, probably due to the grueling nature of their job. Just think of the great Johnny Bench, generally consider the greatest catcher of all time, and how he alternated great and merely very good seasons for much of his prime - but was still consistently excellent defensively, regardless of how his hitting was, as far as I can tell.

Catchers are also notorious for being late-bloomers as hitters, again due to the focus required to master the defensive side of their game. Not always, but often. This is why some of us had hoped that 2020's brief blip was the beginning of a nice little run, but the trajectory has been downward. Hopefully he can come closer to 2021's level next year, but we're now o'hopping for something better.

[BigVladdy]

20 hours ago, AngelsWin.com said:

 I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do yet.”

This is worrisome.

[CaliAngel]

4 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

A good candidate to come into ST in the BSOHL.

His defense is more worrisome than his hitting, imo. Catchers can tend to be inconsistent with the bat, probably due to the grueling nature of their job. Just think of the great Johnny Bench, generally consider the greatest catcher of all time, and how he alternated great and merely very good seasons for much of his prime - but was still consistently excellent defensively, regardless of how his hitting was, as far as I can tell.

Catchers are also notorious for being late-bloomers as hitters, again due to the focus required to master the defensive side of their game. Not always, but often. This is why some of us had hoped that 2020's brief blip was the beginning of a nice little run, but the trajectory has been downward. Hopefully he can come closer to 2021's level next year, but we're now o'hopping for something better.

I'd give him a pass for his offense to be a "late bloomer" if his defense was somewhat impressive, but really it's not. The way he catches pitches costs us strikes, he can't catch runners stealing because his throws are usually way off, and he's not good at tagging runners out when there's a play at the plate. Then there was a run down between 3rd and home a couple weeks ago that should have been pretty much an automatic out, and he completely botched it by throwing behind the runner at 3rd way too early and the runner scored. Somethings off about his instincts behind the plate, and honestly there might as well just be a brick wall back there because that would pretty much fill the shoes of the job that he's provided defensively.

But even then his performance at the plate is just horrible. He watches way too many strikes, then gets into an 0-2 count and he's screwed cause then he swings at the junk. His black hole at bats are the epitome of what this team needs to dump if they expect to be any kind of playoff contender over the next 2 years.