NORTH PORT, Fla. – As he familiarizes himself with all of his new pitchers, new Braves catcher Sean Murphy must study their pitchers, how they like to work, what makes them tick and more. Oh, and he’s also working closely with catching coach Sal Fasano as he continues honing the position’s intricate details.
One might wonder how Murphy avoids becoming overwhelmed with all this information.
“I think getting overwhelmed is probably part of it,” Murphy said, laughing. “It’ll happen, I’m sure, at some point.”
To mitigate this, Murphy writes in a notebook. He might not check it often, but jotting down notes helps him declutter his brain while still keeping the information in his memory bank.
On Tuesday, Murphy caught Charlie Morton’s “touch and feel” (which is a light bullpen session. Morton is the first Braves pitcher Murphy has caught, but the list will grow in the coming days and weeks.
Murphy gained a bit of a feel for Morton, including the shape of his pitches. Morton gave Murphy some perspective on what he likes when working on the mound.
Murphy planned to write down a few notes on Morton on Tuesday.
“Just sort of the shapes that I saw on the pitches, when he missed, where he missed, maybe why he missed it there,” Murphy said.
The Braves acquired Murphy because he is one of baseball’s best catchers – catchers, not hitters. He can impact the game with his bat, but his defense is his calling card. The catcher position is extra important for the Braves because it intertwines with almost everything they do during games. The Braves put a lot on their catchers.
Over the next six weeks, Murphy will continue familiarizing himself with his new teammates. He’ll study them as pitchers, but will also try to connect with them as people.
“A little bit of everything,” Murphy said. “What kind of sequences they use, what kind of pitch shapes they have, that’s pretty easy. And then there’s just more of the teammate side and how they tick. How can I get him through a tough inning? How quickly can I recognize something’s off and what’s off, so maybe I can go take a visit and fix it before things get control?
“You Just know how each guy likes to be worked with. It’ll take some time. It’s just building relationships, so that’s part of it. Have lunch with guys, whatever it takes. Just build relationships.”
On the field, the defense will always come first for Murphy. He seems to care more about the pitchers than he does about his own stats.
“I don’t worry about the offense too much,” he said. “I contribute where I can. That’s sort of my approach. I’ve said this before a bunch of times, but I’ll go 0-for-5 every day if we call a shutout. My mood does not depend on whether I got out or not. So I’m trying to get the pitchers through the games and win. And again, anything I contribute offensively is just extra. I still work on these things, but I don’t let the at-bats dictate how I feel about my day, and that I think that helps me.”
It’s difficult to measure many aspects of catching. A single metric cannot define a catcher’s value because so much goes into the position.
“I think that’s part of the allure, like the fun of it,” Murphy said. “It’s all those different things going on. There’s a bunch of balls in the air and you got to try and juggle them at the same time. When you do it successfully, it feels really good and satisfying.”
