If you take a look at his season long stat line, or if you polled the Pirates fanbase about their feelings on him, you wouldn’t believe the incredible hot streak that Yasmani Grandal is on.
But the veteran catcher has been one of this team’s best bats in recent weeks, providing some offense from the bottom half of the batting order.
Grandal has lost a sizable chunk of his playing time during the emergence of Joey Bart as a dark horse candidate for the best batter in Pittsburgh. Grandal has been relegated to the backup job, with his only guaranteed time behind the plate being when Paul Skenes is starting.
Bart has completely taken over the starting catcher’s role, and has even played as the designated hitter most of the time that Grandal draws into the lineup.
However, despite the cut in playing time, perhaps getting fewer at-bats during the second half of the season has allowed him to not be overexposed.
Grandal’s slash line on the year is a measly 208/.253/.624, but even beyond his mind boggling performance boost in Skenes starts vs non-Skenes starts, Grandal has well outperformed his yearly numbers.
If you take a look at his stats from around the last two months, you can see a slow but steady pattern of Grandal improving at the plate
- In his last 30 games: .236/.296/.461 (21-for-89), 18% strikeout rate, 8.2% walk rate, 5 home runs, 10 RBI
- In his last 15 games: .286/.364/.571 (14-for-49), 22.4% strikeout rate, 10.9% walk rate, 4 home runs, 6 RBI
- In his last 7 games: .308/.357/.654 (8-for-26), 15.4% strikeout rate, 7.1% walk rate, 3 home runs, 4 RBI
Grandal now has home runs in back to back games played, launching a solo shot off Cincinnati’s Jakob Junis for the final run in Pittsburgh’s 7-0 win over the Reds in their series opener.
Much more importantly, though, Grandal hit a walk-off home run off of Reds closer Alexis Díaz to secure a comeback win and claim the series for the Bucs.
Maybe he isn’t the most consistent, and yes his catching work behind the plate at this stage of his pro career is suspect, but the guy is seeing the ball tremendously right now.
He entered the month of July batting .174 on the season. He is now up to ..208; that’s a full 34 point jump in a little under two months.
Ironically, now that his playing time has been reduced, he is showing management for really the first time all season that he deserves to be in the lineup more, and while that may still have some fans uneasy, it might be something that happens.
Joey Bart, who has been a godsend at the plate for the Pirates, was pulled from yesterday’s game early due to injury. Per the team, Bart was removed due to left hamstring discomfort.
They said that further updates will be made available, and while the team has yet to officially confirm it, Pirates reporter Andrew Destin is reporting that Henry Davis is being recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis as Bart is slated to go on the Injured List.
If this had happened at any other time during the year, the Pirates would be smart to have Grandal take a backseat to Davis, who would get another extended look at the major league level.
But with Grandal batting the way he is right now, don’t be surprised if the duo ends up splitting the starts roughly in half down the stretch. Like I said, Grandal’s recent work is finally evident of somebody who not only deserves a roster spot, but someone who should be considered to play more often.
In the month of August, Grandal is batting .297 and has an OPS of .934. If any other player was having that kind of run during a month, we’d be having the same conversation.
The fact that it’s Grandal having that streak certainly does make things interesting, though. Losing Bart for any amount of time will be detrimental to this team, but Grandal, as it stands right now, is more prepared to help shoulder some of that burden than he has been all season long, both physically and mentally.
“We’re always fighting,” Grandal said in an interview after the game. “We’re never out, it doesn’t matter, that’s the identity of this team. I feel like we’ve shown it throughout the whole season, and we just gotta keep on fighting.
“And you guys need to keep believing,” he said to the crowd, which earned him some cheers.
There will be a lot of players to keep an eye on down the stretch, whether they are already in Pittsburgh or will soon be arriving from Indianapolis. Count Yaz among them.
(Featured photo from Matt Freed/AP)
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