Gabriel Moreno's growth at catcher helping spur Arizona Diamondbacks' hot stretch

Sometimes, a young player’s growth is right there, hiding out in the open. With Gabriel Moreno, last Monday provided one of those moments.

In the fifth inning of a Diamondbacks’ win over the Rangers, Slade Cecconi used three fastballs to work a 1-2 count on the Rangers’ Adolis Garcia. Typically, that count against a right-handed hitter would call for a breaking ball. That’s where Cecconi’s mind went, dead set on a slider. But Garcia struggles against fastballs and, on the first three pitches of the at-bat, he didn’t look particularly comfortable against Cecconi’s. So when Cecconi wanted a slider, Moreno used a mound visit, stopping the at-bat to jog out to his pitcher with a message: Throw a heater. Cecconi obliged, blowing a high fastball past a flailing Garcia.

That pitch, on its own, represented the tiniest of margins. It increased the Diamondbacks’ win probability a mere 3%. But for Moreno, those types of moments have become increasingly common.

Early in the season, manager Torey Lovullo repeatedly called out Moreno, imploring his young catcher to be more willing to take mound visits, especially to prevent pitch clock violations. Recently, he’s done that with regularity.

“He's taking control of the situation, which is growth and maturity,” Lovullo said.

Moreno has also taken on a more active role in calling a game. Since debuting last season, he's been elite at throwing runners out and above average at blocking pitches — two more visible aspects of a catcher's value. But in working with his pitchers, he would strictly adhere to a pre-determined plan for attacking a hitter. Now, he’s willing to use his instincts to deviate from that plan when necessary.

“I feel more confident,” Moreno said. “Because of talking with the pitchers before the game, during the game. It gets more comfortable to me, what I'm doing.”

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To catching coach Jeff Banister, one at-bat in San Diego earlier this month best exemplified Moreno’s growth.

With a taxed bullpen, Lovullo called on the electric but erratic Justin Martinez to close out a win. Martinez typically relies on a 102 mph fastball and an occasionally devastating splitter. But Moreno had the rookie reliever open his first at-bat of the outing by landing a slider over the middle of the plate to “put the San Diego hitters in that inning back on their heels,” as Banister describes it.

“It's little things like that that I see where he's adapted and where he's not so strict on the ABCs,” Banister said. “He's developed a much more eclectic way of viewing it.”

That type of creativity has enabled Moreno to improve his rapport not only with rookies like Cecconi and Martinez, but also with the Diamondbacks’ best pitchers. Early in the season, Zac Gallen used his PitchCom device to call his entire game. Now, he lets Moreno call pitches.

That doesn’t mean it’s a unilateral operation — Gallen is still constantly thinking about how to strategically attack batters. But having his catcher’s input provides a second perspective. And while Gallen prides himself on being able to read swings and use them to adjust his gameplan, he knows that he’ll sometimes miss something that Moreno spots.

“There's some things that, as a pitcher, it's hard to see,” Gallen said. “… (Catchers) have that feel of, maybe a guy was late on a fastball or maybe he stayed on a slider really well or whatever that pitch might be. As opposed to, I might throw a pitch and a guy takes and I think he didn't give me any information. They can snuff that out.”

Gallen isn’t alone in his praise of Moreno. After striking out a career-high 12 batters in his last start, Merrill Kelly noted in his postgame press conference that he barely had to use his PitchCom all night.

“Kudos to Gabi for sure,” Kelly said. “He was calling the right pitches at the right time.”

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In that game, Moreno also went 3 for 4 at the plate, an increasingly common level of production. Since returning earlier this month from a three-week stint on the injured list with left shoulder inflammation, he’s hitting .350 with a .981 OPS — a line Moreno attributes to feeling mentally and physically refreshed.

The result of Moreno’s two-way production is a jarring difference for the Diamondbacks when he’s on the field.

In Moreno’s starts, the team is 44-27, a 100-win pace. When Moreno doesn’t start, the team is 25-35, a 68-win pace. The staff’s ERA when he catches is 4.09. With Jose Herrera or Carson Kelly behind the plate, it’s 5.14.

“You look at where we're at when he's been behind the plate, it's pretty impressive,” Banister said. “… And I think it’s only gonna get better.”

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Gabriel Moreno's growth helping spur Arizona Diamondbacks' hot stretch