Giants catcher Blake Sabol making strides after month in big leagues
Giants' Sabol making strides after month in big leagues originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
MEXICO CITY -- The euphoria of his walk-off home run didn't dissipate when Giants catcher Blake Sabol went to sleep Tuesday night.
Sabol is from California, but he spent his first three professional seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, playing home games in small cities in North Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania.
Sabol's West Coast friends blew up his phone on Tuesday, and then he woke up Wednesday to find that his former teammates from the East Coast had watched his highlight, too.
"There were a lot of messages," he said that day, smiling. "I haven't caught up yet."
Given the current catching situation, it's no surprise that he hasn't quite had the time. With Joey Bart sidelined by groin tightness, Sabol started the final three games of the series against the St. Louis Cardinals. It was his best opportunity yet to show that he can stick as a big league catcher long-term, and he continued to show his tools but also his inexperience.
The home run on Tuesday, the highlight of the Giants' season so far, went 428 feet to dead center and left the bat at 108.2 mph. It showed the confidence of a young hitter who knew to sit slider given what he had seen earlier in the game, and then had the natural ability to blast it to dead center against one of the game's best closers.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler saw something else during that at-bat, too.
"There's something about the way he was behaving in the batter's box that was really encouraging," he said. "It was a calm, relaxed, but still aggressive approach. We've seen Blake have almost a little bit of an out-of-control look in the batter's box in some of those (big) moments. It was really encouraging to see that calm."
A night later, Sabol singled off a left-hander and also on a 101 mph pitch from a right-hander. He stole a base and threw a runner out at second, but he also got called for his fourth catcher's interference of the season. On Thursday, he struck out in three of four plate appearances.
Traded to the Giants after he was selected in the Rule 5 Draft in December, Sabol was a long shot to make the Opening Day roster. But he was one of the club's best hitters in Scottsdale and injuries in the outfield made it easy to carry him as a left fielder early on. Roberto Pérez's season-ending shoulder injury cleared a path to more time behind the plate in recent weeks.
He has been thrown into the fire, and through 19 games he has a .730 OPS with four homers. That's the good. He also has struck out in 45 percent of his plate appearances.
"At the minor league level, there has been some whiff. He struck out at the minor league level," Kapler said. "I would expect that there's going to be some strikeouts here, too. It's a really good league with a lot of nasty pitchers. there are a lot of good hitters that strike out. We're going to work with Blake to help him make as much contact as possible, and he's going to hit home runs. He's a big, strong guy with some loft to his swing."
Sabol needs only to look a few feet to his left in the clubhouse to see an example of how things can change with experience. Bart struck out in 38 percent of his plate appearances last year but is down to 27 percent while raising his offensive numbers across the board this season. Bart has a wRC+ of 114, with Sabol at 100.
"Roberto Pérez was off to a nice start and it was really disappointing to lose him for the season with a shoulder injury, but it's created an opportunity for both Joey and Blake Sabol to kind of be the one-two guys," president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said on Friday's Giants Talk Podcast. "And they've both done a really nice job."
The Giants are in better shape behind the plate than they were a month ago, when Pérez got the nod over Bart on Opening Day and Gary Sanchez was added on a minor league deal. If Bart and Sabol can keep their momentum, they'll give Kapler a couple of young options who hit from opposite sides, allowing for an easy platoon.
For much of his managerial career, Kapler hasn't had to do that. He was spoiled by J.T. Realmuto in Philadelphia and Buster Posey in 2021. Ideally, one of the organization's young catchers -- including the recently-promoted Patrick Bailey -- will develop into more of an everyday option down the line, but the best-case scenario for 2023 is what the Giants have seen over the last couple of weeks.
Sabol has a .813 OPS against right-handed pitching, making him a good partner for Bart.
"We've seen, so far, a quality (defensive) Major League catcher and some power production at the plate and a lot of platoon advantages," Kapler said. "Those are three things that we try to get out of a catcher. Let's get the platoon advantage as much as possible, let's put together -- as often as possible -- a quality at-bat, and then let's do the job behind the plate. He's done that."
Kapler noted that the staff won't simply be satisfied with Sabol being a good platoon partner, and the young catcher won't be either. He sets a high standard for himself, but early on this season, he had trouble reaching it.
Sabol was hitting just .194 when the Giants landed in Miami last week, so he sat down one day and wrote down everything that's been on his mind, both good and bad. Then he crossed off all of the things he has no control over, an exercise meant to help him realize there are failures he shouldn't carry into the next game. A few days later he experienced his best moment in professional baseball, and afterward he said he finally feels a sense of calm, in large part because of the work he's doing with the team's mental skills staff.
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"When we came back to this homestand, I've kind of settled into my own and realized that it doesn't benefit me to dwell on the past and think I'm not doing well," he said. "There was always that confidence of knowing I belong here. There was never a sense of, 'I don't belong.' I'm learning to be hard on myself but not too hard, where it's going to deter me."
Sabol has tried to push back against the pressure, but it won't necessarily go away. Because of his Rule 5 status, he must be on the active roster for 90 days this season or the Giants have to offer him back to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sabol is one-third of the way there already, and he looks poised to keep ticking weeks off the calendar.
Pérez is done for the year, Austin Wynns is now a Los Angeles Dodger and Sanchez, who can opt out of his deal on May 1, has struggled in Triple-A. Bailey may force his way into the mix at some point, but the Giants are happy to ride with Bart and Sabol for the time being. For a second straight year of Life After Buster, they'll take a long look at a rookie catcher, hoping he's part of the long-term solution.
"It's tough for rookies. You've got to accept that there are going to be some growing pains," Zaidi said of Sabol. "But I like what he's done defensively, I like that he's shown some pop with the bat, and he seems to be hanging in there nicely."
