Roberto Perez: Analyzing the value of Cleveland’s defense-first catcher

While he doesn’t provide a lot of offensive value, Roberto Perez is an important element of the Cleveland Indians’ roster.

Roberto Perez gained a bit of notoriety during last year’s World Series thanks to what he accomplished with the stick. While the total body of offensive work was ultimately unimpressive, his two homers in Game 1 of the World Series propelled the Tribe to a series lead (the results for the remainder of the Series, both for the Indians and for Perez notwithstanding). That outburst led to a bit of validation for a player who deserved it throughout 2016.

Not that such validation should’ve been reserved for his offensive output.

In fact, Perez has provided very little offensive value to the Indians across his 505 plate appearances. He’s hit only .220, walked at a clip of only .318, and struck out at a 26.5 percent rate.

However, his .229 batting average on balls in play and a respectable 12.5 percent walk rate lend themselves to an increase in productivity. There’s also the matter of recovering from a thumb injury. Even then, though, his offensive upside doesn’t necessarily project him to be an impact offensive player.

Where Roberto Perez makes his bones is what he does behind the plate. There are few catchers across the league that represent more of a defensive asset behind the dish as that of Perez. Especially in the American League.

Baseball Prospectus had Perez ranking as the 13th best catcher in the league in 2016, in terms of pitch framing, and fourth overall in the American League. In the AL, he trailed only notable defensive backstops Russell Martin, Jason Castro, and Brian McCann. He finished with a Framing Runs figure of 8.0.

While he didn’t stack up quite as favorably to some of his AL counterparts in the blocking game, he still graded out positively. Perez finished 2016 with a 1.4 mark in Blocking Runs. There’s an arm there too, as he finished with a 1.1 in Throwing Runs. That figure ranked sixth in the AL.

Perez was able to gain an increased role in Cleveland’s catching plans due to an injury that held Yan Gomes out for the latter portion of 2016. After Jonathan Lucroy rejected a trade to Cleveland, Perez was able to step in and latch onto the starting gig. While a starting job is not in the cards quite yet for Perez, he certainly holds the defensive superiority over the likes of Gomes. In 2016, Gomes ranked 99th in Framing Runs, 34th in Blocking Runs, and 28th in Throwing Runs.

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Gomes represents a player with more offensive upside than Perez. This is illustrated by the fact that he’s been a well below-average offensive player in each of the last two years. That’s true of the rare occasions in which he’s been healthy. There’s certainly more pop there, at the very least. With the recent struggles from Gomes, it’s not absurd to hope for Roberto Perez to seize the No.1 job.

The catching position, as a whole, is not one that is terribly notable for offensive output. If Perez was able to produce even league average offense, Cleveland has enough impact players to overcome his offensive shortcomings. And then there’s the defensive aspect, which he can also ride in order to overcome some of those woes.

You’re talking about a player who can aid in keeping runners off base through framing. Then, he can prevent them from moving when they reach in blocking and with the arm. Defense-first catchers have the ability to impact the game in preventing runs in the same way that offensive players can impact the game by adding them. Roberto Perez has a lot to be said for his skill set, even without the ‘starting catcher’ qualifier attached to his name.

It’s actually rather unfortunate that we don’t get to see Roberto Perez as Cleveland’s No. 1 catcher. It’d be interesting to see what he could do with a majority of at-bats and an opportunity to handle the pitching staff full-time. Perez has at least shown capable of the latter, which arguably represents the more important aspect of catching. And it’s also why Perez is so heavily locked into a roster spot at this point.

Even though he’s not the starter, we’ll still likely see Perez appear back there plenty throughout the season. Gomes has a recent history of health woes and the performance gap between the two on offense isn’t terribly significant.

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Perez represents an essential piece, as a defensive asset in position to aid one of the best staffs in baseball. It would not be surprising in the slightest to see him outmaneuver Gomes for playing time behind the dish.