Andrew Knapp’s understudy work is not underappreciated by Phillies | Bob Brookover
J.T. Realmuto's backup does not get much time behind home plate, but he makes the most of it when Zach Eflin's on the mound. Sunday was no exception.
Andrew Knapp knows the life of a Broadway understudy. The Phillies’ backup catcher understands that the crowds come to Citizens Bank Park hoping J.T. Realmuto is going to be behind home plate every bit as much as Hamilton attendees wanted to see Lin-Manuel Miranda in that show’s lead role when it hit the stage in 2015.
Why would anyone want to pay to see a catcher hitting .179 without an RBI when Realmuto, an All-Star who is arguably the best catcher in the game, is hitting .279 with 21 RBIs, tied for first among major-league catchers? The nature of the position, however, does not allow a catcher to squat behind home plate 162 times per year, leaving a manager to pick and choose when he is going to sit the starter.
Gabe Kapler chose Sunday, the Phillies’ series finale against the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park.
“[Saturday] night I spoke to J.T. and I told him he was going to have a day off,” the manager said. “I don’t like to give J.T. a day off because he is such a valuable piece of our offense, our defense, and our game preparation and he fights me every time. He never wants to come out of the lineup.”
Realmuto’s 28 starts behind the plate are the most in baseball, so Knapp has mostly been relegated to pinch-hitting duties. His start Sunday was only his fifth of the season. You can complain that he does not hit much, but ask teams if they’d rather have a backup catcher who can hit or one who can call a good game and the answer will always be the latter.
To his credit, Knapp has done that brilliantly this season. The starting pitchers have a 2.57 earned run average in his five starts and the overall staff ERA is 2.85 when he is behind the plate. Zach Eflin has taken a particular liking to Knapp.
The 25-year-old right-hander pitched a complete game in his previous outing against Miami with Knapp behind the plate, so it made perfect sense for Kapler to pair the two again Sunday. Eflin, 4-3 with a 3.00 ERA after seven starts, repeated his outstanding effort against the Marlins by giving the Phillies seven innings in their 7-1 win over the Nationals.
Afterward, the pitcher and the manager gave Knapp credit for the way the catcher called the game.
“Knappy’s guidance,” Eflin said when asked why he had held the Nats’ decimated lineup to a run on five hits. “He was awesome behind the plate. He knows me extremely well. I threw a lot of heaters … we were able to go in and out and get a lot of weak contact. It was a lot of fun.”
Sixty-nine of Eflin’s 108 pitches were fastballs.
“It was a lot of fun,” Knapp said. “I mean, that’s exactly how you’d want it to go. That’s back-to-back starts for him where he has been able to do exactly what you want to do. He executed the game plan pretty incredibly. He is capable of doing that every single time out.”
While it was not surprising that Eflin and Knapp connected as battery mates again, they would have been voted the least likely pair to trigger the Phillies’ latest big inning. Knapp was just 2-for-12 in his four previous starts and 4-for-25 on the season.
But after drawing a walk in the fourth inning, he singled to left field off reliever Matt Grace with one out in the seventh inning. Knapp got to third on a single by Maikel Franco, then scored on a perfectly placed safety squeeze bunt by Eflin.
By the end of the inning the Phillies had pushed a one-run lead to six and were on their way to completing a 6-3 homestand.
“I felt like I’ve had a pretty good stretch of at-bats here where I’ve been happy,” Knapp said. “There haven’t been many hits, but that is kind of the way it goes when you come off the bench.”
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He is right about that. Fourteen of the 29 catchers who have 40 at-bats or fewer this season are hitting .200 or lower. Only six of the 29 are hitting above .250. Thanks to seven walks, Knapp’s .343 on-base percentage ranks eighth among that group of 29.
Still, he was happy to contribute a huge hit to go along with his work behind the plate, which also included a first-inning throw that cut down Wilmer Difo attempting to steal second base.
“It was good to get that [hit] and kind of spark that rally,” Knapp said.
The understudy knows he will not be back on stage Monday night when the Phillies open a three-game series in St. Louis, but he could return to the lineup Saturday in Kansas City when Eflin is scheduled to pitch again. Kapler at least said he would consider it.
“I don’t love the personal catcher thing that tends to develop,” Kapler said. “It doesn’t mean that I won’t consider it every time Eflin pitches. I just think it puts you a little bit behind the eight ball in terms of making the best decisions when you feel like a catcher and a pitcher have to be together. I’ve seen it happen quite a bit when it kind of forces your hand. Maybe it’s not the right time for a J.T. day off. Maybe J.T. swings a bat really well against a pitcher. Obviously, J.T. can catch Eflin and lead Eflin quite well also.”
All true. But at least Knapp has proven to be a capable understudy.
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