Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman made huge strides behind the plate in 2025
SAN FRANCISCO Hunter Goodman rakes His skills at the plate made him the Rockies lone All-Star and produced the best offensive season by a catcher in franchise history Proof is in the numbers his home runs hits extra-base hits and RBIs are all the the majority in a season for a Rockies primary catcher Goodman s skills behind the plate and his progress as a match caller and scholar of the meeting are not as easily measured But the Rockies say the -year-old has made huge strides since the club turned him into a full-time catcher in spring training Overall it s been seen by people throughout the league that Goody has become an everyday starting catcher who produces offensively but I see him turning into a great defensive catcher veteran left-hander Kyle Freeland declared Friday before the Rockies played the Giants at Oracle Park to begin their final series of the season I think how he s grown behind the dish speaks volumes about his ability to learn adjust and do things on the fly very hastily has been impressive Specific of Goodman s improved defensive skills particularly his ability to block balls in the dirt are apparent Interim manager Warren Schaeffer calls it exceptional Goodman still has a way to go in throwing out base stealers as his low caught-stealing rate shows However the more subtle aspects of Goodman s all-around meeting pitch calling receiving and knowledge of opposing hitters have been impressive The start of this season feels like a long time ago Goodman reported I didn t feel all that secure back there to be honest with you But as the season has gone on I think the progress has been really good Whether it s blocking receiving or throwing I think it s gone in the right direction Schaeffer Freeland and Goodman all say that Goodman s progress as a game-caller has steadily improved as the season has gone on However Goodman reported he has made the the greater part progress with pitch framing I ve spent a lot of time working on receiving or pitch framing whatever you want to call it he declared I worked really hard on that during the offseason and during spring training I really needed to clean various of that stuff up Related Articles Rockies cement status as second-worst National League band ever behind Mets Mariners clinch AL West title Cal Raleigh hits th homer and Rockies lose th encounter Rockies blow lead late as Mariners clinch AL playoff berth Rockies bullpen trio of Victor Vodnik Jimmy Herget Juan Mejia shines amid dark season Mariners All-Star Bryan Woo to miss Thursday start vs Rockies with pectoral tightness as playoffs approach Statcast measures pitch framing in part by measuring a catcher s shadow zone Statcast defines the shadow zone as the two-baseball-width area around the edges of the strike zone representing pitches that are borderline and could be called balls or strikes This zone is crucial for pitch framing where catchers use their presentation to influence umpires into calling borderline pitches strikes Goodman s shadow strike rate ranks th in the majors His receiving has improved a ton and he s turning a lot of those pitches into strikes and now he sits right in the middle of the pack statistically Schaeffer mentioned For somebody who is an impactful offensive catcher that s pretty dang good And all of that improvement his blocking framing his relationship with our pitchers is the impact of a lot of hard work The results are showing that Want more Rockies news Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis
