StaTuesday: Brewers catcher Grandal’s big season so far

The Milwaukee Brewers signed Yasmani Grandal as a free agent this past offseason to give their catcher position an offensive boost.

Thus far that plan is working.

Grandal is having one of the best seasons for a catcher in Brewers history – and there’s still two months to play.

His 19 home runs are already the third most by a Milwaukee catcher (note: with this stat and the rest given, we’ve used a 50% minimum of total games having been played at catcher; for example, if we didn’t set a minimum then Tyler Houston would be on the list with 18 homers in 2000, but of his 101 games played only 23 were spent as a catcher).

When Grandal hits his next home run it will be the fourth consecutive season in which he’s reached 20 dingers. That will be the longest active streak among catchers. Kansas City’s Salvador Perez did it four straight from 2015-18, but he’s sidelined for the entire 2019 season.

A July slump has dipped Grandal’s slugging percentage just below .500. Only two Brewers catchers (min. 300 plate appearances) have ever had a slugging percentage of .500 or better.

Beyond the above listed, only two other Brewers catchers have had a slugging percentage of .450 or better: Darrell Porter (.457 in 1973) and Ted Simmons (.451 in 1982). Jonathan Lucroy (.455 in 2013) and Dave Nilsson (.451 in 1994) also topped that mark.

But Grandal isn’t just about power. He gets on base, too.

He’s just the third Brewers catcher to reach 60 walks in a season, joining Porter (89 in 1975) and Lucroy (66 in 2014). Since 2010, only 27 times has an MLB catcher reached 60 walks in a season and Grandal had four of those occurrences. Since 2015, Grandal, Alex Avila, Russell Martin and Buster Posey (twice) are the only catchers to reach that mark.

Grandal’s on-base percentage presently sits at third-highest all-time among Milwaukee catchers.

There’s only been 12 occasions of a Brewers backstop with at least 300 plate appearances posting a .350 or better on-base percentage and this century only Lucroy has done it (three times).