Not even the biggest haters could imagine this dramatic fall from grace by White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal. I mean, c’mon, literally one of the best hitters in all of baseball after he came back from an injury in 2021 to now the worst hitting-catcher in MLB.
Yasmani Grandal Worst Catcher in MLB
By almost every offensive metric you can use to measure a player’s performance, Grandal’s name is going to appear near or at the bottom.
Grandal is currently slashing .163/.271/.218, with two home runs, while sporting his second lowest walk percentage of his career at 12.9%. That’s still a respectable number, but for a guy who has never hit for average Grandal has to draw a high number of walks to contribute on a consistent basis. That simply hasn’t been the case so far in 2022.
MLB Catcher Rankings
Here is where Grandal ranks among qualified catchers.
.163 batting average – last (out of 5 qualified catchers)
.271 OBP – second to last (out of 5 qualified catchers)
.218 SLG – last (out of 5 qualified catchers)
.488 OPS – last (out of 5 qualified catchers)
2 Home Runs – t-26th
9 RBI – t-30th
6 Runs – t-40th
24 hits – t-20th
There are only four catchers who have had more at-bats than Grandal and despite that he still ranks way below other catchers who haven’t played as much.
No Injury Excuse for Grandal
The start of 2021 was also pretty bad for Grandal, as he ended April of last season slashing .127/.294/.273. Yet, he was slowed down by a knee injury since February in spring training, so at least fans could point to that when trying to figure out why he was struggling so much. After April, Grandal was great for the White Sox and out of this world at the end of August through the end of the season.
This season though? I mean, he did have a second knee injury, but that was last October after the White Sox were bounced from the playoffs. And it’s not like he’s starting every game behind the plate either. You can’t say Grandal is getting worn down because he’s catching almost every day. Through the White Sox’s first 48 games, Grandal has only been the starting catcher 24 times, filling in at first base once and being the DH 15 times.
He’s been fresh, but Grandal is still not producing.
Not even a random start as the leadoff hitter for the White Sox this past week against the Blue Jays helped Grandal bust out of his major slump.
Grandal’s struggles was one of many topics we covered this week on the Pinwheels and Ivy Podcast, Chicago’s #1 Cubs and White Sox podcast. Hosted by Matt Zawaski, Aldo Soto, Kevin Fiddler and Mitch Kaminski.
Follow them on Twitter @SouthsideZo, @AldoSoto21, @KFidds and @MitchKaminski99. Join the conversation live every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. as they recap all the latest news and rumors about the Cubs and White Sox and cover the biggest stories around MLB. Download and listen to every episode on your preferred podcast app and follow the show on Twitter @PinwheelsIvyPod.
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