LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Brian McCann was named the MVP of the All-Star game last year, but didn’t think he deserved to be there. He led the Braves in both home runs and RBIs for the season and hit .429 in the Division Series, but came away shaking his head.
The winner of four Silver Slugger awards in his first five seasons, who is arguably the best catcher in baseball this side of Joe Mauer, doesn’t think he has come close to reaching his potential.
For all his impressive numbers, the one McCann is quickest to spout off from last year is .221.
That’s what he hit from Sept. 1 to the end of the regular season, with the Braves in the thick of a pennant race with the Phillies.
“It stunk,” McCann said. “The team needed me the most in September, and I hit .220. That was a big eye-opener for me.”
Six months later, McCann is talking about the number 220 in a completely different context.
That’s now the answer to the question McCann has been getting an awful lot in spring training, about how much he weighs.
“I’m down to 220,” he doesn’t mind saying proudly.
The 6-foot-3 catcher actually is 10 pounds lighter than the weight listed in the Braves' media guide, a notoriously friendly source of heights and weights. McCann is leaner, more muscular, and generally fitter.
“I’d always put the work in, but then when you go out and put fried food in your body, you’re not going to see the work,” McCann said. “Now you can see it because I’m putting the necessary food in my body that a professional athlete should be doing.”
Still, he bristles at the thought of being another “best shape of his life” story of spring training. This is more than just a new nutritional regimen to him, cutting out carbohydrates or buying into a program like P90X. This is a shift in his thinking.
“I know there’s more to me than what I’ve shown the last five years,” said McCann, who has led all major league catchers in home runs (107) and extra-base hits (283) in that time period.
“I just knew it was time to start focusing. Basically I had focused on the baseball side of it my whole life. I didn’t really understand the other part of it. Now, it’s ‘Do I want to eat that pizza, or do I want to play until I’m 38 years old?’”
One advantage of being so good, so young is that McCann can experience an epiphany that some athletes don’t experience until their 30s, and he’s only 27. Just as baseball’s clock tells him he’s hitting his prime, he’s buckling down.
Not only that, but McCann also prepares for a new season without lingering problems with his vision. For much of the past two years, McCann battled blurred vision and struggled to find relief in a cycle of Lasik surgery, new contact lenses and wearing glasses in games.
Three months into last season, McCann realized part of what was causing his problems with dry eyes and blurred vision was dehydration from all the caffeine he was drinking.
He cut out the energy drinks and loaded up on water. He got a glimpse into the benefit of watching more carefully what he puts into his body.
His goal now is to stay strong throughout the season and into September.
“I feel like I’m just now getting tapped into what I’m capable of doing,” said McCann, who has hit .289 in five seasons, averaging 21 homers and 89 RBIs.
He brings a new hunger into the season that seems to fit with the humility that makes him a clubhouse favorite with his teammates.
One Brave who can appreciate just how hard it is to hit like McCann does while handling the rigors of catching every day is backup catcher David Ross.
He’s a close friend of McCann’s and somebody McCann confided in about his feelings of not being worthy of last year’s National League All-Star selection. McCann was voted on by players.
“I said, ‘Man, it’s a lot of good years that got you that All-Star game,’” Ross said. “‘There’s a reputation there, a reputation of being a great catcher.’”
Within the Braves clubhouse, McCann has earned a reputation for being a perfectionist. Ross said McCann wants to be good at everything, from hitting the ball to the opposite field to blocking balls.
“He wants to be able to steal bases, which [is impressive] for one of the slowest guys I’ve ever seen,” Ross said. “The guy has got more stolen bases than half these guys in the locker room.”
The slow-footed McCann has 17 stolen bases in his career, including five last season.
Ross said McCann wants to be able to take the extra base, make good throws to second, and get the tough outs in plays at the plate.
“He wants to do all that stuff,” Ross said. “That’s what makes him B-Mac because it never ends.”
