PHILADELPHIA – The oldest starting catcher in the majors, 38-year-old A.J. Pierzynski, still isn’t showing any sign of a late-season fade. Despite the fact that he’s playing far more games than he or the Braves envisioned when he signed last winter to be a backup and mentor to Christian Bethancourt.
Pierzynski took over primary duties after an impressive spring dovetailed into a .422 average in April with three homers and 14 RBIs in 12 games. He hit just .145 with no homers and three RBIs in 17 games in May, and skeptics assumed that Pierzynski had come back to reality and would end up somewhere around the career-worst numbers he produced in 2014 with the Red Sox and Cardinals (.251, five homers, 37 RBIs, .625 OPS).
Instead, Pierzynski bounced back with a .275 average, eight extra-base hits and a .413 slugging percentage in 22 games (80 at-bats) in June, and revved it back up to .359 with seven extra-base hits (two homers) and a .500 slugging percentage in 21 games (78 at-bats) in July.
Entering Saturday night’s game against the Phillies, when he made his 69th start at catcher in the Braves’ 104th game, Pierzynski had a .294 average with 24 extra-base hits (six homers), 31 RBIs and a .765 OPS. It would be his highest average since hitting .300 in 2009, and his highest OPS since an .827 with the White Sox in 2012, when he had a career-high 27 homers and won an American League Silver Slugger award.
Pierzynski could become just the 14th player age 38 or older in more than a century (since 1910) to play 100 or more games while catching at least 90 percent of those games, according to the Baseball Reference play index.
The Braves received some trade interest in Pierzynski before Friday’s non-waiver trade deadline, but they had decided they wouldn’t move him unless a team made an unexpected, blow-their-doors-off proposal. Pierzynski has meant so much to the Braves’ rebuilding team and particularly their young pitchers, team officials didn’t want to go the rest of the season without him around to guide a staff that seems to get younger with every roster move.
Pierzynski has been known to be cantankerous in the past, but with the Braves the grizzled veteran has been a positive influence even if he’s not particularly enjoyed watching veterans traded away recently as the team’s won-lost record has plummeted.
“I said to him, hey, you’re going to have to have a lot of patience here the next 50, 60 games,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “I said, you’ve got a starting rotation where (Shelby) Miller is your veteran with 3 ½ years. You’ve got a bullpen with Aardsma and Frasor, but other than that (all are inexperienced). You’ve got an infield with (Freddie) Freeman as your veteran at five years. You’ve got (Jace) Peterson, (Andrelton) Simmons is what, three (years)? (Adonis) Garcia has got three weeks, when he plays (third base).
“He said, ‘I still don’t have to like it.’ I said, you don’t have to like it, just remember you’ve got, what 16-plus (seasons)? Just have a little patience. We (traded) five major leaguers on this road trip.”
After the Braves traded pitchers Alex Wood, Jim Johnson and Luis Avilan to the Dodgers on Thursday, on the heels of a trade that sent infielders Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson to the Mets last week, Pierzynski was asked what message he’d have for the team going forward.
“Having been through this a few times, you just try to tell the young kids to stick with it,” he said. “I mean, there’s nothing you can control, there’s nothing you can do about it unless you’re a guy that has a no-trade (clause) or 10-5 (service time trade-veto rights) or whatever it is, then you can control what you do. But if you’re a part of a deal and a team wants to move you, they’re going to move you no matter what. So, the guys who are still here, we’re going to go out and fight and do the best we can.
“It stinks to see Woody and JJ and Avi and those guys — Kelly and Uribe, those guys — get moved. Because they’re good players and they’re friends, and they’re guys you went to battle with. To see them go on is a different feeling in here. But the young guys we brought up are talented, and hopefully they get a chance to earn their spot here in the big leagues.”
