Francisco Cervelli’s framing an advantage for Pirates

1:31 PM ET

Francisco Cervelli’s approach to playing his position can best be described in three words: catching with care.

It’s an approach that requires what baseball people call “having soft hands.” To Cervelli, now in his second season as the Pittsburgh Pirates primary catcher, it is what’s most important to his success behind the plate.

“What I’ve learned is that you have to love the ball,” Cervelli said, describing what the term means to him. “You don’t have to fight the ball. Let it come to you. Love, not fight … love.”

Cervelli is referring to what it takes to ensure that he’s getting called strikes for his pitchers.

Most Called Strikes Above Average

Since the start of last season, these catchers lead the league in number of called strikes gotten compared to the average MLB catcher.

Francisco Cervelli, PIT241.4Yasmani Grandal, LAD201.6Tyler Flowers , ATL179.8Jason Castro, HOU137.7Buster Posey, SF131.8

This skill is known as pitch-framing and since the start of last season, Cervelli is the best in the major leagues at it. Using a tool that judges the probability of every taken pitch being called a strike based on count and location, we can tell you that Cervelli has gotten 241 more called strikes than the average catcher would have gotten on those same pitches.

“It is hard,” Cervelli said of catching pitches and giving his pitchers the best chance at a called strike. “Especially with some pitches, because the ball is not coming straight. I’m not thinking about stealing [strikes]. I’m just trying to receive the ball as best as possible.”

We can further extrapolate that those extra strikes were worth 30 runs based on the change in run value from getting the called strike as compared to not getting it. That much of an impact can be a difference-maker, particularly to a small-market team like the Pirates that is trying to compete with the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs in the NL Central.

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