The Braves don’t have a big-time power-hitting catcher in the mold of Brian McCann or Javy Lopez, but they have gotten a lot of impressive early-season production from the veteran catching duo of Tyler Flowers and Kurt Suzuki.
Entering Friday night’s series opener against the Cardinals, Braves catchers had hit one home run, but led the majors with a combined .425 on-base percentage and ranked second in batting average (.322) and tied for fourth in RBIs (16) from the catching position. This despite playing fewer games (26) than every other team among the top 13 in catchers’ RBIs.
Without Anthony Recker’s five at-bats as catcher — he was Atlanta’s third catcher before he was sent to Triple-A — the catchers’ OBP was .444.
“Kind of what I hoped for or looked for in the spring,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I said, it’s two guys that aren’t everyday guys anymore, but I think between the two of them we can get a lot out of that position — and they’re getting big hits, too. I feel good with both of them back there. It’s good because, like I say, around here when that summer hits, it’s going to be enough work for both of those guys.”
Flowers, 31, entered Friday batting .396 with two doubles and nine RBIs in 20 games, and the Marietta native’s .484 OBP was third-highest in the majors among players with at least plate appearances. He’s dealt with a sore hamstring since mid-April, but still hit .391 for the month, the best average of Flowers’ career for any single month.
Suzuki, 33, hit a modest .222 (8-for-36) in 15 games before Friday, but had a .375 OBP, eight RBIs and the only homer by a Braves catcher, a decisive three-run homer in a 7-5 win at New York on April 27. Three of his eight RBIs had tied a score or gave the Braves a lead.
“Consistency has been good, I think, on both ends,” Flowers said. “He (Suzuki) had a little tough luck to start with, couldn’t find some holes. But he continued to put up quality at-bats and get on base and find ways on. Now he’s starting to find some holes, too, and drive some balls.
“I think I was finding a lot of holes early and having good at-bats. I think I’ve recently been hitting the ball harder, unfortunately I haven’t been able to sprint very well (because of the hamstring strain) so a lot of those are still singles. But just trying to be consistent in what we do.”
Flowers, a ninth-year veteran, signed a two-year, $5.3 million deal with the Braves in December 2015 and established career-bests last season in average (.270), OBP (.357) and slugging percentage (.420) and had a career-high 18 doubles with eight homers and 41 RBIs in 83 games. His contract includes a $4 million team option for 2018 with a $300,000 buyout.
“I think for me, coming here last year and working with Seitz and Nachy (hitting coach Kevin Seitzer and assistant Jose Castro) really changed me offensively,” said Flowers, who hit .223 with a .289 OBP and .376 slugging percentage in seven seasons with the White Sox. “It helped me believe that I was good again, and learned some things. Simplified a lot of things, and I’ve been able to take it and run with it.
“Whenever trouble comes, they usually have something quick for me to grasp onto and get back feeling confident again.”
Suzuki, an 11-year veteran and 2014 All-Star with the Minnesota Twins, signed a one-year, $1.5 million contract with the Braves in late January, a deal that includes up to $2.5 million in additional incentives tied mostly to games started.
He started 11 of the Braves’ 26 games, including all of knuckleballer R.A. Dickey’s starts and Mike Foltynewicz’s starts before Friday, when Flowers started with Foltynewicz facing the Cardinals.
“It’s fine,” Suzuki of the split catching duties. “I’ve said from Day 1, whatever Snit needs, whatever it takes to keep us winning ballgames, it’s all good. … We’re professional. We know what we have to do to stay ready in a ballgame.”
Suzuki said he’d never been part of a catching tandem that had gotten off to as good a start as Flowers and he had before Friday.
“It’s still early. It’s one of those things where you just kind of play the season out, see what happens,” he said. “It’s definitely nice. I think having Flow, what he’s doing right now, it’s pretty amazing. Pretty cool to see, just catching and having to go through all those rigors and still be able to do what he’s doing right now is pretty cool.”
Snitker said, “We can spread it around and try to keep them both as fresh as we can and try to get the maximum out of both of those guys. And they both are really invested in the pitching part of it, too. That’s the really cool thing about both of those guys is they both really take a lot of pride in the catching and the pitching staff. Those guys are very well prepared, very well-studied and really invested in those pitchers, which is really important.”
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