CHICAGO — The first time Kyle Hendricks worked with catcher Travis d’Arnaud in spring training, he knew quickly that this was going to be a good relationship.
D’Arnaud kept calling for the right-hander to throw his curveball, which he’s generally used sparingly. At one point in Hendricks’ two-inning Cactus League outing, d’Arnaud called for three in a row.
“I don’t think I’ve ever tripled up on a curve before,” Hendricks said that day. “He’s forcing me to get out of my comfort zone. That’s a good thing for me, to make me more unpredictable.”
A few weeks later, after getting to know d’Arnaud even more, Hendricks was all-in on the impact that the veteran backstop will have on the entire pitching staff.
“He’s going to help everybody so much,” Hendricks said. “He’s just a baseball guy. He knows the game. Loves baseball. Everybody’s friends. The relationships are easy with him. Just seeing the game for what it is, sometimes is the hardest thing to do. He’s so good at that.”
When the Angels signed d’Arnaud to a two-year deal back in November, they spoke in glowing terms about his reputation for leading a pitching staff from behind the plate. D’Arnaud, 36, said his goal was to get the most out of the pitchers and starting catcher Logan O’Hoppe.
Months before spring training began, d’Arnaud was watching videos of Angels pitchers and getting on Zoom calls with them to get to know them.
Knowing a pitcher’s repertoire is only the first step.
“It’s all the interpersonal side,” d’Arnaud said. “Everybody’s got different ways or accepting information. You can’t find that out unless you talk to them and befriend everybody and learn what their brain is thinking in between (outings), versus trying to shove so much stuff in their brains. It’s better to get to know them as a person so you can understand how to transfer information.”
D’Arnaud said one of his mentors that taught him about the intricacies of the pitcher-catcher relationship was John Buck. Buck was with the New York Mets when d’Arnaud made his big-league debut in 2013.
Now, when d’Arnaud talks to O’Hoppe, he has flashbacks.
“He’s had so many questions, and all the right questions,” d’Arnaud said. “I feel like it’s a little me asking John Buck these questions. It’s come full circle for me. I’m just trying to make him the best catcher that we’ve seen in this game in a long time.”
O’Hoppe, 25, has not had this kind of a role model throughout much of his brief big-league career. In 2023, when O’Hoppe was hurt for most of the year, the catchers were Matt Thaiss and Chad Wallach. Last season, O’Hoppe and Thaiss were the catchers. Wallach and Thaiss had barely more big-league experience than O’Hoppe. D’Arnaud has spent 12 years in the majors, going to the World Series with the Mets and Atlanta Braves.
“It’s been cool,” O’Hoppe said. “I’ve learned a lot in a short amount of time.”
One of the biggest improvements the Angels hope to make with the addition of d’Arnaud – and assistant pitching coach Sal Fasano, a former catcher – is the ability to make smoother in-game adjustments.
In recent years, there were some concerns the Angels’ less-experienced catchers weren’t adequately adjusting the game plan to what they were seeing during the game.
O’Hoppe said that’s a significant part of what he’s learning from d’Arnaud.
“It’s huge,” O’Hoppe said. “Guys aren’t going to have their stuff every night. I think that’s a really important aspect of it. I think that’s where catchers, at least from the game-calling side, make their money. There’s a reason (d’Arnaud) has been doing it for as long as he has.”
D’Arnaud said in his experience a pitcher will have all his pitches working in about one-third of his starts. At the other end of the spectrum, there are about one-third in which the pitcher might just have one or two pitches.
“Adapting in those games, where you don’t have your best stuff, is using your eyes and trusting what you see,” d’Arnaud said. “Sometimes you might notice a team sitting on your game plan, so you’ve got to adjust.”
Whether all this will work remains to be seen. D’Arnaud is working with a pitching staff full of questions. The majority of the pitchers are young and unproven or older and trying to hang on to their careers. Ultimately, the best intentions of a catcher go only as far as the pitcher’s ability to execute the pitch.
If it works, maybe the Angels can end a playoff drought that began in 2015.
“I’m grateful I get to work with Sal and get this boat steered in the right direction, to get some wins and bring some winning back to Orange County,” said d’Arnaud, a product of Lakewood High. “I was around in 2002 when they won it all. I know the impact this team has on the community. I just want to get everyone to win.”
UP NEXT
Angels (RHP José Soriano, 6-7, 3.42 ERA in 2024) at White Sox (RHP Jonathan Cannon, 5-10, 4.49 in 2024), 11:10 a.m. PT Saturday, at Rate Field, FanDuel Sports Network West, 830 AM
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