For all his myriad talents, Willson Contreras always received criticism for his subpar pitch-framing skills. That may be a thing of the past, because Contreras is now stealing pitches at the bottom of the strike zone at an eye-popping rate.
In 2019, he was particularly meh against pitches at the knees. So far this season, though, we see that 80% of pitches thrown offset, below the zone have been called strikes. That’s nearly a four-fold increase in his called-strike rate.
How did Contreras suddenly turn into an elite pitch framer? Is it because former catcher and teammate David Ross is now the manager?