Can Trea Turner Save The Steal?

AS A CATCHER , J.T. Realmuto’s job is straightforward.

- Jon Tayler

The Marlins’ third-year backstop talks to his pitchers about game plans for opposing hitters. He receives pitches and does his best to frame them as strikes. And when hitters get on, he tries to keep them from stealing. That last task isn’t one he worries about too much. After all, the stolen base isn’t a strategy that most teams use with any regularity—last year there were all of 3,538 attempts across the majors, the fewest in a full season since 1973. Realmuto faced 79 attempted steals in 129 games in 2016.

But while the days of Rickey Henderson and Tim Raines running wild are long gone, there are still a few fleet-footed thieves who can give catchers fits. Realmuto’s teammate, second baseman Dee Gordon, led the majors in steals in 2014 (64) and ’15 (58). Reds outfielder Billy Hamilton, one of the fastest men in the game, has swiped 56 or more bags in each of his last three seasons.

And then there’s Realmuto’s newest adversary in the National League East: 23-year-old Washington shortstop Trea Turner, who, like Gordon and Hamilton, is wiry thin and blazingly fast. After a 27-game cup of coffee in 2015, Turner came up for good last July and ripped off33 steals in just 73 games—a full-season pace of 73, which would have blown away Brewers shortstop Jonathan Villar’s major-league-best 62—while earning a second-place finish in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. Now atop arguably the most imposing lineup in baseball and with a license to run, Turner is making catchers once again fear the steal. “When there’s a guy on the opposing team who has that type of speed, you’re a little more anxious, a little more antsy when they’re on base,” Realmuto says.