Boston Red Sox: Sandy León has earned the starting role
The Boston Red Sox may have found the answer behind the plate for the foreseeable future.
Sandy León has been a pleasant surprise for the Boston Red Sox during the 2018 season. Although León has flashed his potential sporadically during recent seasons, his defense behind the plate has him on everybody’s radar now.
León has not shown a lot with the bat during his brief opportunities in MLB with just a .233 batting average across 1065 career plate appearances. However, he has turned himself into one of the better defensive catchers in baseball.
The 29-year-old backstop has been phenomenal behind the dish with just one error during 580 2/3 innings caught giving him an astounding .999 fielding percentage. León owns a .996 fielding percentage having committed just 11 errors total for his entire career.
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This season, his impact has been felt by every member of the Boston Red Sox pitching staff. Chris Sale, one of the top lefties in baseball, has enjoyed even more success with the Red Sox than he had with the White Sox while having León behind the plate for his starts.
Although David Price struggled to start this season with Christian Vasquez catching, he has been damn near perfect while León is behind the plate. He has allowed only eight earned runs with a 1.50 earned run average over his last 48 innings pitched with León catching.
León also does a solid job with controlling the running game. Although he has only thrown out six out of 28 possible stolen base attempts, he has a respectable 37% caught stealing rate to this point of his career.
Next. Price not feeling any more pressure. dark
Boston has been the top team in Major League Baseball for the majority of this season. León has played a huge role in the Sox rise to the top. He has earned his chance to finish his career in Bean Town and Boston should be thrilled to have him.