Garrett Stubbs called up!

Happy Birthday Garrett Stubbs!!

Unfortunately last night, Max Stassi had some knee discomfort while running to 1st base. On the good news side of it, this opened a spot for Garrett Stubbs to get his first call up to the Major Leagues.

Let’s take a step back and look at who Garrett Stubbs is:

Stubbs was a collegiate catcher for the USC Trojans, winning the PAC-12 Defensive player of the year, Baseball America’s First Team All-American, Rawlings First-Team All-American, Jewish Sports Review’s College Baseball All-American, and the Johnny Bench Award in 2015 for being the best collegiate catcher in the country. Stubbs is a 5’10, 175 lb catcher who bats lefty but throws with his right hand. Here were some of the scouting reports on him:

From CrawfishBoxes Top 30 Prospects article:

16. Garrett Stubbs, C

Current Level: AAA

ETA: 2019

DOB: 05/26/93

A contact-and-defense catcher, Stubbs has a unique profile but rejuvenated his stock with a strong 2018 campaign. After a 2017 in which he struggled mightily at the plate, Stubbs put together a .310/.382/.455 slash with Triple-A Fresno with a pretty 15.6% K rate. He doesn’t really hit for power- he has hit 18 home runs in four minor league seasons- but is a well regarded defender, has had a double-digit walk rate at every single stop in his minor league career, and has real bat-to-ball skills. Outside of his rocky 2017, Stubbs has hit every stop of the way, and is ready for the show defensively. He’s also a 50 runner, so he won’t clog the bases like some catchers and can even steal the occasional bag. There isn’t a ton of upside here, but Stubbs is big-league ready and could have a long career as the second half of catching tandems. He has some similarities to Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes.

Garrett Stubbs set the record for covering the most distance from the catcher position at 85 feet and a 97.8% route efficiency.

John Sickels had this to say in 2017 and second comment in 2018:

11) Garrett Stubbs, C, Grade B-/C+: Age 23, eighth round pick in 2015 from Southern Cal; hit .291/.385/.442 in High-A then .325/.401/.517 after moving up to Double-A, implying that this wasn’t a Lancaster illusion; undersized 5-10 160 pounder with lefty bat, impressive feel for hitting with good plate discipline and contact hitting ability plus enough pop to keep the respect of pitchers; threw out 51% of runners and is a very good receiver. Deserves more attention thatn he gets. ETA 2018.

“is well-respected defensively; very athletic, threw out 32% but was over 50% in ’16; lefty hitter with good strike zone judgment could still do something interesting offensively. ETA 2019.”

Articles worth taking a read:

What the Heck Bobby’s getting to know Garrett Stubbs

Our own AstrosFuture profiled Stubbs back in 2016

Welcome to the Big Leagues Garrett Stubbs!