Stallings wins first Gold Glove, 'a dream come true'

Even growing up, Jacob Stallings knew his aspirations as a ball player were reliant on his glove.

“I didn’t really think I could get to the big leagues,” Stallings said on a Zoom call with local reporters Sunday night. “I thought that maybe, if somebody would hit for me or something, just let me play defense I could maybe win the Gold Glove. I didn’t really dream of playing in the big leagues.” 

In Stallings’ words, the Gold Glove was the one award that he thought, “Man, I could actually do that.”

On Sunday, he got it, winning the highest fielding honor for the first time in his career, edging out Yadier Molina of the Cardinals and J.T. Realmuto of the Phillies.

Stallings is just the third Pirate catcher to ever win the award, joining Tony Peña from 1983-1985 and Mike LaValliere in 1987.

“I mean, to be on the list with [Mike] Matheny, Yadi, Johnny Bench and so many others, it’s really cool,” Stallings said. “I don’t know that it’s totally sunk in. It’s very cool. Obviously a dream come true.”

Statistically speaking, it would be hard to make a case against Stallings. His 21 defensive runs saved were the most in the National League, and he was the winner of the Fielding Bible award at catcher. He did not allow a passed ball all season either.

Going back just a few years ago, the prospects of Stallings being a starter, let alone winning a Gold Glove, seemed slim. The Pirates designated him for assignment early in the 2019 season, but he passed through waivers and remained with the team. 

It was during that season where Stallings began to dive into analytics and looked for ways to better himself as a defender. He was introduced to receiving metrics by bullpen catcher Jordan Camadena, where he discovered he graded out fairly mediocre, so the two developed a workout plan that focused on weighted balls on how to make himself a better framer. 

By 2020, Stallings would be getting daily updates on how he graded as a pitch framer the previous game, seeing how many strikes he stole. The reports were usually positive. Since 2020, Stallings’ 11.1 framing runs, per FanGraphs, are the third-most in baseball.

“I don’t know that I would have been able to do it without them,” Stallings said of Comadena and major league coach Glenn Sherlock, who specializes in working with catchers. “They were great, supportive and would get on me when I needed kicked in the butt a little bit. At the same time, I know I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for [former bench coach] Tom Prince. In 2019, Jordan kinda got me started on the receiving. [Prince] really dove deep into it. Literally after every game, we would go back and watch every single pitch that was framable. We’d sit there, and we would talk about it. Throughout the minor leagues, he was my manager for two years. I owe so much to him.”

When Ben Cherington and Derek Shelton came to the Pirates, they pegged Stallings as the starter for 2020, though it wasn’t until Cherington got to know Stallings better that he thought he could potentially win a Gold Glove.

“So much of defensive improvement and being a great defender is simply the willingness to work at it,” Cherington said recently. “Not just to work at it in time spent, but the willingness to be open-minded, how to work at it, how to train, what information to use and what not to use, trying new things. Stalls just does that consistently. It's not just that he has pride in it, but he's willing to challenge himself to get better, put the time in, and if you do that as a player, with that specific skill, defensive skill, we see pretty consistently that improvement happens.”

With Shelton, the two developed a close relationship, and the Pirates’ skipper made sure to campaign for Stallings’ Gold Glove candidacy anytime his backstop was brought up in September.

“I feel like our relationship really grew this year, just because no pandemic, no shortened season, we were really able to be around each other more,” Stallings said. “That was great for me because he really empowered me in the clubhouse, and I felt like that carried over to the field. It was a pretty special phone call when he called, and it was a cool moment to have with him.”

Stallings’ glove helped him get his shot in the majors. Next year, Rawlings will put on a patch to commemorate his accomplishment.

“I'm really excited for that,” Stallings said. “And my son's really excited for the trophy.”

Shortstop Kevin Newman and center fielder Bryan Reynolds were also finalists for Gold Gloves at their positions, but Brandon Crawford and Harrison Bader won, respectively.