Cooper Hummel Talks About AZFL Assignment and Pitch Timer

Excited for more catching reps, Hummel is not a fan of the new pitch timer and pickoff rules.

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Getting an opportunity to catch again

Cooper Hummel has always wanted to catch.  He was somewhat disappointed when the Milwaukee Brewers organization transitioned him to the outfield back in 2018.  After coming to the Diamondbacks in a trade for Eduardo Escobar on July 28th, 2021, he seldom got the opportunity to catch with his new organization either. 

He  still made the 2022 opening day roster for the D-backs as an outfielder/DH however. Unfortunately the switch hitter did not find much success at the plate, eventually getting optioned back to Reno. 

It was during his time back in Reno the team spoke to him about resuming catching as a path back to MLB. Backup catcher Jose Herrera was not performing up to team expectations and they wanted to try something different. After just a handful of games behind the plate for Reno in early August, Hummel was called up August 12th and has made 10 starts at catcher since then. 

Both manager Torey Lovullo and bench coach Jeff Bannister, who also coaches catchers, spoke glowingly about what a pleasant surprise Hummel has been. They praised his ability to receive the ball quietly, and show good athleticism and lateral movement to block pitches. As a result, the team is considering going with Hummel as the primary backup catcher for 2023. In order to facilitate his development behind the plate further, Hummel has been assigned to play in the Arizona Fall League for the Salt River Rafters as their primary catcher. 

While somewhat unusual for a major leaguer to play in the fall league a second time, Hummel was very happy to receive this chance. 

"They approached me with the idea about a month ago. Obviously I was a little surprised at first because I didn't know when you could or couldn't go back and play.  But I'm excited about it. It means they care about me catching.  I love being behind the plate, and the fact that I can go get more reps and be ready to go for next year. Obviously I've gotten some good work here already. But I'll be in a better position to help the team more going forward too."

In addition to working on the basics that the team has been emphasizing with him, Hummel felt the opportunity to get more consistent playing time and reps on a day to day basis will allow him to establish more of a rhythm. He also felt the opportunity to catch a wider variety of pitchers, seeing different velocities and movement was a good opportunity as well. 

New pitch timer and pickoff rules

Speaking of rhythm, I asked him if he felt getting to play in the Fall League with the new pitch clock and pickoff rules that will be implemented in MLB next year was something he was looking forward to. Hummel had some strong opinions about that :

I don't really have a lot of confidence on the pitch clock. It's not my favorite thing. But it will be nice to have that experience going into next year. 

While he said he would be able to adapt and get used to it, as most players and the union stated, he felt these rules were forced on the players. 

You don't have a choice, is my big thing. You're changing the game too much in my opinion. How are you going to hold runners? You can't hold the ball any more. The hitter doesn't need to get in [the batters box] until nine seconds. So now you have nine seconds whether a guy is on base or not to make sure you're on the same page with the pitcher.  

I'll use Bum as an example [Madison Bumgarner]. Sometimes I want one pitch and he wants something different. You hope you're on the same page all the time, but what happens when you're not ? Now all of a sudden, there's a ball. Or if you've got a guy on base and he steps off, and now all of a sudden you can only pick over once, now you're not controlling the running game. I just think you're changing the game in the big leagues where it really matters when you can hold guys and be on the same page, or reset. Our livelihood, a world series, winning games, are on the line because of this, and I think you're taking a big aspect out of that. 

Watching Christian Walker's at bats, if something doesn't go right, just step out, the reset.....How many home runs or doubles has he hit...or Ketel Marte...these guys have done this so long. They reset themselves to have these positive results. What happens when you don't have that?  

Hummel feels that players of today will have a more difficult time playing at a quicker pace compared to players 20-30 years ago. He made a distinction between players today and decades ago. He first used the example of Zach Davies, who is a more pitch to contact type of pitcher, in contrast to the majority of pitchers today that are trying to "blow it by guys"

I think there is a different mind set and mentality. You watch Zach Davies pitch. Get the ball, and lets go. I'm going to get you to swing, and I'm going to get you to make contact. There's a lot of guys that come out now, and you're trying to blow it by guys. Or you're trying to make him swing and miss all the time. I think the mindset behind the game as a whole has just changed. 

Guys are stronger, faster, throw harder. The game is just going to head that direction. We have technology to show how difficult pitches are or  to help pitchers make pitches better. You're not going to change that. If anything you're going to make the result worse in some cases. Or you're going to have have guys unable to reset and end up throwing it down the middle and all of a sudden guys are hitting more homers. It could go either way. 

I get the point. They're trying to speed the game up, they're trying to get fans fully engaged, put the ball in play, more contact, things like that. But I think there's better ways of getting fans engaged than changing the game that's been played a certain way for years. 

In fact it's true that the natural evolution of the game for the last 70 plus years has been a steady climb in strikeouts, walks, home runs and hit by pitches (a.k.a. "Four True Outcomes") resulting in a reduction in balls in play. However the acceleration of these outcomes over the last decade spurred MLB to action. 

Jack Sommers

Whether or not these rule changes have the desired effect to stem the tide or "turn back the clock", remains to be seen.