Phillies: Evaluating Jorge Alfaro's first full season in the majors

When looking at Jorge Alfaro’s 2018 season, what can we take away from his first year in the major leagues with the Phillies?

Almost three years after acquiring Jorge Alfaro in the Cole Hamels trade, the Phillies were ready to hand him the reins as the team’s starting catcher. He spent eight years in the minor leagues and was out of options, so it was finally time to see what he could do over a full year in the majors. With the season almost over, let’s take a look at what Alfaro has done this year.

In 104 games this year, Alfaro has a .259/.322/.402 line. He hit his 10th home run and drove in his 36th run of the year in Tuesday night’s win over the Mets. He ranks ninth among all catchers and fourth among Philadelphia’s position players with 2.0 Fangraphs wins above replacement.

The tandem of Alfaro and Andrew Knapp wasn’t up to snuff for a potential playoff run, so the team acquired Wilson Ramos from the Rays at the deadline. Since Ramos returned from the disabled list, he and Alfaro have split time behind the plate more or less evenly.

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Offensively, Alfaro’s season has been okay but certainly not great. His 92 OPS+ and 93 wRC+ both indicate he has been a slightly below league-average hitter this season. His wRC+ ranks ninth among Phillies with 100 or more plate appearances. Strikeouts have been a major issue with a 36.3% strikeout rate, third-highest among all players with 300 or more plate appearances. Meanwhile, his 61.1.% contact rate is the lowest. His walk rate is almost double compared to last year, but it still comes in at just 4.9%.

When Alfaro does hit the ball, he hits it hard. He has a hard-hit ball rate of 37.4%, second on the team among those with 100+ plate appearances. This has led to a batting average on balls in play of .399, 107 points more than the league-average. His 17.2% home run to fly ball ratio is also above league-average at 17.2%. If Alfaro can find a way to make more contact at the plate when he swings, he can do some major damage.

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Defensively, Aflaro has done some things well and others poorly. He is among the best catchers in terms of framing, ranking fourth among all catchers in framing runs according to Baseball Prospectus. His average throw velocity is 90.8 mph and pop time is 1.93 seconds, the best and ninth-best among all catchers per Baseball Savant. With that being said, Alfaro has allowed stolen bases in 56 of 76 opportunities, a caught stealing rate of 26%, two points below league-average. Alfaro still ranks slightly above average in BP’s throwing and stealing runs metrics. Blocking remains a big issue for Alfaro behind the plate, leading the league with 10 passed balls allowed. He ranks fifth-worst in blocking runs according to BP.

JORGE ALFARO. C+. . C. Philadelphia Phillies

Considering everything Alfaro has done this year, I’m going to give him a C+. He certainly hasn’t been bad, although he hasn’t been great either. It is a good starting off point for him as a young catcher and he should definitely improve moving forward.

Next. Grading Phillies biggest acquisitions for 2018. dark

What we got out of Alfaro was about what we should expect: a raw talent with plenty of excellent tools, but who still needs to learn how to use them. He and the team should know what he needs to work on moving forward to succeed.

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Phillies: Grading Jorge Alfaro’s first full season in the majors

When looking at Jorge Alfaro’s 2018 season, what can we take away from his first year in the major leagues with the Phillies?

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