Zack Collins’ quality will be tested over new level of quantity

After Zack Collins caught Carlos Rodón’s no-hitter back in April, some members of the White Sox front office were happy to draw attention to the less-heralded half of the battery. Collins wasn’t supposed to be in such a position to be in such a position. Most evaluators saw him as a first baseman in waiting when the White Sox selected him 10th overall in 2016, and the White Sox seemed to be alone in their enthusiasm.

Maybe Collins would have moved off the position if he were able to force his way into the White Sox’s plans bat-first. The hole in his swing, and a patient approach that was used against him in initial cups of coffee, made whatever defensive utility he could provide a necessity. As a result, it took five seasons before everything — offense, defense, depth chart — could coalesce into Collins making sense in the team’s plans, and even then, it was a gamble to count on him in a backup role.

Halfway into his first season as a player who’s part of such plans, Collins held down his roster spot by providing a league-average bat from the left side. Sure, he grades poorly in most metrics, and he hemorrhages strikes at the bottom of the zone, but he’s improved at the soft skills of the position and is now a guy pitchers don’t mind throwing to. In fact, some of them prefer it. Add it all up, and he’s deploying one of the acceptable backup catcher starter packs, at least if you’re aware of the trade-offs a framing-last approach brings, and at least if you have a front-line starter like Yasmani Grandal.

PERTINENT: Unfavorable strike zones have been costly to the White Sox

The problem is that Grandal is freshly injured, and Collins’ combination of skills hasn’t translated well to full-time duty across the league. It takes one back to the days of Ryan Doumit, whose above-average offensive game (career bWAR: 8.9) was wiped out by his graceless receiving behind the plate (career WARP: -7.6). Now, Collins’ problems aren’t Doumit-level. The baseline for the position has improved as teams realized the impact of poor framing, the modifications that could be taught, and which players needed to be weeded out. Being the worst receiving catcher in 2021 is similar to being the worst qualifying starting pitcher, where being in the conversation means a guy possesses a certain level of skill.

At least I think so, but that theory will be tested. Collins’ opportunity to run with the No. 1 job during Grandal’s anticipated four-to-six-week absence will generate the kind of sample size you don’t typically see for liabilities. Salvador Perez is the only worse catcher on both leaderboards, but 1) he’s attained “fixture” status in Kansas City, and 2) nobody should want to emulate the Royals’ pitching results.

Collins’ first 1½ games of this period have covered the spectrum of possibilities. He had to retrieve four wild pitches over three innings after finishing Monday’s game…

The next night, he caught the entirety of a gutsy pitching performance by the White Sox and came up with the two biggest hits off right-handed pitchers, with a two-run single off José Berríos in the second, and a double off Alex Colomé in the eighth.

Collins also caught a net-negative strike zone for his pitchers, with Steve Stone and Jason Benetti drawing a clear contrast in technique to that of Collins’ counterpart Ben Rortvedt, who enlarged the zone with his ability to catch the ball with his mitt on the way up.

While there are few smaller samples than 12 innings, Collins managed to capture the entirety of the experience that lies before us. He should be able to offer competitive at-bats against righties, with potential improvement from everyday action. His defense will be a battleground depending on whether you favor measurables or intangibles. If the White Sox are lucky, he’ll achieve a tolerable balance akin to Omar Narvaez in the early stages of the second rebuild, where his flaws were slightly offset by Kevan Smith’s skill set, but more accepted/forgiven because there wasn’t anybody better.

If the Sox are really lucky, Collins will experience a framing epiphany like Narvaez achieved the last two years. That’s probably a little much, but without any better solutions on hand, there’s no cost to keeping an open mind.

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UPDATE (12:58 p.m.): The White Sox said Grandal had to undergo surgery to repair his torn knee tendon, so a timetable that was originally four-to-six weeks will be revised.

(Photo by Leslie Plaza Johnson/Icon Sportswire)

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