Unless you have a strong love of beefy minor-league catchers and/or guys who spent six years in the Phillies’ farm system without making it to Double-A, there’s no good reason for you to have heard of Willians Astudillo. Or, at least, there wasn’t until yesterday—when he pulled off this beautifully sneaky pickoff move, without needing so much as the tiniest glance at first base.


Astudillo, who was picked up by the Twins on a minor-league deal this winter, has apparently been practicing the move, and it’s clearly paid off. A baby’s bottom. A dolphin’s skin. A perfect pick-up line. A quantum-stabilized atom mirror. Not one of these is as smooth as that pickoff.