The idea first germinated on a bored night in a rented house Terry Francona shared with his bullpen coach, not far from Cleveland’s spring clubhouse in Goodyear, Ariz. Francona, a two-time World Series winner, wanted only to watch a basketball game on TV.

“Kevin Cash was living with me that spring,” Francona said, thinking back to 2013. “We’d go home at night and if there wasn’t a college basketball game on, then we’d talk about baseball. And we were going back and forth. And I said, ‘Man, he looks like he can do this.’ ”

The “he” was young infielder Tony Wolters. The “this” was an abrupt position switch to catcher. A left-handed hitting catcher is too enticing to ignore. That brainstorm eventually set in motion a Colorado turnaround.

The Rockies have the youngest pitching staff in the major leagues, by far, behind four rookie starters with an average age of 23. Those pitchers went a combined 22-9 through nine weeks. They are succeeding in large part with the help of an equally inexperienced catcher. Wolters, like the Rockies as a team, is breaking out.

“He likes the idea of trying to get a pitcher through a game,” Francona said. “You can see how much he cares.”

The 25-year-old Wolters, in just his second big-league season after he was claimed by the Rockies last year, entered the weekend hitting .300 (third-best among National League catchers) with .403 on-base percentage (second-best). But his benefit sits largely with his defense.

“It’s such a good feeling getting a starter through a game without his A stuff,” Wolters said. “It’s fun catching a guy who has his stuff and he’s doing all the work and you’re in a rhythm. But when a guy has his B or C stuff, it’s a great feeling getting him through it. Knowing we grinded through is awesome.”

The Rockies’ rookie-dominated rotation has not exactly blown by the league’s hitters. They rank middle-of-the-pack in strikeouts, with 7.32 per nine innings. But they are forcing groundballs (second-most in the NL) and limiting home runs (seventh, despite playing half their games at Coors Field). They are doing it with help.

“Catching is all about being unselfish and working with guys and really just respecting who you’re working with,” Wolters said. “You have to take yourself out of it and think, ‘I’m helping you in your career. Trust me. I’m putting 100 percent into it.’ That’s the one thing I love about catching. I like helping others.”

Colorado’s battery took shape on a whiteboard in spring training. Inside manager Bud Black’s office, a honeycomb chart of potential pitch counts was drawn in black marker. It looked like a blank tournament bracket — one line led to several possible outcomes.

Every day, Black, a former pitcher, grilled his catchers on the choices they make calling for pitches. Rockies management foresaw the coming season, knowing they needed to get by with pitchers lacking in major-league schooling.

Every pitch is important, Black stressed. That seven-pitch walk, for example, might have been avoided when the count was 0-1 without a wasted off-speed pitch. One pitch always leads to another.

“This is not an easy transition, to put so much on your plate at the big-league level,” Black said of Wolters’ morphing into a catcher. “But he’s been a big-time sponge. He’s able to retain so much information. It’s a joy to watch Tony interact and still stay level-headed.”

Wolters’ ongoing learning curve as a catcher has taken a new course. He’s trying to work smarter and more efficiently. In 2016 he ranked fifth in baseball in called strikes above average, according to Baseball Prospectus, a measure of proper pitch framing. Wolters said he is not trying to steal strikes. He is only putting a bow on the pitch.

“I hate when I catch a strike and it’s not called a strike,” he said. “It’s not stealing pitches. It’s presenting the ball and making it look good.”

He is also not trying to throw fastballs to second base when runners are on the go. Catching a runner stealing is less about arm strength and more about quickness in the dance steps of footwork and glove-to-hand exchange. “I realized it’s just a double play at second,” Wolters said.

His selfless changes made Wolters the crony of Colorado’s young pitching staff. Jon Gray has thrown primarily to three catchers in his young Rockies career: Wilin Rosario, Nick Hundley and Wolters. The difference in defensive prowess between Rosario and Wolters cannot be understated.

“There were times last year when I wasn’t sure about certain pitch calls,” said Gray, the Rockies’ currently injured second-year right-hander. “But he’s on point this year. He’s taken a lot of pride in it. He really cares about pitch-calling. He gets really creative with it.” Related Articles September 24, 2020 Rockies’ Daniel Bard finishing up improbable season on a high note

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About once a week, sometimes two, Wolters will shed his catching gear and grab an infielders glove. The shortstop in him is difficult to remove. But he has found something unique in the melding of two identities, a middle infielder with a chest protector. Quick hands, hard head.

“I’m a catcher,” Wolters said. “I love it. That’s my job.”

Catching a rise

Tony Wolters earned a surprise spot on the Rockies roster last season as a backup catcher. This year, he is the primary catcher behind Colorado’s rise. How he has fared in two seasons, through Friday:

Year … Gms … AB … 2B … 3B … HR … RBI … BB … SO … Avg … OBP

2016 … 71 … 205 … 15 … 2 … 3 … 30 … 21 … 53 … .259 … .327

2017 … 37 … 110 … 5 … 1 … 0 … 8 … 17 … 22 … .300 … .403

Ranking Rox backstops

In less than one full season, Tony Wolters has become the ninth-best catcher in the Rockies’ 25-year history, based on Fangraphs’ Wins Above Replacement, a cumulative accounting of a player’s overall contribution to their team:

Catcher … Rox years … Games … WAR

Chris Iannetta … 2006-11 … 458 … 7.9

Jeff Reed … 1996-99 … 365 … 4.0

Miguel Olivo … 2010 … 112 … 2.7

Nick Hundley … 2015-16 … 186 … 2.6

Wilin Rosario … 2011-15 … 447 … 2.6

Charles Johnson … 2003-04 … 217 … 2.4

Yorvit Torrealba … 2006-09/13 … 373 … 1.9

Michael McKenry … 2010/14-15 … 121 … 1.6

Tony Wolters … 2016-17 … 108 … 1.5