Prospect Watch: Deon Stafford Defense ComingAlomg to Compliment Offense
When you look at a typical Major League catcher, you usually think of a guy who is solid on defense and has a decent offensive game. It is a position where defense takes precedent since they are the generals on the field working with both the pitchers and the rest of the fielders to put them in the best position to win the game. Pirates Minor League catcher Deon Stafford has shown the offensive prowess, being one of the top offensive catchers in the Pirates Minor League system, but his defense has been slow to develop. He cracked the Pirates top 50 prospect list according to MLB Pipeline during the 2018 season and is trying to stay there.
However, 2019 saw him take a dip at the plate as the everyday catcher at Advanced-A Bradenton. His year started out with an oblique injury and he didn't return until the end of April. Once he did return, he could never get his footing at the plate hitting just .229 with six home runs and 32 RBI in 79 games played. Because of his injury, he only ended up catching half of the games for Bradenton and his defense stayed about par with where his career numbers were as he posted a .988 fielding percentage, which ended a little higher than the previous season. He was jumped on the Minor League depth chart by Altoona catcher Jason Delay and is now working to get back towards the top of the top prospect list.
Stafford grew up about four hours east of Pittsburgh in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and played his high school baseball at Lower Dauphin High School. He was the star on the baseball team, leading them to a state championship during his junior season. He led the team in batting average and was named the Mid-Penn Conference MVP. He also made a name for himself on a national scale playing for Team Pennsylvania in the 2013 Big 26 Game. As he was looking for a place to take his college career, he would head to the Philadelphia area and the Atlantic 10 Conference as he chose St. Joseph's University.
He became a star for the Hawks the moment he joined the team as he earned the starting catcher spot on day one. His bat would come alive right from the get-go as he hit .341 with two home runs and 26 RBI in 182 at-bats. Despite the low home run numbers, he showed a lot of raw power with 19 doubles and 23 total extra-base hits during that freshman season. He would end up leading the Hawks in batting average and doubles and was the team's first Freshman All-American in 22 seasons. He would continue his success into the summer when he played for the New England Collegiate Baseball League and earned the leagues rookie of the year award.
His offensive prowess would continue into his sophomore season and he turned in the best offensive season in St. Joseph's history. He led the Atlantic 10 conference in batting average (.395), on-base percentage (.486), slugging percentage (.702), and home runs (18). That season, he became the only player in all of Division I to have multiple three-home run games and he led the Hawks to the playoffs. He finished off his collegiate career with a down year during his junior season where he hit just .288 with eight home runs and 22 RBI. Despite the drop in stats, he ended his career as the program record holder in home runs and batting average as well as holding the record for most hits and doubles in a season.
After his absolutely stellar sophomore season, Stafford started getting attention from a lot of Major League scouts. He ended up not being drafted during the 2016 MLB Draft and went to the Cape Cod League to try and improve his draft stock. He put up strong numbers, hitting .283 with six home runs and 25 RBI, showing that he could compete against some of the top high school talents across the country. It would be the Pittsburgh Pirates who ended up seeing his potential and they drafted him in the fifth round of the 2017 MLB Draft. He was the top prospect coming out of the Atlantic-10 Conference, but there were questions as to whether his defense could hold up behind the plate.
He would sign about a week later and began his professional career with the Class-A Short Season West Virginia Black Bears. His transition to professional baseball actually went very smoothly as he was the starting catcher and ended up hitting .280 with four home runs and 28 RBI. After showing great power throughout his college career, Stafford fell victim to the "power-outage" in the New York Penn League and only hit four home runs that season. However, he made up for that by finding the gaps on a pretty consistent basis as he tied for third on the team with 11 doubles that season while picking up 16 extra-base hits. He didn't quite reach the number of at-bats to qualify for a league leader, but he would have finished 10th in the league with his .410 slugging percentage.
While the defense was one of the main concerns about Stafford's transition to pro ball, it turned out to be one of his best stats that season. He committed just one error in 359.2 innings behind the plate for a .997 fielding percentage. His arm strength wasn't the best, but he did a decent job of managing the run game throwing out 23.9% of would-be stolen base runners (11 of 46). One of his most impressive starts of the season, however, was that he only allowed one pass ball all season. He was in sync with the Black Bears pitching staff and earned himself a New York Penn League Mid-Season All-Star selection that season.
With Jason Delay getting the call to Advanced-A Bradenton to start the 2017 season, Stafford would be sent to Low-A West Virginia for his first season in pro ball. The move was made mostly because Delay had a better defensive season then Stafford did, and that was a focus for the Stafford that season. He doubled his workload that season and had some problems behind the plate committing 12 errors and allowing 10 passed balls that season. However, he did improve in one key area for a catcher as he threw out 27% of base runners, up four percent from the year before. That mark put him just below the league average and showed that his arm strength could hold up behind the plate.
While defense was the focus, his offensive numbers began to dip as he hit just .253 with 11 home runs and 49 RBI. He started to show some of that power that he had during his college days, finishing third on the team with 11 home runs and fourth on the team with 49 RBI. However, with the increase in power came an increase in his strikeout rate. He went down 99 times in 381 plate appearances and ended up walking just 28 times. He would end up earning his second straight All-Star nod as he was named a Florida State League All-Star and a MiLB Pirates Organization All-Star.
Stafford was promoted to Advanced-A Bradenton for the 2019 season but ended up having to sit out for the first month of a season after suffering an oblique injury in Spring Training. He came back at the end of April and after a hot start had an epic collapse in August that left him hitting just .229 with six home runs and 32 RBI. He only had 17 extra-base hits that season, which was two less than his total doubles from the year before, his strikeout rate stayed high as he went down 86 times in 316 plate appearances and walked just 35 times during the season. He only ended up playing in half of the games that season due to the injury, and the discomfort from that injury could have been effecting him all season long.
Defensively, he got a little better behind the plate committing just six errors in 598.1 innings of work while allowing just six passed balls. The run game went a little worse for Stafford as he caught just 17.7% of base runners (14 out of 79), down 10% from the year before. Once again, those numbers could have been affected by the oblique injury that he suffered earlier in the season. For Stafford, he will most likely be back at Advanced-A Bradenton when the season begins so that he can play a full, injury-free season. If he performs well, look for him to be knocking on the door for a promotion at Double-A Altoona.
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