Milwaukee Brewers: After Down 2020, Omar Narvaez Off to Hot Start in 2021

When the Milwaukee Brewers acquired Omar Narvaez via trade last offseason from the Seattle Mariners, they thought that they were adding a very good bat behind the plate, but someone who needed to work on his defense.

Prior to the 2020 season, Narvaez had a career average of .276 over 3+ seasons in the big leagues, an OPS of .772, and an OPS+ of 111, along with 34 home runs–including 22 in 2019. However, defensively, he struggled, particularly with framing. From 2017 to 2019, Narvaez was one of the worst catchers in baseball at framing, never ranking higher than the 29th percentile, according to Baseball Savant’s metrics, and was as low as the 8th percentile in 2018.

But in 2020, which was certainly an odd season for everyone involved, the script flipped. Narvaez was lost at the plate, batting just .176 in 108 at-bats, with a .562 OPS and an abysmal OPS+ of 53–a far cry from his career averages. Yet defensively, he went from being one of the worst at pitch framing to the best, ranking in the 100th percentile in that category–a truly shocking and remarkable turnaround in such a short period of time.

He was also first in strike rate at 53.6 percent among qualified catchers, which is another metric from Baseball Savant that measures how often non-swings at pitches on the edge of the strike zone are called strikes. On top of that, Narvaez went from -18 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) in 2019 to +2 in 2020, according to Fangraphs–again, a remarkable turnaround.

Manager Craig Counsell gives Narvaez a majority of the credit for his defensive turnaround, but he also credits Walker McKinven, the Milwaukee Brewers Associate Pitching, Catching, and Strategy Coach, as well as Manny Pina, along with daily tutoring sessions and film study.

With his bat, you can, of course, chalk up his down performance to the unusual 2020 season that saw many hitters across baseball struggle. But this winter, Milwaukee Brewers hitting coach Andy Haines spent time with Narvaez in Miami, working on his swing through workouts as well video and discussed both positives and negatives from the 2020 season, as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

And apparently, it’s worked. Whether it be the time spent with Haines, a fresh start, or perhaps a bit of both, after a solid Spring Training at the plate, Narvaez has carried that momentum over into the first six games of the Milwaukee Brewers’ season.

While yes, it’s a small sample size, Narvaez’s numbers are still quite impressive. In 16 plate appearances, he is slashing .467/.500/.867, totaling a 1.367 OPS and an OPS+ of 275–the league average is 100. He also has two home runs.

Although not all of his underlying numbers show the same dominance, such as his hard-hit rate and average exit velocity, which are both below league average, Narvaez is above league average in xBA, xSLG, K%, and xwOBA.

Narvaez has continued performing well defensively as well. He is in the 82nd percentile in pitch framing, and his strike rate is right on par with last year, sitting at 52.9 percent.

For a Milwaukee Brewers ball club that struggled mightily on offense in 2020, they are banking heavily on bounce-back seasons from several key players, and Narvaez is one of those players who is going to be an integral part of their success.

There is certainly a long ways to go, and just like we shouldn’t read too much into the poor performances at this point, the same should be said for the good ones as well. With that said, with Narvaez’s bat returning and his defense still at a high level, he has looked like one of the better catchers in the game early on this season.