Our Pirates Winter Report highlights one Pittsburgh Pirates prospect each week, with brief notes from each country playing winter ball. This week we feature catcher Dylan Shockley, who spent this off-season in Australia.
Dylan Shockley has the defense behind the plate to make the majors.
The 34th round pick in the 2019 draft came into the 2022 season with just 63 games of pro experience. An injury to Henry Davis opened up playing time behind the plate this past year in Altoona. However, Shockley suffered his own season-ending injury to his thumb in July.
Shockley finished up his season with 24 games played. Inconsistent at-bats after getting pushed to the upper levels of the system led to a .147/.284/.191 slash line in 82 plate appearances. He doesn’t need to hit like an All-Star to eventually make it to the show, but needs to play to make progress.
He was sent to Australia this winter to finally get those consistent at-bats. Shockley ended up with 131 plate appearances this off-season, one short of his season high in pro ball. He batted .220/.331/.358 in 36 games this winter.
We often get asked about the competition level of winter leagues compared to the level of the minors. I often say that depending on the players each year, Australia is either the same as High-A or Double-A. Reaching out to Shockey to discuss his season, he agreed.
“I thought the competition level was very similar to Altoona,” Shockley said. “You had a lot of experienced pitchers that threw in the big leagues, guys who played overseas, and some High-A and Double-A arms. Overall, I thought the competition was very close, other than not seeing velo as consistently.”
That is a key difference between how you get pitched in winter ball, and what you see in the minors.
“Three or four clubs had velo guys, but the others were around the 88-93 MPH range,” said Shockley. “Not a lot of guys that threw over 95, but guys knew how to pitch with their amount of experience, so that’s what made it good.”
The low minors have a lot of pitchers who have velocity and not much else. Those skills develop over the years. Shockley didn’t see many polished pitchers coming up through the system, so Australia provided those types of challenges.
“You would have a couple guys that were a lot older, and be in the 80’s,” Shockley said. “They were crafty guys who would change arms slots on every pitch and had ten pitches it seemed like. They attacked a little different because they knew what they were good at, as opposed to guys in the minors still learning and trying to find out who they are.”
Shockley seemed to be at the perfect level for his experience this winter, plus he had the added bonus of making up for missed time. It’s interesting to get his perspective of the winter assignment.
“Going to Australia definitely helped,” Shockley said. “Where I’ve been kind of stuck in our organization with surplus of plus catchers and not getting a lot of at-bats. With my season-ending surgery, I was able to get the at-bats I needed.”
Shockley said that the first couple of weeks of winter were a build-up after not playing for about four months. He was just happy to see pitching and catch everyday after returning from his thumb surgery. The season gave him a chance to develop the hitting side of the ball.
“The biggest thing was seeing pitching everyday and building confidence within myself,” said Shockley. “It was so much easier to hit, and being able to put good at-bats together after I was comfortable and had the confidence.”
The first couple weeks saw a lot of different adjustments for Shockley, between seeing pitching for the first time in four months, and getting used to seeing more polished pitchers. He said after that breaking in period, he was able to barrel up balls more consistently and put together quality at-bats.
As for the defensive side, Shockley is recognized as one of the best catchers in the system. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have work to do behind the plate, and getting more reps in winter ball could only help in that area. He did have something specific to work on to help out his game.
“My main focus was to work on back-picking more from my knees,” Shockley noted. “That’s just another tool to add to my toolbox because my catching is one of the main reasons why I’m still here. That’s why they sent me to Australia to work on hitting, because if I can put together more quality at-bats, who knows what will happen?”
Shockley played on the Sydney Blue Sox, along with five other members of the Pirates minor league system. His manager was Tony Harris, a long-time scout for the Pirates, who has plenty of managerial experience. While Shockley didn’t know Harris before he went to Australia, it helped to have someone from the Pirates there as his manager in a foreign country.
“[Harris] definitely made everything a lot easier on the Pirates players adjusting to being there,” Shockley said. “It was definitely more comfortable, because we would know exactly what we needed to work on, what the Pirates would want, and we would get feedback. I thought he handled everything very well and he was a great person to be around as well.”
Shockley was quick to point out that the rest of the coaching staff did amazing work with the players. All six of the Pirates players sent there were position players, so they also leaned on hitting coach Brendan Kingman, who played seven years in the minors, and also had plenty of experience playing in Australia.
“[Kingman] helped us on trying to be simple and don’t try to do too much,” Shockley said. “Anytime we needed something or more work, the coaching staff was always on it. They were all great mates (Australian pun intended). I loved every second of being there”
The feelings were mutual between Harris and Shockley, as the Sydney manager sang huge praises of the leadership work done by his catcher this winter.
“What he brings to the table with his intangibles of leadership, the relationship he builds with the pitchers and the presence on the field, instantly makes the club better,” Harris said. “He has total respect from his pitchers, and he brings the best out of them in every outing. He can be a pitcher’s best friend, but tough when needed. He leads the club from behind the plate with his presence and quarterback mentality.”
Harris backed up the scouting reports on Shockley, noting that he saw a plus glove, and an arm that controlled the running game. He also went into detail about him needing/getting at-bats this winter after missing time due to his injury, and how he progressed with those at-bats.
“He worked on using more of the field, and in particular, getting in good hitter’s counts,” Harris said about Shockley’s work at the plate. “It was definitely an objective for him, and I saw a great deal of progress over his time here with using the left side of the field with some authority. I feel he’s in a really good spot to have a great Spring Training and season ahead.”
Harris closed things out by saying that Shockley was a great teammate and ambassador for the Pirates organization this winter.
Shockley has certainly impressed with his defense over the years. We will see if the progress he made this winter helps him get the rest of his game to the next level.
Around the World
Caribbean Series
The only thing going on in winter ball for the Pirates over the last week is Francisco Acuna representing Colombia in the Caribbean Series. He had an extremely impressive first game against Puerto Rico on Thursday, going 4-for-4 with a double, three runs and an RBI. He went 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI on Friday.
