Arden Pabst

WTM’s PLAYER PROFILE

2016
A-:  225/299/275, 120 AB, 2 2B, 2 3B, 11 BB, 25 K, 0-1 SB

Pabst was the primary catcher at Morgantown.  He showed good receiving skills and threw out 28% of base stealers, but did very little at the plate.

2017
A:  242/299/346, 231 AB, 12 2B, 4 HR, 18 BB, 50 K, 0-1 SB

Pabst more or less shared the catching job at West Virginia with, at different times, Brent Gibbs, Yoel Gonzalez and Chris Harvey.  In the end, he caught about 40% of the time, twice as often as Gibbs or Gonzalez.  He missed the last two weeks of the season with an injury.  The Pirates continue to like Pabst’s receiving skills and he threw out 34% of base stealers.  He didn’t, however, hit much, and didn’t improve over the course of the season.  In fact, his best month was April, when he had a .763 OPS, including six of his 16 extra base hits.

2018
A+:  281/317/515, 171 AB, 12 2B, 2 3B, 8 HR, 10 BB, 27 K, 2-2 SB
AA:  193/258/333, 57 AB, 2 2B, 2 HR, 5 BB, 15 K, 0-1 SB
AAA:  667/667/667, 3 AB, 1 K

Pabst shared the catching duties at Bradenton with Jason Delay through mid-July and, surprisingly, hit very well, with good power.  He didn’t show a lot of patience at the plate, but he hit consistently throughout his time with the Marauders.  In July, Pabst moved up to Altoona, where his hitting dropped off.  He played only sporadically, though, as Christian Kelley was the starter and Jin-De Jhang returned from injury in August.  Pabst continued to control the running game very well, throwing out 46% of base stealers in high A and four of nine in AA.

2019
AA:  192/232/308, 250 AB, 11 2B, 3 3B, 4 HR, 11 BB, 73 K, 0-3 SB

Pabst shared the catching duties at Altoona with Jason Delay.  He continued to play well defensively and threw out 35% of base stealers.  His hitting, obviously, was awful.  He struck out in well over a quarter of his plate appearances, drew very few walks and generally just didn’t hit.  From July 1 on, he batted .137.  He hit just .138 against LHPs.

The Pirates have three good-fielding, weak- (or non-) hitting catchers in Pabst, Delay and Christian Kelley, who was at Indianapolis in 2019.  They’ve also signed veterans, in Luke Maile and John Ryan Murphy, with strong gloves and very weak bats.  There may not be room in AAA for Pabst or Delay.