Andy Yerzy Adjusts To Speed Of Pro Game

Catcher Andy Yerzy can’t point to a single adjustment he made or some moment where everything suddenly clicked. But now that he’s in his second pro season—and more than a year removed from being drafted out of his Toronto high school—everything just feels different. In a good way.

“I feel like it’s a maturation process,” said Yerzy, 19. “I feel like I’m a little more mature. Coming out of high school, I wasn’t used to seeing those type of arms. I got a spring under my belt in extended (spring training)—and I don’t want to say that I’ve fully adjusted to the arms, but I feel more comfortable at the plate than I did last year.”

He feels more comfortable behind the plate, too. The 2016 second-round pick looked raw both offensively and defensively in his pro debut. A year later, he’s showing flashes of what drew the Diamondbacks to him in the first place.

Through 40 games at Rookie-level Missoula, Yerzy hit .291/.364/.485 with seven home runs, which was a vast improvement from the .216/.240/.265 batting line he posted at two Rookie-level stops last year.

“You look at the numbers from last year to this year and everything has improved,” farm director Mike Bell said. “And his catching has, too. His receiving, the passed balls—even from the first couple games I saw in Missoula this year. He was doing better (than last year), but there were still some balls he was missing. He was really good and consistent behind the plate.”

Yerzy said he was getting in the right counts and punishing the right pitches, things he didn’t do often enough last year. And, he says, his below-average speed makes ground balls the enemy, so he’s going to the plate looking to drive the ball in the air.

The lefthanded batter also thinks he’s gotten better at shortening his slumps. He said he used to let one bad game carry into the next. But now when he has a bad day, he’ll come home and play video games with his roommates to clear his mind.

“Tomorrow is a new day, when there’s going to be a few more at-bats where I can get a hit,” Yerzy said. “It’s really up to me what I do in those at-bats.”

His improvement behind the plate—Bell describes it as “night and day”—is a matter of getting accustomed to the level.

“Coming out of high school,” Yerzy said, “I wasn’t used to catching these type of guys on an everyday basis.”