For catchers, Spring Training means speed-friending

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- If you ask Bobby Wilson, catching is all about building relationships. According to the Rangers’ catching coordinator, the pitcher-catcher relationship is what drives a club’s success at the most basic level.

“The number one thing that is a part of our coaching program is pitcher-catcher relationship,” Wilson said. “It goes much further than just catching bullpens. It goes to having conversations in the food room or in the clubhouse. Or in my experience, maybe it's going out to dinner or playing golf or hanging out watching a fight or something like that. A lot of that goes into building that relationship. That's what Spring Training, in my opinion, is for. That's what's going to carry us throughout the season.”

For Rangers catchers Mitch Garver and Jonah Heim, they’re entering one of the most important springs of their career when it comes to building those relationships with a new group of veteran starting pitchers. This offseason, Texas added ace Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney and Jake Odorizzi to a rotation that already included Jon Gray, Martín Pérez and even more depth behind them.

That means much of camp will be focused on the catching corps getting acquainted with each starter and putting every potential battery in position to succeed.

“This will be the best staff I’ve ever caught,” Garver said. “It's the kind of staff that actually drive themselves, if that makes sense. Like driving a Ferrari, it’s not hard to do. All these guys have eight-plus years in the big leagues. They all know how to pitch. We all know what makes them successful. The part that Jonah, Sam [Huff] and myself will have to do is guide them and give them the best opportunity to be themselves.”

“Again, it just starts with building relationships,” Heim added. “Just trying to get to know the person, to know their dislikes and likes and get to know their boundaries and stuff. Then we build from there. It's kind of hard to go out there and try to do this or do that when I don't know them at a personal level. So for now, the next couple of days, I'm just going to really get to know them that way.”

It may start with relationships, but it encompasses much more both on and off the field. Heim is confident that he and Garver will be able to catch bullpen sessions for all the big league pitchers well before camp ends.

Wilson and manager Bruce Bochy -- a former big league catcher himself -- also provide their backstops with the necessary tools to enhance all aspects of the pitcher-catcher relationship.

“There are meetings that we have pretty much every day as we go over these pitchers, what went well and to talk about their strengths, weaknesses and all that,” Bochy said. “There'll be a game plan for these guys, and [the catchers] will be part of the game planning, because it's all about adjusting on the fly during the course of a game, too. So their role will be leading the staff. But at the same time, when you have the veterans that we have, these guys will be calling their own game, too, especially the way we're set up.”

Garver knows the challenges that come with catching veteran pitchers. Between the Rangers’ six rotation candidates, there are 1,256 big league games and 394 wins. Veterans with that type of experience are often uber-specific about everything from when they throw certain pitches to how they like the ball received by the catcher. They can be stubborn, for better or worse.

Garver’s job is to learn who likes what and how they like it, as well as to make sure everybody is on the same page come Opening Day.

“To play this long in the Major Leagues, you have to be able to have success your way,” he said. “I think all of them have done that. We're just going to kind of grab the reins and let them go.”