1994 Rookie of the Year Countdown - Javy Lopez

Continuing our Tuesday look at the countdown to the Rookies of the Year in 1994, today we examine former Braves and Orioles catcher Javy Lopez.

Lopez was signed by the Braves as a free agent out of Puerto Rico in 1987 the day after he turned 17.  Through his age 20 season in 1991, he steadily improved his defense, but not really his bat.  Then, at AA Greenville the following year, he showed up on the “prospect” radar by hitting .321 with 16 home runs.  After that breakout year, he was the 20th ranked prospect in baseball by Baseball America.

That's not how you're
supposed to do it!

He’d get the call to the show on September 18th, 1992 in a 13-3 loss to the Astros.  In something rarely seen in today’s game, he entered the game in the bottom of the eighth despite being the third and last catcher on the bench, as starter Greg Olsen was spelled in the fourth inning by backup catcher Damon Berryhill.  Lopez would double in his first major league at bat.  After another solid season of .305 and 17 home runs at AAA Richmond in 1993, the Braves called him up for good on August 18th, 1993. 

Lopez was the Braves’ Opening Day starter in 1994.  He had a solid April, hitting .286 with six home runs and 18 RBIs.  He’d add 10 runs and three doubles, but struck out 18 times vs. just two walks.  In 19 starts that month, he had at least one hit in 15 of them.  Highlights of the month include a two home run, four RBI performance against the Giants on April 14th.  He was also caught stealing twice in his first five games.  He wouldn’t even attempt it the rest of the year.

May was another solid month for Lopez, at least as far as rookie catcher numbers go.  He hit .271 with two doubles and four home runs, adding eight runs and eight RBIs.  He still didn’t show much plate discipline, striking out 14 times vs. just two walks.  He had another two home run performance vs. the Mets on May 15th.

The rigors of the season started to wear on Lopez a bit in June, as his batting average dipped to .194.  He only had one extra base hit – a double – one RBI, and three runs scored.  He struck out 14 times vs. five walks.

July wasn’t much better for Lopez, as he hit .224.  He had a double and three home runs to go along with seven RBIs and four runs scored.  He had 11 strikeouts vs. three walks.  Add in his .211 average in six games in August, Lopez was probably thankful the strike mercifully ended the season. 

I miss the Expos.

Final numbers for the 1994 campaign for Lopez were a .245 batting average, nine doubles, 13 home runs, 35 RBIs and 27 runs scored in 80 games.  He had 61 strike outs vs. just 17 walks.  That’s what he did at the plate.  In the field, he only made three errors in 597 chances, good for a .995 fielding percent.  He did allow 10 passed balls, and only threw out 23% of base runners, which was only slightly below his career average of 28%.  The worst of that abuse came on June 27th, where the Expos ran wild on him, with Marquis Grissom and Lou Frazier stealing two bags each, and Mike Lansing and Wil Cordero each stealing one.

 

Lopez’ 10th place finish in the NL Rookie of the Year voting that year was just one of a handful of awards he would go on to win.  He was a three time All Star, a Silver Slugger Award winner, and finished in the MVP voting twice, with a top five finish in 2003.  He was also the 1996 NLCS, leading the Braves into the Worlds Series, batting .542 with five doubles, two home runs, six RBIs, eight runs, and he even stole a base.  Unfortunately, he couldn’t continue that success into the matchup with the Yankees, as he only hit .190 with no extra base hits and only one RBI.


Speaking of 2003, that was the year that he hit 43 home runs.  How did that happen?!  Well, you can probably put some theories (or one) together.  Those 43 home runs came in just 129 games.  His previous career high was 34 in 1998 (in 133 games), so it’s not like it was that far off, but it was five years later, and he was coming off a season where he only played in 109 games and hit 11 home runs.  Maybe he had “a little extra help”, or maybe it was just a contract year season.  He would parlay those 2003 numbers into a three year, $22.5 million contract with the Orioles for the 2004 season.

Lopez had a couple of decent seasons in Baltimore before being traded in the middle of the 2006 season to the Red Sox for cash and a player to be named later.  That player was Adam Stern.  Lopez fell off a cliff and played his last game on September 2nd.  Stern would play two games for the Orioles, with no plate appearances.



Cueto has a sad.

Lopez finished his career with a .287 average and 260 home runs.  His 260 home runs are good for ninth all time for a catcher.  The first catcher that comes to mind that could potentially catch him would be Brian McCann, who currently sits at 176 home runs.  Yadier Molina only has 90.  But then again, he IS on pace for 162 this year.