Jose Trevino

Jose Trevino spent three seasons catching for the New York Yankees, and for one of them he was the best defensive catcher in baseball, full stop. He never hit enough to be more than a complementary piece (his career high in home runs was 11), but from 2022 to 2024 he did the one thing that actually keeps a glove-first catcher employed in the big leagues: pitchers wanted to throw to him.

From Corpus Christi to a Throw-In No More

Trevino was a two-way star at St. John Paul II High School in Corpus Christi, Texas -- .544 with 25 home runs (tying the state record) and 85 RBI (a Texas high school record) as a senior, while going 9-0 with a 0.70 ERA on the mound. That's not a typo, and yes, somebody in Texas keeps that stat sheet framed somewhere. The Rangers took him in the 6th round out of Oral Roberts in 2014, and he spent parts of five seasons in Texas as a glove-first backup who never really hit his way into a starting job.

When the Rangers signed Mitch Garver that March, Trevino became expendable. On April 2, 2022, Texas sent him to the Yankees for right-hander Albert Abreu and left-hander Robby Ahlstrom. Abreu lasted seven relief outings before getting flipped to Kansas City that June, and Ahlstrom -- a 2021 Yankees draft pick who hadn't even reached the minors' upper levels yet -- didn't make his own MLB debut until 2026. It looked like a minor depth move at the time. It didn't stay minor.

The Best Defensive Catcher Nobody Saw Coming

Trevino won the Yankees' starting job that April and never let it go. He led every catcher in baseball with 17 framing runs and a 53.8 percent strike rate (a nerdy way of saying he stole strikes better than anyone else wearing shin guards), hit .248/.283/.388 with 11 home runs and 43 RBI, and made his first All-Star team as a reserve -- a selection that caught even him off guard. Aaron Boone delivered the news at Fenway Park, and Trevino's reaction says everything about where his career had been up to that point: "A New York Yankee and an All-Star? I wouldn't believe you."

That November, he won the Gold Glove -- just the third Yankees catcher ever to do it, joining Elston Howard and Thurman Munson, and the first in 45 years. He followed it up with the Platinum Glove, becoming the first Yankee and the first AL catcher of any position to win it since the award started in 2011. Boone had talked up his defense the day the trade happened. Turns out that was underselling it.

The Wrist, and the Guy Behind Him

The bat was always going to be the question, and durability compounded it. In July 2023, Trevino tore the TFCC in his right wrist -- an injury he'd apparently been grinding through since spring training -- and needed season-ending surgery. He finished at .210/.257/.312 in 55 games. Ben Rortvedt got the call-up to split time with Kyle Higashioka, and a September addition named Austin Wells got his first look, too.

By 2024, the roles had flipped. Trevino opened the year as the starter, but a July quad injury opened the door for Wells, who grabbed the job and didn't give it back. Trevino still made the postseason roster -- and with the Yanks down 2-0 to the Dodgers in the World Series and Wells scuffling at 1-for-8, Boone started Trevino in Game 3 anyway, banking on his track record against right-handed pitching over Wells' superior glove.

The Dodgers won that game too, on their way to closing out the series. Didn't matter. Boone still trusted Trevino with the ball in his hand when it counted, and that's a better epitaph for this whole run than any batting average.

The Yankees traded him to Cincinnati that December for reliever Fernando Cruz and catcher Alex Jackson, closing the book on a run nobody expected when Abreu and Ahlstrom went the other way two and a half years earlier.

Trevino was never going to hit his way into a lineup. He didn't need to. For one full season, he was as good defensively as any catcher in baseball, and the pitching staff noticed that a lot faster than the batting average ever did.