The Rise of Freddy Fermin: A Royals' Asset in 2024

Maybe the biggest surprise of the Royals season in 2024 was Freddy Fermin. Freddy had an impressive season playing on the major league roster in 2023 and this year has doubled down and been quite impressive for the organization. Fermin just finished his second full year on the Major League roster and has firmly cemented himself on the Major League team. Despite never having been ranked as a top 30 prospect by MLB.com, Fermin has made a name for himself and is one of the best defensive catchers in baseball over the last two years and has caught the eye of so many people across the MLB.

Fermin is an all-around player who does everything well and doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. Behind the plate, he is consistently a very high-quality catcher on defense. He frames well and is elite at throwing out runners and blocking wild pitches. At the plate, he puts the ball in play, doesn’t strike out, and gives competitive at-bats almost every time he is up. Fermin has played his role all year and has left the Royals with no choice but to put him in the lineup consistently.

Catcher defense can be complicated and has a lot of things that factor into a catcher being a quality player behind the plate. Stats that are used to track catcher defense have a lot of factors that play into them and a lot of them depend equally as much on the pitcher. Improved pitching can often help the numbers for his catcher, this is a lot of the reason we have seen the defensive metrics for Salvador Perez improve so much in 2024. Fermin had good numbers last year and they have only gotten better as his career has progressed. His attention to detail and consistency has brought a ton of value to him defensively and has been of great benefit to the Royals this season and is something that will be very valuable for years to come. His skills have been rewarded as he was a Gold Glove nominee, and let’s look at why.

Framing

First, let’s talk about his framing. When we talk about framing, on a basic level, Fermin’s framing stats aren’t elite with him being at -2 Framing runs this season, but that doesn’t tell the whole story by any means. First, framing is measured by 8 areas around the strike zone, and it is very difficult to be extraordinary at every spot and almost no one is. Fermin’s specialty is stealing strikes on pitches below the zone (zone 18) where he has a called strike percentage of 63%!!! This is the second-highest in baseball for that zone and is very valuable for the Royals and their pitching staff. With guys like Lugo and Wacha who have elite off-speed stuff and love to attack the bottom of the zone, Fermin’s ability to steal strikes below the zone has been an immense benefit to them. It’s also helped by Wacha and Lugo having the ability to keep the ball on the border of the zone making it easier for Freddy to frame for the umpire.

Attacking the other areas of the zone is important but is something that we don’t see much from Royals pitchers. Zones that are above the zone are much more commonly attacked by the Royals bullpen guys with high velocity and younger starters like Marsh and Ragans. Unfortunately, the lack of consistency from the Royals pen has not helped with the numbers up in the zone for either of the Royals catchers. We have seen several members of the Royals bullpen with high velocity struggle with command especially up in the zone. The command issues make it significantly harder to frame and hurt his numbers. But Fermin’s framing has been impactful and a strong part of his game behind the plate.

Game calling

Honestly, this is more of an eye test and opinion thing than it is backed up by stats. But calling the pitches of a game is often one of the biggest responsibilities of a catcher and is something I would argue Salvador Perez has been incredible at his entire career. Freddy calls a good game, but this is probably the worst aspect of his defense behind the plate (which says a lot about how great he is elsewhere) but is nowhere near bad. Fermin will only improve at this as his career goes on and he gets more experience and playing with Salvador Perez will only help this skill. But this is why I think we often see Fermin when Lorenzen, Lugo (who calls his own pitches), and Wacha pitch as they are veterans and can have a good chemistry about what to throw. Calling the game is important for the young guys to give them some guidance and allow them to think a little less on the mound which is why I think we see Salvy more often when there are younger guys like Marsh and Ragans.

Blocking Balls

The next topic of focus for Fermin defensively is his ability to block balls that are wild or could result in passed balls. Fermin is elite at blocking balls from getting past him and has 9 total blocks above average putting him in the top 10 in baseball. This is impactful, especially on a team that likes to pitch low in the zone and can often have balls bounce before reaching the glove of the catcher. Fermin has done this with a lot of success and has not been an everyday player which speaks to his skill.

Fermin has a good sample size for blocked balls with over 2900 total blocked ball attempts and has only had 14 get past him. Percentage-wise this puts Freddy an average of .13 blocks above average per game, a number that would put him at 6th best in the MLB of players with over 2000 attempts. This is something important to mention as Fermin has a good sample size, but since he hasn’t been an everyday player could be even better with more chances. His consistency across the last two years behind the plate would suggest that these numbers would continue throughout the year if he got as many attempts as other top catchers.

 Caught Stealing

The next thing I want to focus on is his ability to catch stealing runners and this has been his calling card behind the dish in 2024. When handling baserunners Fermin’s numbers have been mind-boggling and he has consistently been a sniper behind the plate. This season Fermin has caught eight runners above average in only 23 stolen base attempts. This would put him third in MLB among catchers with more than 20 SB attempts by the other team. He leads the MLB with an insane CS% of 61%!!!! While the sample size is smaller, there is nothing to suggest that Fermin is having a stroke of luck as he has consistently done this throughout his career. For perspective on how incredible that number is, Yadier Molina — one of the best defensive catchers ever — has a career caught-stealing percentage of 40%. The MLB league average is around 25%.

Fermin has crazy numbers that show that what he is doing is based on years of practice and development of his skills to throw runners out. This is represented by how he matches up with the rest of the league in advanced metrics, when compared to the rest of MLB catchers with more than 20 stolen base attempts against them, this is how Fermin ranks. He has a pop time of 1.88 which places him in fourth, an exchange time of .63 which places him 16th, and throws the ball at an average of 82.5 mph, placing him in ninth out of qualified catchers.

These numbers are insane, and they suggest that none of what Freddy has done behind the plate this season has been a coincidence or a fluke. Defensively he is one of the most skilled catchers in all of baseball and what he has brought behind the plate for the Royals this season has been very understated as he has been incredible. Some would try to argue these numbers come from a small sample size, but I would argue two things. The first of which is coaches know better than to run on Freddy as you don’t have good chances to beat him, and, I think he is hurt by it. I think his total numbers would be just that much more impressive if he got more time behind the plate.

 This is not to say anything about Salvy who has had the best defensive season of his career in his own right and has more than earned his place behind the plate and in the lineup every day. Perez will want to catch, and as long as he wants to continue catching, the Royals will let him, and rightfully so. But the impact of Freddy Fermin is not widely recognized by Royals fans, he has been incredible and isn’t replicated by almost anyone else in baseball. Fermin has earned a right to have time behind the plate a few times a week in 2025

Offensively

At the plate is where I really have seen the most improvement from Freddy Fermin this season. He has never really been known for his bat, but this year he really showed a lot of potential with his power and has gotten on base at a very high rate. He has cooled off a bit lately for a long portion of this year he had a batting average over .300 and was one of the best hitters in the lineup, even getting some time in the leadoff spot when other guys struggled.

My favorite thing about Fermin is his approach at the plate to take good swings and make him competitive at-bats. This year the Royals management has had two main messages: throw strikes for the pitchers and put the ball in play for the hitters. Fermin has done this by limiting his strikeouts at a high level and he is in the 73rd percentile in K% in the MLB. He doesn’t walk at a high rate, and he doesn’t always take long at-bats, but he puts the ball in play consistently giving himself a chance to get on and a chance to advance runners that are already on base.

While Fermin has had a solid season offensively his primary value comes defensively. This makes him the ideal backup catcher for Salvador Perez who will slowly move more and more to the DH and 1B spot over time. Freddy having elite defensive stats and being up for a gold glove give the Royals a lot more safety giving Salvy the day off behind the plate. Because Vinnie returned with his injury and was limited to only being a DH, and the success of Yuli Gurriel, Fermin didn’t play in the playoffs. However, we can’t let that take away from the value he brought this season to the Royals roster throughout 2024.

Fermin is club controllable through 2029, so I expect him to remain with the team for some time going forward. I love what he has to offer behind the plate and the potential he has shown at the plate. There soon will be a log jam at catcher, with Mitchell and Jensen coming up soon which will have to be addressed. Long story short, don’t forget about how good Freddy Fermin was this year and how important he was for the Royals’ success this season. He should remain important going forward.

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