Los Angeles Angels Catchers: Midseason Report Card

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Geovany Soto:

Jul 4, 2016; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Los Angeles Angels catcher Geovany Soto (18) hits a solo home run during the sixth inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Los Angeles Angels 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

A lot of fans were unsure of what to expect from Soto this year, as he’s been digressing each and every year, I guess you could say there were no expectations from him this year. However, if you play a sport as a profession, there’s always some sort of expectation attached, whether it’s from you personally or from the team as a whole.

Soto started off the year with a bang, quickly beginning to set pace for the best offensive year of his career 20 games through the season, posting a .283/.338/.483 stat line with 3 home-runs and 7 runs-batted in.

Unfortunately, as the Angels luck would have it, Soto would head to the disabled-list this past May as the result of being diagnosed with a torn meniscus, making him the 10th Angel to land on the DL this early on in the year. But now Soto is back on the team which is good news for Angels fans.

Just a random note to throw out there, additionally Soto previously tore the same exact meniscus in 2014 while playing on the other side of Los Angeles, for the Dodgers. He also suffered from an ankle injury that year which sidelined him for 24 games.

Thus far in the season, there’s not much to say about him as, well, obviously given his state of health. He was playing a huge part earlier on this year, and in the blink of an eye, here we are writing and readings articles in July about his future. Now that he is off the DL we will see what he can do now that Carlos Perez has been sent down.

We’re all aware of what Soto can do and what he means to this team in the short-term view of things, unfortunately the fact of the matter is that he’s played only 21 games this year while posting a .266 batting-average. Consistency in the modern day era of the game is HUGE.

As far as the defensive side goes, Soto has always been someone that opposing teams like to take advantage of. In just the 21 games that he’s started, opposing teams have successfully advanced 15 base-runners via the stolen base, with him behind the dish, as opposed to his 6 men caught stealing.

He has a .286 caught stealing percentage this year alone, and a .273 percentage lifetime. Not exactly where you want to be. Although, there’s not much to say about him this year, simply because there’s nothing to give him a grade off of, I do have to give him a grade nonetheless. So after a lot of debating and thinking things over, I came up with one that I believe many of you will agree with.

Next: The Dynamic Duo

But, all in all, it is great to have him back on the team as he provides some veteran leadership behind the dish. With trade rumors swirling Soto may not be with the team much longer. Whether Soto is with the Angels or another team, he’s a hard guy to root against wherever he winds up, and it’s good to have him back with the team.

Overall Grade: B-