JAWS and the 2023 Hall of Fame Ballot: Mike Napoli

The next article is a part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing take a look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2023 Corridor of Fame poll. For an in depth introduction to this yr’s poll, and different candidates within the collection, use the software above; an introduction to JAWS may be discovered here. For a tentative schedule, and an opportunity to fill out a Corridor of Fame poll for our crowdsourcing undertaking, see here. All WAR figures discuss with the Baseball-Reference model until in any other case indicated.

As photos of baseball gamers engaged in off-field celebrations go, it’s robust to high that of Mike Napoli following the Purple Sox’s 2013 World Collection victory parade. Over the course of a number of hours, the burly, bearded 31-year-old slugger went on an epic pub crawl that included stops to tend bar at McGreevy’s of Boston and Daisy Buchanan’s. As broadly chronicled by way of social media, Napoli did photographs with followers whereas soaking within the adulation, and alongside the way in which shed his shirt for what rapidly grew to become an iconic picture.

Mike Napoli is strolling round Boston drunk and shirtless #DayMade ? pic.twitter.com/fO7yirlego

— Frank ?? (@SenpaiKoala) November 2, 2013

By that time, Napoli had been by way of loads. He’d spent the primary half-decade of his main league profession (2006-10) locked in an existential place battle that resonated all through the baseball world. Below the tough glare of Angels supervisor Mike Scioscia — a two-time All-Star and two-time champion who caught practically 1,400 video games within the majors earlier than successful the 2002 World Collection as supervisor — the heavy-hitting Napoli battled for the beginning catcher job with light-hitting however extra highly-touted Jeff Mathis, whose superiority behind the plate appealed to the defense-minded skipper and highlighted the explanation why Napoli couldn’t win the job outright. At the same time as his personal accidents and people of teammates allowed Napoli to broaden his positional repertoire, he confronted public criticism from his supervisor. “I believe he’s a catcher. He thinks he’s a catcher. He must exit and catch like a catcher,” Scioscia said in December 2010. “That’s the irritating half with Mike. We’ve seen it when he first got here up.”

That remark got here only a month earlier than Napoli was traded out of city; he wound up with the Rangers, and spent the following two years terrorizing the Angels. Upon reaching free company, he agreed to a three-year, $39 million contract with the Purple Sox, however the discovery of a degenerative hip situation compelled the deal to be restructured and decreased to a single yr, and ended his time behind the plate. Free of that burden, he did nothing lower than assist Boston win a championship, therefore his cathartic celebration.

Napoli’s main league profession spanned solely 12 seasons, and he made only one All-Star staff. Even so, his groups reached the postseason eight instances, and upon escaping Anaheim, he performed in three World Collection in a span of six years, establishing himself as a middle-of-the-lineup slugger and a fan favourite.

Michael Anthony Napoli was born on October 31, 1981 in Hollywood, Florida, and grew up in close by Pembroke Pines. He was the oldest of three youngsters born to Joe Napoli, a plumber, and Donna Rose Torres, however his dad and mom divorced when he was younger. Donna labored two jobs — as a retail retailer supervisor on weekdays and a caterer on weekends — to help the household, and later married Rick Torres, a firefighter who had two youngsters of his personal, and who grew to become the male determine in Mike’s life.

Napoli started taking part in T-ball when he was 5 years outdated, and he took to it rapidly. “I knew from the day he was born he would play baseball,” his mom told the South Florida Solar-Sentinel’s Dave Brousseau in 2000. At Charles W. Flanagan Excessive College — the place he stayed regardless of an try to steer him to switch to personal college powerhouse Westminster Academy, the place Alex Rodriguez had performed — Napoli received the Broward County 6A triple crown as a junior, with a .576 batting common, 14 homers, and 52 RBI. After dropping 20 kilos, he not solely repeated as batting and RBI champion the next yr, he added a brand new dimension to his recreation by stealing 32 bases and received the Solar-Sentinel Participant of the Yr for 4A-5A-6A faculties along with incomes all-state honors.

At the same time as Napoli got here out of highschool, scouts weren’t offered on his catching capacity, viewing him extra as a nook infielder, albeit as “a dominant offensive participant who can hit with energy to all fields,” in line with Baseball America’s draft report. “He was a person amongst boys,” former Angels scout Todd Claus told ESPN’s Gordon Edes in 2013, noting that even then he had “a chinstrap beard.” Napoli signed a letter of intent to Louisiana State College, however “he was no scholar,” as his highschool coach Tyler Munro instructed Edes. Signability points pushed him all the way down to the seventeenth spherical, the place the Angels drafted him. He signed for a modest $105,000 bonus.

Accidents, excessive strikeout charges, and defensive points – not simply his footwork however his normal playability behind the plate — slowed Napoli’s climb by way of the minors. He performed in simply 10 video games at Rookie-level Butte in 2000 resulting from a again damage, and 47 at Excessive-A Rancho Cucamonga in ’03 resulting from a torn labrum in his proper shoulder; by 2005, he had been recognized with an arthritic left shoulder as properly. He hit a meaty .282/.393/.539 with 29 homers and 166 strikeouts whereas repeating at Rancho in 2004, which at the very least landed him at no. 29 on BA’s organizational Prime 30; by that time Mathis, a 2001 supplemental first-round choose, was at no. 4 after a season at Double-A Arkansas. When each catchers moved up a stage for 2005, Napoli hit .237/.372/.508 with 31 homers at Arkansas, trimmed his strikeout fee from 28.4% to 25.9%, and threw out 47% of would-be base thieves. However whilst he climbed to no. 11 on the Angels checklist, BA famous he was “not polished sufficient defensively to warrant on a regular basis play as a catcher” whereas mentioning that he led Texas League catchers in errors and handed balls.

The Angels started the 2006 season with Mathis backing up José Molina, and Napoli stashed at Triple-A Salt Lake Metropolis. When Mathis didn’t hit, the 2 prospects switched locations. Napoli debuted on Could 4 by homering off the Tigers’ Justin Verlander in his first plate look, and began nearly all of the staff’s remaining video games whereas throwing out 31% of would-be base thieves and batting .228/.360/.455 (110 OPS+) with 16 homers and a couple of.6 WAR.

Napoli entered 2007 because the starter, and performed recurrently forward of Molina, however a excessive ankle sprain and a hamstring pressure restricted him to simply seven video games in July and August; throughout that point, Mathis was promoted and Molina traded to the Yankees. Napoli began simply 9 instances behind the plate in September, ending at .247/.351/.443 (107 OPS+) with 10 homers and 1.1 WAR. He began two out of the staff’s three video games within the Division Collection towards the Purple Sox, however was hitless because the staff was swept.

Napoli’s offense took a step ahead in 2008, as he homered 20 instances in simply 274 plate appearances whereas batting .273/.374/.586 (148 OPS+), however shoulder irritation — which might ultimately result in an offseason surgical cleanup of his labrum and rotator cuff — knocked him out for a month. Mathis began 90 video games to Napoli’s 71, although the latter made three of the 4 begins in a Division Collection rematch towards the Purple Sox. He went 3-for-5 with a pair of homers off Josh Beckett within the Angels’ Recreation 3 win, however hitless in his different two begins.

In 2009, the Angels started increasing Napoli’s function, beginning him at designated hitter 16 instances and behind the plate 84 instances. An impingement that slowed his restoration from surgical procedure had one thing to do with, although it’s additionally value noting that the timing coincided with the arrival of pitch monitoring, which had led to the examine of catcher framing. Even the earliest public work by Dan Turkenkopf of Past the Field Rating estimated a considerable hole (one run per 150 known as pitches) between Mathis and Napoli based mostly on partial 2007 knowledge. Primarily based on FanGraphs’ retroactive framing numbers for 2008-10, the hole was nonetheless vital:

By Baseball Prospectus‘ extra all-encompassing numbers on each the offensive and defensive sides (together with not simply framing but in addition blocking and throwing, and going again additional than the PITCHf/x period utilizing a special methodology), Napoli out-produced Mathis over the 2007-10 interval when each had been within the majors by a margin of 5.3 WARP (7.8 to 2.5). Even so, Sam Miller’s 2016 accounting of Scioscia’s longer-term dealing with of his catchers instructed that the supervisor got here to undervalue protection in distributing his taking part in time, costing the Angels wins.

(Right here it’s value noting that regardless of the battle for taking part in time, Napoli and Mathis roomed collectively from 2007-10 and have become close friends. Each understood the heightened scrutiny that got here with taking part in below the demanding Scioscia. “I assumed he was an excellent defensive catcher,” Mathis told MLB.com in 2019. “However he was below numerous strain, as a result of he was seen as an offensive catcher. He actually needed to work at it.”)

Sticking to the interval at hand, Mathis’ weak point as a hitter (58 OPS+ from 2008-10) saved Napoli in shinguards a number of the time. He hit for a 120 OPS+ with 20 homers and three.0 WAR in 2009, however went simply 2-for-13 within the postseason because the Angels beat the Purple Sox earlier than falling to the Yankees within the ALCS. In 2010, after Kendrys Morales broke his leg, Napoli began extra video games at first base (67) than catcher (59) and set a profession excessive in homers (26), with a 115 OPS+ and a couple of.0 WAR.

In the course of the 2010-11 offseason, the Angels got here up quick of their pursuits of free brokers Carl Crawford and Adrián Beltré. Overreacting, they traded Napoli and outfielder Juan Rivera to the Blue Jays for outfielder Vernon Wells in what turned out to be a catastrophic transfer given the replacement-level manufacturing Wells supplied at premium costs over the following two years ($44 million, zero WAR) and the extent to which catching prospect Hank Conger fell wanting expectations in taking on Napoli’s taking part in time. Simply 4 days after Napoli was traded to the Blue Jays, he was flipped to the Rangers for reliever Frank Francisco, that means that he might come again to hang-out his former staff within the AL West race.

And he did. In 16 video games towards the Angels in 2011, Napoli hit .356/.433/.763 with six homers because the Rangers took the division with 96 wins, 10 greater than the Angels. Splitting his time between catcher (57 begins), first base (27 begins) and DH (18 begins), Napoli hit an ungodly .320/.414/.631 for a 178 OPS+ and a career-high 5.5 WAR. Between the calls for of catching and a three-week absence resulting from an indirect pressure, he made simply 432 PA, 70 wanting qualifying for the batting title, however amongst AL gamers with at the very least 400 PA, no one had a better slugging proportion, and solely Miguel Cabrera had a better OPS+ (180).

Within the postseason, Napoli continued to rake (.328/.414/.500), producing a number of large hits alongside the way in which. Within the Division Collection towards the Rays, he hit a game-tying two-run single off James Shields within the fourth inning of Recreation 2, after which a go-ahead two-run homer off David Price within the seventh inning of Recreation 3. Within the ALCS towards the Tigers, he drove within the first of 4 Eleventh-inning runs in Recreation 4 with a single off Jose Valverde. Within the World Collection towards the Cardinals, his two-run homer off Chris Carpenter accounted for the Rangers’ solely runs of their Recreation 1 loss, however his three-run homer off Mitchell Boggs accounted for the majority of their scoring in a Recreation 4 win, and his two-run double off Marc Rzepczynski supplied the margin of victory in Recreation 5. He bought on base 5 instances within the epic Recreation 6, however didn’t rating as soon as; the Rangers misplaced each that recreation and Recreation 7.

Napoli continued to punish the Angels (.442/.567/.904 in 67 PA) in 2012 and made his solely All-Star staff that yr, extra on his momentum from the earlier yr than for his efficiency (.227/.343/.469, 24 homers), which truly improved within the second half regardless of his lacking 5 weeks with a quad pressure. The Rangers certified for the AL Wild Card however misplaced.

With that, Napoli reached free company. Recruited by former Angels teammate John Lackey, with assist from Jon Lester and Dustin Pedroia, he agreed to a three-year, $39 million take care of the Purple Sox, however throughout his bodily, the staff discovered he had avascular necrosis in each hips, a degenerative dysfunction that kills bone tissue, and that ended the soccer profession of Bo Jackson. After seven weeks of session with docs and the start of a medical routine to handle his situation (which, fortunately, was asymptomatic), Napoli’s contract was restructured as a one-year, $5 million assure plus a most of $8 million in incentives based mostly on days on the energetic roster and taking part in time.

The analysis ended the 31-year-old Napoli’s profession as a catcher, however he stayed wholesome in 2013, taking part in recurrently at first base and hitting .259/.360/.482 (128 OPS+) with 23 homers and three.7 WAR. The Purple Sox, who had plummeted to 69-93 in 2012 after lacking the playoffs by a single recreation the yr earlier than, rebounded to win the AL East at 97-65. Napoli went simply 2-for-13 in each the Division Collection towards the Rays and the World Collection towards the Cardinals, however hit .300/.333/.700 in 20 PA within the ALCS towards the Tigers. Most notably, his seventh-inning solo homer off Verlander accounted for the one run of Recreation 3, and he collected three hits, together with a solo homer, off Aníbal Sánchez in Boston’s Recreation 5 win.

The Purple Sox received the World Collection in six video games, and on November 2, following town’s celebratory parade, Napoli went on his notorious walkabout. Six weeks later, he re-signed with the Purple Sox on a two-year, $32 million deal; having maxed out the bonuses in his 2013 contract, he truly got here out forward regardless of the hiccup of the bodily. His efficiency in 2014 took a success, nevertheless, as minor accidents — again, knee, toe, and most notably a dislocated left ring finger, suffered whereas jamming it in a headfirst slide in mid-April — restricted him to 119 video games. A late-season stoop knocked his OPS+ all the way down to 120; he didn’t get a success after September 8, taking part in solely 5 extra video games because the Purple Sox sank to 71 wins.

Within the wake of offseason surgery to right sleep apnea, Napoli struggled mightily in 2015, hitting simply .207/.307/.386 earlier than the Purple Sox traded him again to the Rangers in an August 7 waiver deal. His bat perked up post-trade (.295/.396/.513), however he was a nonfactor through the Rangers Division Collection loss to the Blue Jays. Once more a free agent, the now 34-year-old Napoli inked a one-year, $7 million-plus-incentives take care of Cleveland. Although he hit a career-high 34 homers, his 106 OPS+ and subpar protection yielded simply 1.0 WAR. He scuffled all through the postseason (.173/.232/.288 with 21 strikeouts in 56 PA); his RBI double and solo homer off the Blue Jays’ Marcus Stroman in a Recreation 3 ALCS win was nearly his solely notable contribution whilst Cleveland took its quest for a championship all the way in which to the tenth inning of Recreation 7 of the World Collection earlier than dropping to the Cubs.

Simply earlier than pitchers and catchers reported in 2017, Napoli signed an $8.5 million deal to return to Texas, however the third time was hardly the allure. Although he hit 29 homers, he slipped to an 80 OPS+ and -0.3 WAR, and didn’t play after September 14 resulting from a leg damage. He went again to Cleveland by way of a minor league deal in 2018, opted out on the finish of spring coaching in an try to discover a main league roster spot, and when he didn’t, returned and accepted an task to Triple-A Columbus. Alas, he went 1-for-24 in 5 video games earlier than tearing his ACL and the meniscus in his proper knee, an damage that ended his season; in December of that yr, he formally retired. Previous to the 2020 season, he joined the teaching workers of the Cubs — managed by 2013-14 Purple Sox teammate David Ross — as their high quality assurance coach, and for the reason that begin of final season has served as their first base coach.

Looking back it’s honest to surprise what sort of profession Napoli might need had if the Angels had moved him out from behind the plate earlier, because the Blue Jays did with Jayson Werth (not that they reaped the rewards). Maybe he would have steered away from the accidents that shortened his profession, and we’d have been spared the polarizing debates that surrounded the Angels’ positional battle. Flags fly perpetually, nevertheless, and from this vantage, I doubt Napoli would change a lot a couple of profession the place he finally triumphed.