Atlanta Braves Franchise best catchers: Joe Torre

Our next Atlanta Braves Franchise catcher got the job because he could hit. Had the team’s roster included a better young defensive catcher, Joe Torre might have played first base; the comes in fourth on the list.

Joseph Paul ‘Joe’ Torre’s plaque would not exist had his brother not told him to learn to catch.  The rest is Atlanta Braves history.

Frank Torre was 8½ years older than Joe and had signed with the Milwaukee Braves in 1950. Joe visited his brother in 1951 when Frank was playing first base for the Denver Bears, and his SABR bio uses a quote from his book Cashing the Dream to imply he liked the food there more than he should.

I went to Denver as something of an average-sized 10-year-old and came home a little more than a month later as an 11-year-old blimp.

Torre played first and pitched as a teen while batting .647 in the All-American Baseball classic in 1958, earning a spot on the New York All-Star team to play the U.S. All-Stars at the Polo Grounds.

Scouts from all 16 teams attended that game, but considered him, “too fat, too slow, and too uncoordinated to play either first or third base.”

Frank told his little brother he should learn to catch and helped him with the move. He caught for his Kiwanis League team in 1959 and in August the Braves signed him. He dropped about 20 pounds and hit .364 in the fall instructional league and began the 1960 season in C-ball.

After batting .344/.450/.553/1.003 with 16 homers, 23 doubles, 70 walks, and only 45 strikeouts, the Braves called the 19-year old catcher up. His bio tells us that call-up paid off.

In the bottom of the eighth, he pinch-hit for Warren Spahn, and ignited a rally with a single (then) was promptly removed for a pinch runner.

The Braves won the game in ten innings.

Joe Torre, major leaguer

An injury to Del Crandall resulted in Torre’s return to Milwaukee the following May.  In 441 PA over 113 games, he hit ten home runs, and batted .278/.330/.424/.754 with a 106 OPS+, to finish 21st in NL MVP voting, and second in the NL Rookie of the Year chase to Billy Williams.

Crandall returned in 1962 to split catching duties with Torre. In 1963 the new manager pushed Crandall into a bench role and made Torre the Braves primary catcher. In 1964, Torre batted .321/.365/.498/.863, with a 140 OPS+, hit 20 homers, and also earned a trip to his second All-Star Game.

He also hit into more double plays than anyone in the NL that season.  The writers ignored the double plays and placed him fifth in the MVP race; not bad for a player on a fifth-place team.

In 1965, Torre upped his homer total to 27, and batted .291/.372/.489/.862 with a 141 OPS, returned to the ASG, where his first-inning two-run homer gave the NL a 3-0 lead.  He went on to catch the whole game.

He ended the year leading the league in GDP again, and once again, the writers voted him into 11th place in the MVP race; and stunningly, he won a Gold Glove.

The Gold Glove was a stunning event because no one thought Torre was a good defensive catcher. Bill James said it statistically in his Baseball Abstract, as noted by Fox sports.

Joe Torre won the Gold Glove at catcher in the National League in 1965, but is seen by my system as the 12th-best catcher . . .(actually the 12th most valuable catcher.) Occasionally… Gold Glove voting system just goes haywire and somebody wins the award who obviously shouldn’t.. . . this is one of them.   Torre was never regarded as an outstanding defensive catcher, and Whitey Herzog said ..that his friend Joe Torre was the worst defensive catcher he ever saw.

James was very diplomatic in stating Herzog’s view of Torre as a catcher. On page 141 of You’re Missin’ a Great Game, he said it in plain English.

Joe Torre was the worst catcher I ever saw. The fans in the center field bleachers knew his number better than the ones behind home plate did!

Torre remained the Braves catcher when they moved to Atlanta the following year and became the Atlanta Braves.