Get To Know Q&A: Veteran Erik Kratz has a unique perspective behind the plate

The Journal Sentinel’s Todd Rosiak caught up with Milwaukee Brewers catcher Erik Kratz to discuss the “tools of ignorance,” as well as mentoring younger players and funny moments behind the plate. Kratz, 38, is hitting .237 with three home runs and six runs batted in since being acquired via trade from the New York Yankees for a player to be named later (minor-leaguer Wendell Rijo) on May 25. He’s playing on a one-year contract.

Q. There’s an old saying that a catcher’s gear can be referred to as the “tools of ignorance.” Would you agree?

A. I’ve never read about it. Sometimes I feel like it’s a knock. I think it’s day-to-day for me. I feel like the way it’s meant is a knock on the position, but I wouldn’t consider it a big-league term. It’s more like an amateur baseball thing – “These are just the tools of ignorance because there’s nobody better here. We’re going to put the fat kid behind the plate.” You don’t hear that in the big leagues, or even the upper minor leagues. I haven’t heard that expression used.

Q. It was actually a Hall of Fame catcher, Bill Dickey, who coined the phrase. Most seem to believe he was referring to the mindset it takes for a player to strap on all that equipment and play such a tough position. Some hold your belief, that it seems to mean less-talented players man the position. Does the first explanation register more with you?

A. I like the first one (laughs).

Q. How did you wind up behind the plate?

A. The first time I ever caught was when our catcher in Little League went on vacation. We had a kid on the team – one of my best friends even to this day – who threw harder than everybody in Little League and nobody was going to catch him. My dad was like, “Well, you better get back there because no one else is going to do it.” It was kind of a tough-love situation. I think I was 11-12 then. My dad was the assistant coach then. I had always played shortstop, third base. Then I didn’t make the varsity team my sophomore year of high school and going into my junior year the one position that we didn’t have a player for was catcher. In summer ball that year I had a bad year at third base and my summer-ball coach was like, “What about catching?” We played Legion ball and we always lost our catchers to football, and football players always caught. I didn’t play football, so I played catcher and I was like, “It’s not so bad.” I had a good arm. My junior year came, and it was time to try out at catcher. I ended up playing there only because the senior who had stepped up was like, “I’ll catch.” Now it’s looking like I’ve got no shot. My coach said, “Catch whenever this one guy pitches,” but that was it. It wasn’t looking good. Then right before our first game, (the senior) got in trouble for smoking on campus and I got to play and my first at-bat I hit an opposite-field home run. I went 2 for 3 and played every game after that.

Q. You’re a big guy at 6 feet 4 inches and 250 pounds, yet you are able to fold up, get low and present the pitchers with a very low target. How big a role does flexibility play in your preparation?

A. For me, preparation doesn’t help me for the game. It IS the game. It’s not just today. It’s everything. Everything I do is getting me ready to have success in the game I get in. Whether it’s tonight in the ninth, whether it’s tomorrow in the first. Whether it’s hitting, catching – all that stuff. You have to be a low target, but you also have to be athletic and able to move. Is flexibility part of it? One hundred percent. But it’s a small part of what I do on a daily basis. It’s talking to pitchers, and not just in the game. (Pitching coach Derek Johnson) and (manager Craig) Counsell have done such a good job of filling me in on stuff I would normally find out in spring training. Like, “What kind of guy is this guy?” Like when (Corbin) Burnes comes in (for his major-league debut in Miami). Yeah, I can go watch his minor-league video and I see he’s got a curveball, a changeup, a slider and a fastball. But what kind of GUY is he? Is he super amped-up? Is he, “Oh, I don’t really care.” Or is he an I-don’t-care guy but with a fake façade because he’s insecure? Or is he a super-amped-up guy and THAT’s a fake façade because HE’s insecure?

Q. It sounds like a big part of catching is just being able to read pitchers then, and trying to manage their personalities in order to get the best out of them. Correct?

A. I get so much satisfaction in seeing us win games. I can’t do anything about the fact they blooped in some balls against Jhoulys (Chacín in Miami). Jhoulys can’t do anything about the fact he had less-than-average fastball command for himself. But together we were able to get a win out of it. To get a win out of it is huge, and I take a lot of pride in that. I’m competitive. I love to win in a lot of things. And when the focus is all on winning, that makes it way more fun.

Q. You jumped onto a really good team during the season after spending the prior season-plus in the minor leagues. It can’t get much better than that for a player, can it?

A. It can’t. It happened one other time when I got traded to the Royals. It’s something where I have to bring what I bring to the table – that’s why they picked me up. If I try to be more than that, do more than that, it’s going to get me out of my comfort level and it’s not going to be genuine. They were winning before I got here; they’ll win after I leave. They’ll win because it’s a good team. But you want to be part of that winning, and you want to enhance that. The moves that they’re making with the team, everyone that comes in here, they’re about helping the team win 90, 100 games – whatever it takes for us to make the playoffs and then win 11 games (in the postseason). That’s the 100 percent honest goal for me.

Q. You’ve played with seven different teams in the major leagues and four of those made it to the playoffs. But you’ve never played in a playoff game. Has that been tough?

A. I was on a playoff roster (2014 Kansas City Royals). I never got in any of the games. Salvador Pérez plays more than everybody. He’ll catch a game, then he’ll go and catch a doubleheader on the amateur field across the street. Some people will look at it and think, "He didn’t do anything for the Royals that year." I haven’t had any teammates say that to my face. But that’s not how I think. Hopefully there’s something I helped out with. That’s what everybody on the 25-man roster each night has to think. You can affect your teammates in different ways. If you remember the end of the 2014 World Series, we had a runner on third base and Sal was up and he popped out to end it. Had he gotten a base hit there, we were going to pinch-run for him and guess who was going to go in and catch? So I had to be ready and there was no doubt in my mind I was ready. I was more than prepared to come in and play. I was going to come in for the 10th inning of Game 7 of the World Series. People ask, “Were you nervous?” Well, 7-8 times they were going to pinch-run for him and I was coming in, every time they were calling on me it was instant focus. The nerves where when I was just watching the games, because I couldn’t do anything about it. But when it was me coming into the game, it was tunnel vision. Obviously I didn’t get in a game. But I was on a roster.

Q. The goal this year is to finally get into a postseason game, isn’t it?

A. No doubt.

Q. You were a 29th-round draft pick, you made your major-league debut at age 30 and you’re still playing at 38. It’s been a career that’s defied the odds. Would you agree with that?

A. Perfect. Perfect. Professional baseball, from a fan’s standpoint, is a Christian Yelich, a Lo Cain, a Bryce Harper, a Manny Machado – guys that are on the forefront. And there’s a lot of guys that don’t ever get any recognition. Some guys, that’s what gets them out of the game. But there are guys like myself – I could name some and you’d have no idea who they are – who are OK with that. We fill out the positions. Beating the odds – I don’t mind hearing that. In a sense, it feels like a negative kind of spin. I know that’s not how you meant it. But I’m not trying to show anybody. Guys want an opportunity to play this game, and hope to make a positive impact. Maybe tonight’s my last game. Maybe I play until I’m 40. Maybe I hit the walk-off home run to send us to the playoffs. Maybe I hit the walk-off home run to win Game 7 of the World Series. THAT’s what’s in my head. I’m not sitting here trying to show people I belong. No. I’ve been given an opportunity. Sometimes I feel like I should have been given more opportunity. Sometimes I’ve squandered opportunities. And sometimes it’s just been His plan for me to be where I am. So I’m going to get the most out of today, and I think that’s how I would love people to remember my career. It’s not who lifts the most weights or runs the fastest. Maybe it’s a day you sit down and talk to a teammate. Maybe it’s a day you listen more than you talk. That’s what’s great about this game, is I’ve been afforded those opportunities. I don’t know if I was a first-rounder that my career would have been as long as it has been. I have three kids at home that I would love to spend more time with. But the opportunities to see the cities that they’ve seen, meet the people that they’ve met – baseball’s afforded that all to them. And it’s not something I take for granted – ever.

Q. The Brewers have both ends of the spectrum reflected on the roster right now at catcher – you as the veteran and prospect Jacob Nottingham as the youngster. Is mentoring him part of your job description?

A. He’s a 23-year-old prospect that’s playing maybe the most mentally grueling position in professional sports besides quarterback in the NFL. It’s a position that doesn’t rely on just your (physical) ability behind the plate. You have people that mentor you. I’ve had people that mentored me, coaches that have mentored me. (Johnson) has mentored me here, and I’m a 38-year-old veteran. As soon as you think you know everything, you’re behind. That’s what I told “Nott” – you can’t know everything. You have to know all that you can know and see what you can see, and trust it, but you can’t know everything. He’s never caught Freddy Peralta on July 11 against the Marlins (until later that night). So being prepared is what I hope he can gather from our talks. I hope he can ask me questions. We’re sitting here and watching Brian Schneider throw BP (for the Marlins) – he was the backup catcher when I came up with Philly (in 2011) and helped me a ton.

Q. Can you see yourself getting into coaching when you’re done playing? You seem to have the personality for it.

A. Post-career, there are going to be a lot of decisions for my wife. It’s a lot of time. But also, it’s got to be the right situation. We would pray about it and we make the decision that we feel is right for us. Anything that involves my family, that’s the most important thing. Even now.

Q. Who are some of the people who were most influential on your career?

A. Just catching-wise? Right off the bat, Ernie Whitt, Mike Basso, Dave LaRoche – he was a pitcher, not a catcher. Lee Guetterman (another pitcher). Schneider. Joe Kerrigan. John Gibbons. Demarlo Hale. All these guys in my career have helped me in some way. Chase Utley helped my catching career. Roy Halladay helped my catching career. It was just because they could see things and think of things that could help me. But the guys that were just instrumental in my catching career were Mike Basso and Ernie Whitt. They were really the foundation of my catching.

Q. Only a few of those guys are household names. Isn’t it weird that sometimes the best coaches are the ones who didn’t necessarily have great playing careers?

A. I had a hitting coach who hit .307 or something like that in the big leagues and he was like, “When you see the ball away, you just go, ‘Bam!’ And then when they throw something hard in, you just go, ‘Bam!’” Oh, OK. There you go.

Q. You were involved in a little dust-up behind the plate last month in Cincinnati with Joey Votto, and had a great line after about how you guys were discussing the Canadian dollar. You’ve caught a lot of innings – any funny stories that immediately come to mind?

A. There’s a lot of them. I’ll tell you the first one that comes to mind. We were playing Double-A in Altoona, and I was playing for New Hampshire. This guy who was a prospect, and he talked (with a gravelly voice), he came up to the plate. It was the standard minor-league game, 10:30 in the morning, hot, the kids were screaming (in the stands) “SpongeBob Squarepants” and he comes up to the plate. Takes Ball 1 then the umpire goes, “Oh man, what’s that smell?” He's standing in the box – he’s a right-handed hitter – and he goes, “Heh-heh-heh. That was me. I guess the eggs aren’t sitting too well.” I have no idea it was so funny that day, or why specifically it sticks in my mind. But that’s the first story that comes to mind (laughs). It was the voice that really got me. The “heh-heh-heh.” (laughs)

Q. You’ve got three home runs and one strikeout of an all-star – Cincinnati’s Eugenio Suárez – on a 59-mph knuckleball on your resumé this season. Which is more impressive?

A. The three home runs. I already have an all-star strikeout. I struck out Brandon Belt in 2016. But I also remember who I hit all my home runs against in my career (27 total), too. I’m reaching that echelon, though. I’ve always said once you reach 30 home runs in the big leagues you’re not going to remember who you hit them against. I’m right there. Right at the cusp. But I hope I don’t forget (laughs).