Jose Trevino making strong bid to be clear-cut No. 1 catcher for Yankees
Yankees catcher Jose Trevino during the seventh inning against the Guardians at Yankee Stadium on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Who is Jose Trevino?
Jose Trevino is a 29-year-old from Corpus Christi, Texas, whom the Yankees acquired five days before the season was supposed to start because their intended backup catcher, Ben Rortvedt, was out with an oblique injury.
Trevino is an elite defender and an OK hitter. He has never played more than 89 games in a season since breaking in with the Rangers in 2018. He appears to be the kind of defense-first catcher who shows up at the end of a roster because, well, you have to have two catchers.
But here’s who else Trevino is at the moment: the Yankees’ No. 1 catcher.
Oh, Aaron Boone won’t admit that, but what else can you conclude when Trevino started three of the Yankees’ last four games, including Sunday’s 10-2 victory over Cleveland that was started by Gerrit Cole?
Kyle Higashioka, who supplanted the traded Gary Sanchez as the Yankees’ top backstop going into the season, always catches Cole. Higashioka had caught every Cole start since last July 23.
But Higashioka, after hitting seven home runs in spring training, is batting .121 (4-for-33) with a .295 OPS.
Boone, after saying on Friday that he considered his catching duo a “tandem,” decided to pair Trevino with the struggling Cole on Sunday. Cole had his best outing of the season, throwing 6 2/3 shutout innings with nine strikeouts in his fourth start as the Yankees swept the weekend series.
Higashioka made his bones as a defensive catcher and Cole savant, but his hold on the top job clearly was tenuous. He has never been a No. 1 and his season high for games played is 67 in 2021, when he hit .181 with 10 home runs.
“Feel great about both guys and their abilities behind the plate,” Boone said before adding that he picked Sunday to put Trevino with Cole because he “just felt like today was the day to do that.”
Trevino has impressed the Yankees with his skills behind the plate, at the plate (.278 in eight games, six of them starts), in the clubhouse and on the team plane.
Yes, the team plane.
“He’s been sitting in front of me on flights,” pitcher Jameson Taillon said. “He’ll just turn around and start talking with me and [Jordan] Montgomery a lot. He loves working with his pitchers. He’s got a lot of leadership qualities that you would look for in a catcher and a guy that you want to add in the clubhouse, especially in a place like this.”
Trevino’s first big-league clubhouse wasn’t a place like this. It was in Arlington, Texas, and when he was called up in June 2018 for a three-game stint, he shared the catchers’ room with Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the Yankees’ current shortstop, who came up as an infielder-catcher.
“I know what type of player he is,” Kiner-Falefa said. “I know his personality. I know just by being around everybody here for a month, I knew he was a perfect fit and a perfect guy to be in the clubhouse.”
Kiner-Falefa said he was asked his opinion about Trevino before the Yankees made the April 2 trade in exchange for reliever Albert Abreu and minor-league pitcher Robby Ahlstrom.
“They were just like, ‘Hey, how’s Trevino?’ ” Kiner-Falefa said. “I just gave them my take on him. He’s a guy that’s a really good player. He’s going to work with the pitchers and he’s going to give you everything he’s got every day.”
Kiner-Falefa was a big part of Trevino’s top big-league moment to date. It was June 17, 2018 — Father’s Day — when Trevino, in his third big-league game, hit a walk-off two-run single to give the Rangers a 13-12 win over the Rockies. Kiner-Falefa scored the winning run.
Less than a week earlier, Trevino — who had recently lost his father — became a dad when his son Josiah was born.
Trevino broke down in tears in a postgame interview.
“One of the craziest weeks of my life,” he said at the time. “It’s crazy how things work. In baseball and in life.”
And how: Now he’s a Yankee and Josiah is 3.
“He came over here for the first weekend and now he’s back at school,” Trevino said. “He told his teachers, ‘My dad plays for the Yankees now.’ It’s cool.”
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
