Willson Contreras Breaks Arm On J.D. Martinez Swing, Signifying Catcher Position Issues

Catchers have continued to creep closer and closer to the mound in 2024, and it finally resulted in a major, devastating injury.

St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras fractured his arm on a downswing by New York Mets designed hitter J.D. Martinez on Tuesday night, in a tough-to-watch, real world example of the dangers of pitch framing.

Normally, catchers interference calls are a result of the hitter's bat nicking the catcher's glove. That's not what happened here. Martinez's downswing landed square on Contreras' forearm, with the Cardinals announcing that he suffered a "left-arm fracture."

And based on how catchers are being taught to set up, it could become a much more common problem.

May 7, 2024; St. Louis, Missouri, USA;  St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras (40) is checked on by a trainer and manager Oliver Marmol (37) after fracturing his left arm during the second inning against the New York Mets at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Catcher Positioning Continues To Creep Closer To Plate

Contreras is hardly an outlier; catcher's interference calls have skyrocketed in recent years, exploding up to 96 in 2023. Thus far in 2024, they're on pace to shatter previous records.

According to Codify Baseball, there were 23 catcher's interference calls in 2014, just 10 years ago. This year through May 7, there's been 33. That pace would result in roughly 145-150 such calls in 2024.

So why is this happening?

Across Major League Baseball, catchers are being told to move closer to the plate in an attempt to steal more strikes, especially on low pitches. The thought being that umpires, being human, often call balls and strikes based on where the ball hits the glove, not where the pitch crosses the plate.

Move closer to the plate and the glove catches the ball incrementally higher. In theory, that could steal a few strikes that would otherwise have been called balls. They've also been instructed to squat with one knee up and the other leg on the ground to improve receiving on lower pitches. 

With the amount of data available to teams, they've become experts at identifying every possible advantage. Framing is one of the biggest, and maximizing it has immense benefits. Thus the explosion in catcher's interference calls.

But with Contreras set to miss a substantial period of time with a fractured forearm, will that force teams to rethink their strategies? Maybe. Contreras has exaggerated his positioning, but the concept behind it makes sense. Catcher's interference results in an automatic base, but teams clearly have determined that those risks are worth stealing, say, a few extra strikes per game.

Though after seeing the Contreras video, it wouldn't be surprising to see catchers league wide move a few inches back.