Zach Wilt: Caleb Joseph's turnaround in 2017

2016 was not kind to Caleb Joseph. The Orioles catcher finished the year with a .174/.216/.197 slashline and a zero in the RBI category. That statistic combined with his long homerless stretch drew quite a bit of attention nationally. Joseph started last season with 66 RBI-less at-bats, then suffered an unfortunate testicular injury that landed him on the disabled list for the entire month of June. After returning with a reinforced kevlar cup, he finished the year with another 66 RBI-less at-bats. That's 132 ABs, zero homers and zero RBIs.

No one was more excited to turn the calendar to 2017 than Joseph. I have to imagine that he couldn't wait for the clock to strike midnight on New Year's Eve. 2017 has been a completely different story for Joseph. He broke his streaks on April 29 against the Yankees with a homer and two runs batted in. Since then, he's gone deep three more times and totaled 19 RBIs in 154 plate appearances. He's slashing .299/.329/.461 and has been valued at 0.8 fWAR after a -0.9 fWAR season a year ago.

In the Orioles' 10-2 victory over the Rangers on Wednesday night, Joseph picked up two hits, one of which was a double, and a run scored. His average briefly popped over the .300 mark in that contest. The night before, Buck Showalter utilized him as a defensive replacement at third base and he nearly made an outstanding diving stop in the top of the ninth.

It's been impressive to see Joseph leave 2016 behind and get back to being such an important contributor for the Orioles this season. Remember, two years ago, Joseph was the Orioles' primary catcher with Matt Wieters on the disabled list. He appeared in 100 games and tallied 355 plate appearances with a .234/.299/.394 slash, 11 home runs, 49 RBIs and 1.4 fWAR. In a smaller sample, he's been even better this season.

Joseph's work ethic is always complimented by the skipper, his teammates and even the Orioles broadcasters. Jim Hunter made mention of the work Jospeh puts in fielding grounders at third and taking throws at first during a recent radio broadcast. That hard work is paying off not only in the slashline totals, but also in his batted balls percentages. According to data from FanGraphs.com, Joseph is making hard contact 32.5 percent of the time this season compared to just 21.7 percent in 2016. In 2015, he was making hard contact 30.6 percent of the time.

A lot of that hard contact is coming from Joseph's drastic improvements against fastballs this season. According to BaseballSavant.com, Joseph hit .211 with a .237 slugging percentage against fastballs last season. Just eight of his 23 hits came on those pitches. Here in 2017, he's hitting .405 against fastballs with a .524 slugging percentage. Joseph is also whiffing less against fastballs this year compared to his percentage a season ago.

When you examine Joseph's plate discipline numbers over his four seasons in the big leagues, you discover that his approach hasn't changed all that much. He swings at about 63 percent of the pitches he sees in the strike zone and makes contact with about 77 percent of the total pitches he swings at overall. Those numbers haven't changed from year to year. Based on that, I have to assume to we're seeing a healthier, more confident player coming back from a rough injury. When you combine that injury with a bit of bad luck, Joseph had a .221 batting average on balls in play in 2016, the result is a disappointing season.

This year, we're seeing it all fall into place him. He's recovered, he's hitting the ball hard and it seems to be finding gaps a lot easier than it did last year. Joseph has seen his BABIP soar to .385 this season. While that total is likely unsustainable, there's no question that he's performing at a higher level this year than last. The advanced metrics, like wOBA (.337 in 2017, .188 in 2016) and wRC+ (108 in 2017, 6 in 2016), agree.

It couldn't happen to a better guy. Joseph puts in the work and he's seeing the results he deserves. The Orioles certainly need it, too, his efforts have been invaluable for them this year and will continue to be as the season unfolds the rest of the way.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zach_wilt. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.