All-Time Indians: Joe Azcue

One of the first Cuban immigrants to play for the Cleveland Indians, Joe Azcue was acquired from the Kansas City Athletics in 1963 along with Dick Howser in exchange for Doc Edwards, a career .238 average back-up catcher. While the second place Rookie of the Year finishing short stop Howser may have been the big name in the deal, Azcue wound up being the steal.

Azcue was originally signed as an amateur free agent by the Cincinnati Redlegs, but played in just 14 Major League games before being sold to the Milwaukee Braves and ultimately to Kansas City. With the A’s, he played another 74 games between 1962 and 1963 with a .225 average and only two home runs leading into the trade to Cleveland. He would ultimately spend seven of his eleven seasons with the Indians and become the primary catcher for what was possibly the greatest starting rotation in franchise history.

Jumping teams in late May, Azcue quickly took over the starting catcher job from Johnny Romano, playing essentially every single day including both games in 14 double headers. In his first full month, Azcue had a line of .290/.310/.428, so there should be no surprise that the Indians would want to keep the 23 year old new kid in the starting lineup constantly. By the end of the year he became one of the most productive members of the offense, moving from eighth batter to fifth, knocking in 46 runs and coming in second to just Vic Davalillo with a .281 average.

In 1964, Romano came back for his starting job and Azcue took a back seat, but was still able to play in 83 games, knock in 34 and bat .273. While Romano was a solid starter and two time All-Star, Azcue was obviously the future for the Tribe at catcher and Romano was included in a massive deal that also cost the Indians Tommy John in exchange for Cam Carreon and the return of Rocky Colavito.

Back in the starting role with only Duke Sims for job insecurity, Azcue had the worst season of his Indians career in 1965, batting just .230 in 111 games with only nine extra base hits. Luckily for Cleveland, Azcue wasn’t just there for his bat. That season was no exception to the fact that Azcue was one of the greatest defensive catchers in Indians history. He remains tied for the career high in fielding percent (.994) among Tribe catchers with at least 400 games played at the position and is second in caught stealing percent (48%) to Jim Hegan. In addition, with 17 pick offs in 561 games, he ranks third in career pick offs (behind Romano and Hegan) and in pick offs per game (behind Romano and Sims).

Azcue stepped both his offense and defense up in 1966 when he lead the league with a 62% caught stealing rate while batting .275 with nine home runs at the plate. There was one more important aspect of Azcue’s game that should be recognized here as beginning in 1965 he began working with a record setting rotation that would only get better until it peaked in 1968. While he can’t take too much credit for the successes of Sam McDowell, Sonny Siebert and Luis Tiant, a solid back stop also shouldn’t be underestimated. Each time the Indians have produced multiple incredible starters it has coincided with an intelligent and incredibly strong defensive catcher from Steve O’Neill in the 1920’s to Hegan in the 1940’s, Sandy Alomar, Jr. in the 1990’s and Yan Gomes today. Yes, Sudden Sam, Sonny and El Tiante were the ones breaking strike out, average and ERA marks, but one would have to surmise they wouldn’t have been quite as good without Azcue.

The best power year for Azcue since his 1963 campaign came in 1967 when he blasted eleven home runs and 12 doubles, both second high notes in his career. In addition, he hit five of his seven career triples that year leading to a solid .437 slugging percent considering his .251 average. This lead to one of those situations where a player’s reputation is created one year, then rewarded the next as he had just two home runs and a .273 average going when he was selected for the 1968 All-Star Game. In that game, he fared much better than the next Indians catcher (also the next position player) to make the game, Ray Fosse, who suffered a debilitating injury thanks to the hustle of Charlie Hustle. Azcue went 0/1 with a strike out in the Mid-Summer Classic.

That would be Azcue’s final full season with the Indians as just seven games into 1969, he was sent to Boston in an illfated trade that also cost the Indians Siebert and Vicente Romo to acquire the serviced of Ken Harrelson (along with Juan Pizzaro and Dick Ellsworth) who played poorly in Cleveland for the final three seasons of his career. While Siebert pitched well for the Red Sox, Azcue didn’t get along with management and was traded in June to the Angels. In 1972, he was traded again, this time back to Milwaukee although with the Brewers instead of the Braves and he ended his career after 11 more games there. In 1973, Azcue came back with the Indians AA club in San Antonio and batted .312, but never made it back to the big leagues and called it a career at the end of the season.

In addition to his defense prowess and work with some of the Indians best pitchers ever, Azcue was one of the longest tenured catchers at seven years and ranks among the best in Indians history with his .266 average and 45 home runs. He may not be remembered as much as he should be since defensive stats are vastly undervalued and because he played in a stretch of great catchers for the Tribe including Romano, Sims (who replaced Azcue) and Fosse (who replaced Sims in 1970), but that shouldn’t detract from the fact that Joe Azcue was one of the greatest all around catchers in Indians history.