Defense matters to Dodgers as Austin Barnes takes over at catcher for Yasmani Grandal

MILWAUKEE — For the second October in a row, Yasmani Grandal has found himself relegated to backup catcher for the ring-chasing Dodgers. And this time around, he’s on the cusp of free agency and the payday of a lifetime.

In NLCS Game 6 against the Brewers on Friday night, Austin Barnes again started behind the plate for the Dodgers, his fourth start in the past five games. That has relegated Grandal to pinch-hitting duties and, during his lone start in that span, getting booed by the home crowd at Dodger Stadium.

“He’s handling it like a pro,” manager Dave Roberts said of Grandal’s demotion. “Like a good teammate, understanding that he had a great year. But right now, Austin is playing well on both sides of the ball. So [Grandal is] ready when called upon, and whether it’s [Friday] or any ensuing games, I just think that Yasmani is still going to help us — and we need him. We need him to be right mentally.”

Grandal’s problems began in Game 1, when he went 1-for-4 with two strikeouts, two errors and two passed balls. Then he sat for Game 2 and had three more strikeouts (and one more hit) in Game 3. It’s been all Barnes since.

Barnes hasn’t been able to offer much with the bat — 2-for-11 with five strikeouts in three NLCS games, plus a .205/.329/.290 slash line in the regular season — but he drew praise from Roberts because “his defense never wavered.”

“It says a lot about his perseverance and not letting this down year offensively get to him at this point in the season. And he’s prepared so well all year long consistently,” Roberts said. “And the thing for me is that his defense has never wavered or been compromised. That right there speaks to his character and makeup. And at the most critical time in the box, he’s the most confident he’s been in quite some time.”

Grandal and Barnes followed a similar pattern last postseason, though that story started earlier. In the second half, Grandal hit poorly (.217/.292/.444) while Barnes had the best couple of months of his career (.295/.419/.438).

By the time the postseason rolled around, Barnes was the outright starter for a Dodgers team that wound up losing to the Astros in the World Series. Grandal went 0-for-8 in the three rounds of the postseason.

Roberts tried to paint the switch this year as a positive, noting that Grandal, whose bat carries greater offensive potential, is valuable off the bench to hit in the later innings.

But that doesn’t change the bottom line: In the most important games of the year — two years in a row — the Dodgers have preferred to use Barnes, a 28-year-old part-time second baseman who has never had a starting catching job for a prolonged stretch, over Grandal, who will turn 30 next month, was an All-Star in 2015 and is considered the top free-agent catcher this winter.

How playoff benchings affect the baseball world’s perception of Grandal as a franchise catcher is a story for another day. For now, the Dodgers will roll with Barnes, who has a fan in closer Kenley Jansen.

“I like the way his season goes,” Jansen said. “Like, he has a tough time offensively, but he kind of really stayed focused and goes out there and knows the whole pitching staff and knows me well to the situation that day, how we’re going to face the hitters, how we’re going to go about it.

“So he had a pretty good idea about that, and that’s the kind of guy you want back there to kind of separate those things.”