The run-up to the 2017 season was glorious in a multitude of ways for Braves center fielder Ender Inciarte.
“The best four months of my life, maybe,” he said, weighing the new contract he signed with the Braves, an accolade-rich winter, the invite to play for Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic.
And a killer vacation in Spain, where yet another highlight greeted him. A big soccer-phile, Inciarte met the various international stars from Real Madrid, collecting signed jerseys like any gaga fan. But in this case, the admiration flowed both ways.
Upon meeting former French star Zinedine Zidane, now the Real Madrid manager, Inciarte was taken aback when, as he recalled, “The first thing he said was, ‘Congratulations on getting that Gold Glove.’
“And I was like how did this guy even know?”
Word is getting around on the good work the 26-year-old Inciarte is performing, even for a victory-challenged outfit like the Braves. When he arrived a season ago in the practically felonious trade with Arizona that also included Dansby Swanson and Aaron Blair for Shelby Miller, some had their suspicions he was pretty good afield.
“I knew exactly what he was capable of doing,” Braves right fielder Nick Markakis said. “He’s just a fast little (expletive), and he gets good jumps. He gets to the ball and he catches it.”
On the other corner of the infield, Matt Kemp was a midseason Braves addition who came to appreciate his new center fielder’s range quite quickly.
When he reported this spring, Kemp chose to answer any doubts about his defensive deficiencies with a small smile and a quip: “I got Inciarte on my left, so he can go get everything.”
“I was amazed by his outfield play last year. I knew he was really good when he was with the Diamondbacks and we played against him. Last year he really showed how great of a center fielder he is. I was going to be mad if he didn’t win that Gold Glove,” Kemp added.
Inciarte’s ability at the plate was a bit more gradual in showing itself. Hampered by a hamstring injury out of the gate, Inciarte hit only .227 in the season’s first half, not exactly leadoff-man stuff. But come the second half, he was practically wearing grooves into the base paths (hitting .341 with a .396 on base percentage).
Again, Markakis, who perhaps should consider a post-playing career as an agent or public-relations rep:
“You look at his track record (he’s a .292 hitter over three major league seasons). It’s a long season. It’s now how you start, it’s how you finish up. He finished up pretty damn good.
“If there’s anything in this game that’s good to have it’s a good track record. I think you’re going to get that from him year in and year out. Braves fans and this organization should be excited to have a player like that.”
Above it all the Gold Glove served as the centerpiece to Inciarte’s first season with the Braves.
Upon learning that he had won it, Inciarte could not help thinking immediately to his late father, one of Maracaibo’s leading Braves fans who preferred to stress the lesser appreciated craft of defense as much as, if not more, than hitting. When you grow up, you want to be like Jim Edmunds or Steve Finley or this Andruw Jones fellow in Atlanta, his father told him. Some of Astolfo Inciarte’s favorites were those who chased fly balls like a predator does prey (and those three, for instance, combined for 23 Gold Gloves).
“My father was the one who encouraged me to put a lot of time in my defensive work. He always said you’re not going to be so good until you win your first Gold Glove,” Inciarte said.
“Winning that Gold Glove, playing at this high level that I hopefully want to do for a long time — it’s really special to me. Once they told me the news it took me like two weeks to actually realize I had won a Gold Glove. For me it’s as big as it can be. It’s not the only one that I want — of course I want more — but the first one is going to be the most special.”
In his case, that trophy reflects some of his more powerful childhood memories. In the daily ritual of father pitching batting practice to his two sons, it was only natural that the older sibling — his brother, also named Astolfo, is three years Ender’s senior — got the majority of at-bats.
“I was always shagging his fly balls,” Ender said. “And my dad was like, hey, you got to catch everything. It was like that every day. My brother hit, and I had to catch every fly ball. I think that helped me a lot.
“(The senior Astolfo) could give me a look — you can’t drop that, you got to have it. He was not hard on me. He was always encouraging me to have fun. But when having fun, trying to do things the right way. If you don’t catch the ball you’re not doing the right thing. Even now during batting practice, if I drop a ball I’m mad. If it happens in BP, it can happen in the game.”
The practice and the focus has paid off. Nothing is certain during the Braves’ reconstruction, but the team demonstrated a commitment to Inciarte by extending his contract by five years and $30 million.
“It was a priority for both sides. Ender wanted to be here, and we really wanted him to be here,” Braves GM John Coppolella said. “I think the happiest people in the world were our pitchers because they’ve got a Gold Glove center fielder they know is locked in for a long time. If I were a young arm with the Braves and I know he was going to be in center field for the next six years, I’m feeling pretty good about that.”
For his part, Inciarte renewed his commitment to the Braves by not returning to Venezuela for the first time during the offseason. It wasn’t, he said, solely because of the upheaval in his country, but rather it was “mostly because I wanted to work out a lot more this year.”
“I wanted to eat better and work out good,” he said. “I know I have an extension, but I don’t want to be playing for only five more years. I want to play for more than that. The only way I can do that is if I stay healthy and stay young.”
For as long as possible, he wishes to remain that 10-year-old boy who dare not let a fly ball find the grass.
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