Why is Caballero such a great basestealer? 'He's fearless'

This story was excerpted from Adam Berry's Rays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

TAMPA -- There are plenty of things that make José Caballero one of the game’s biggest threats on the basepaths.

He runs fast and accelerates quickly. He studies opposing pitchers and catchers before games. He picks up on moves and tendencies that might allow him to get a better jump. And there’s one other trait that might be more important than all that.

“The first thing is,” first-base coach Michael Johns said, “he's fearless.”

That is the mindset Caballero carries with him whenever he’s on base, whether he got there himself or was sent into the game as a pinch-runner. He is there to score, and to accomplish that, he needs to do whatever it takes to advance 90 feet.

That fearless mentality allowed Caballero to lead the American League with 44 stolen bases last season. It has him back atop the AL leaderboard this year, as his 25 steals are tied with Oneil Cruz for the Major League lead.

He knows what he’s there to do. The other team understands, too. But why should that stop him?

“They all know that I'm there to run and that I will run. I'm not scared of them. They should be scared of me,” Caballero said recently. “That's pretty much it.”

None of this comes from a selfish place. In fact, it’s just the opposite. On the bases, Caballero adopts the same perspective that’s led him to play six different positions for Tampa Bay this season.

“To be honest, I'm just trying to help the team,” Caballero said. “That’s the only mentality I have. Besides that, I’m just trying to get in the pitcher’s head. It’s been so many close games for us, and sometimes I think we need to get the pitcher to think about something else instead of just throwing strikes and getting us out.

“That’s my way to contribute to the team at this point. Just trying to help the team any way possible.”

He’s done exactly that. Despite offering roughly league-average offensive production with a .239/.333/.358 slash line and a 99 OPS+ entering play on Monday, Caballero ranked fourth on the team with 1.7 WAR. His coaches and teammates believe his impact can be felt beyond his surface-level statistics, too.

“He's created so many runs for us just by his speed,” Johns said. “The other thing he does is he makes pitchers do things they don't want to do. He makes them slide-step, makes them pick, and they really put a focus on him and take the focus off the hitter.”

Sometimes, the results are obvious. Like last Monday night, when he worked a walk, stole second and third, then scored on a sacrifice fly. But manager Kevin Cash pointed to another situation at Fenway Park last Tuesday night. Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito does not often throw over to hold runners, but Boston attempted to back-pick Caballero at first base in the fifth inning before Giolito made an errant attempt to pick him off at second.

“The league and teams know. They’re respecting how talented he is and the impact that he can have on the bases,” Cash said. “And I think Cabby is understanding that he’s going to be treated differently when he gets on base, so he has to be more mindful of his decisions when he’s out there.”

In that regard, Caballero has been better this year than last. For all his success stealing bases last season, he was caught an MLB-leading 16 times. Now, he’s on pace to surpass his stolen-base total from last year, but he’s only been caught stealing five times.

“I think he's done a great job of not trying to force it. Both he and I tried to force some things last year when we probably shouldn't have, and we both kind of learned from it,” Johns said. “There's been times where he's been on green and he hasn't gone. … He's done a great job of shutting it down in those situations. And then the situations where we really need him, he's come up huge.”

Johns said Caballero has the green light nearly every time he’s on base, unless the score is out of hand, putting him in the same category as speedster Chandler Simpson. Caballero said he hasn’t necessarily changed his strategy to be more selective, and there’s no doubt his fearless mindset remains the same.

“Just being really smart, that's helpful, but just trying to be aggressive, like I always am, and stay on the bag and try not to come off or anything like that,” Caballero said. “I think I've been better this year with that.”