Season in review about nothing: A.J. Ellis, ‘The Pool Guy.’

A.J. Ellis

It took him a couple months to settle into the routine, but A.J. Ellis thrived as the backup catcher to Yasmani Grandal in 2015. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff photographer)

This is Part 12 of a series in which every member of the 2015 Dodgers has his season juxtaposed with an episode of the greatest sitcom of all-time. Don’t take it too seriously.

A.J. Ellis, C.

Key stats: .238 batting average, .355 on-base percentage, .403 slugging percentage in 63 games; 45 percent caught stealing rate (1st in MLB) and below average framing.

Seinfeld episode: “The Pool Guy” (season 7, episode 8).

Key quote: “Hello and welcome to Moviefone. If you know the name of the movie you’d like to see, press one.”

Catcher Yasmani Grandal was one of the first players the Dodgers targeted last winter, Andrew Friedman’s first as president of baseball operations. When Grandal finally arrived in the Matt Kemp trade, there was initially talk of a timeshare situation behind the plate, with no starter and no backup between Grandal and incumbent A.J. Ellis. At least, that was the public talk.

Privately, you have to wonder what the plan was, and how clearly that was communicated to Ellis. Maybe he knew from the outset that he would be the backup catcher, and he simply needed time to adapt. Maybe Ellis and the Dodgers didn’t know how the catching situation would sort itself out until it did.

Regardless, Ellis was two different hitters in 2015. For the first two months, he batted .137 and was even having trouble doing the one thing he’d always done well as a hitter: draw walks. Over the final four months, he had an otherworldly .397 on-base percentage and even found his power stroke — seven home runs and seven doubles in 158 plate appearances, a .492 slugging percentage. To put that in perspective, Kris Bryant, Andrew McCutchen and Albert Pujols all had lower slugging percentages in 2015, albeit in much larger sample sizes.

Part of his Jekyll-and-Hyde performance, Ellis later admitted, was simply part of the process of embracing his new role after being a starter the previous three seasons.

In “The Pool Guy,” Kramer finds himself in a vaguely similar and much funnier scenario. His new phone number is 555-FILK, one digit away from 555-FILM — the “Moviephone” hotline. At first, Kramer resists and resents the constant stream of wrong numbers asking about movie listings.

Gradually, he adapts.

Eventually, he becomes this:

The episode ends with the “real” Moviephone man threatening Kramer for stealing his business.

Grandal shouldn’t feel threatened by Ellis’ performance down the stretch in 2015, though there sure are a lot of “ifs” surrounding the catcher position.

If Grandal, 27, comes back looking like an All-Star following a minor shoulder procedure in October, there’s no reason to think he can’t reprise the starter’s role.

If Ellis, who turns 35 in April, can be the same hitter he was from June to October, the Dodgers would have one of the better backup catchers in baseball.

Then again, if the Dodgers decide to non-tender Ellis before the Dec. 2 deadline, Austin Barnes might become the backup a bit earlier than expected. Barnes, who turns 26 in December, only got a sniff of the majors in 2015, but he swung a strong bat at Triple-A. He’ll come at a much lower cost than Ellis, who made $4.25 million this year — a decent chunk of change for a backup catcher. Ellis is entering his final year of arbitration and could command a raise into the $4.5 to $5 million range.

And if Grandal’s recovery doesn’t prove as smooth as expected, the Dodgers would probably prefer to have Ellis around as insurance.

Clayton Kershaw, for one, would prefer to have him around regardless.

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About J.P. Hoornstra

J.P. Hoornstra covers the Dodgers, Angels and Major League Baseball for the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Torrance Daily Breeze, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News, San Bernardino Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Whittier Daily News and Redlands Daily Facts. Before taking the beat in 2012, J.P. covered the NHL for four years. UCLA gave him a degree once upon a time; when he graduated on schedule, he missed getting Arnold Schwarzenegger's autograph on his diploma by five months.