"When the Yankees traded for Matt Nokes, everyone was well aware of his offensive capabilities. So it was no surprise when Nokes put up impressive offensive numbers as a lethal pinch-hitter and one of the team's best clutch hitters.
'The Yankees have gotten too right-handed in a park where you need left-handers to win,' says General Manager Gene Michael. 'Getting Matt Nokes, with his proven left-handed power, gave us that needed strength against right-handed pitching.'
What the Yankees received as a bonus were defensive skills that far exceeded Nokes' reputation. Sometimes regarded as a weak defensive catcher, he has proven his critics wrong. He's healthy, and thanks to a stint in the off-season instructional league he's steadily improved his defense.
Matt Nokes is now determined to help the Yankees both behind and in front of the plate."
-New York Yankees Official 1991 Yearbook
"Last year Nokes was acquired on June 4 from Detroit in exchange for pitchers Clay Parker and Lance McCullers. At the time of the trade he was hitting .270 (30-for-111) with five doubles, one triple, three home runs and eight RBIs over 44 games. He was 0-for-4 against left-handers and 30-for-107 against right-handers. Of his 44 games, 15 were starts as a catcher and he threw out four of 14 baserunners.
For the Yankees, Nokes hit .238 with eight homers and 32 RBIs in 92 games, and overall in 1990 hit .248 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs in 136 games. He hit his first six home runs for the Yankees in 95 at-bats after hitting three in 111 at-bats for the Tigers.
Matt joined the club on June 5 in Boston and made a start at DH that evening, going 1-for-3. He started out slow, hitting .167 (4-for-24) with no homers with three RBIs in his first nine games, then got hot quickly, hitting .333 (12-for-36) with four home runs and 13 RBIs over the final 13 games of June to finish the month with a .267 average with four home runs and 16 RBIs in 22 games.
His first home run as a Yankee came at the Stadium on June 17 against Toronto off Todd Stottlemyre. His second came on June 21 at Toronto, a three-run pinch-hit blast off Duane Ward, followed on June 23 by another off Stottlemyre and a second pinch-hit shot on June 26 at home off Milwaukee's Chuck Crim.
Nokes remained hot going into the break, going 6-for-19 in the final seven games prior. On July 7 at Minnesota, he started in right field, his first start there since May 26, 1987. At the break he was hitting .278 with five home runs and 18 RBIs over 29 games. In the first six games after the break, he hit .438 (7-for-16) with a homer and three RBIs, reaching a season high batting average of .305 on July 18.
His batting average and output fell off over the rest of the month, with Matt hitting .121 (4-for-33, all singles) with no RBIs over 12 games, dropping his batting average to .258. Overall he hit .250 in July with two homers and five RBIs in 25 games.
Matt had an almost identical August (.250, 3 HR, 5 RBI). He started the month 0-for-9 and then went 3-for-10 in his next three contests. From August 10-26 he hit .143 (5-for-35) with two RBIs over 13 games to drop his average to .241. On August 29 in Baltimore, Nokes hit the first of back-to-back home runs with Maas, his eighth and final homer of the season; Nokes finished the season with 60 homerless at-bats.
He ended the month strong, hitting .389 (7-for-18) with two home runs to raise his batting average to .255. He played 24 games in August (17 starts). His slowest month production was September/October as he hit .173 (9-for-52) with a double and five RBIs. Matt had two hits in his first 21 September at-bats and finished the season going 6-for-31 with three hits in his final nine at-bats.
His overall 1990 batting average of .248 was his lowest for a season since becoming a regular in 1987, but his home runs (11) and RBIs (40) were up from his 1989 totals. His 136 games played for Detroit and New York were the most he has ever played in a major league season.
Nokes hit .308 in day games, .211 in night games and .317 on turf. As a Yankee, he hit .239 with all eight of his homers and 30 of his RBIs against right-handed pitching, .200 with two of his RBIs against lefties. He started 63 games and the Yankees went 26-37: 14-23 with Nokes catching, 1-0 with him in right, 11-14 with him as DH.
In the 37 games he caught, the staff had an ERA of 4.96 (314 IP, 173 ER) and he allowed seven passed balls. He caught 10 of 41 (24%) potential base stealers.
He signed a contract for the 1991 season.
Nokes was selected by the San Francisco Giants out of high school in the 20th round of the June 1981 free agent draft. On October 7, 1985, he was traded with pitchers Dave LaPoint and Eric King to the Detroit Tigers for pitcher Juan Berenguer, catcher Bob Melvin and a player to be named later (pitcher Scott Medvin in December 1985).
Recalled from Nashville in September 1986, Matt had a three-game hitting streak from September 25-28 (6-for-10, .600). He hit his first American League home run on October 5 at Baltimore off Ken Dixon.
In 1987, Matt batted .319 with 20 home runs and 51 RBIs in the first half and was named to the American League All-Star team. He struggled early in the second half (18-for-102, .176) but rebounded strongly in a 19-game stretch from August 26-September 18 (28-for-67, .418). His two-out eighth-inning RBI single off Cleveland's Tom Candiotti was the only Tiger hit in a 2-1 Detroit victory on September 2.
He belted two grand slams: on April 30 off Mike Cook at California and on September 26 off John Cerutti at Toronto. He clubbed two home runs in a game three times: against Texas on May 25, at Boston on June 7 and at Toronto on September 26, a game in which he collected six RBIs.
Nokes became the first Tiger rookie to hit 30 home runs since Rudy York in 1937. He was voted Tiger Rookie of the Year by the Detroit sportswriters.
He was third on the squad with 16 home runs in 1988. He appeared in 122 games, making 103 starts behind the plate. He improved his percentage of throwing out would-be base stealers dramatically, catching 31 of 81 (38%) after nabbing 18 of 71 (20%) in 1987.
Nokes hit two home runs and collected five RBIs in an 11-6 Detroit victory at Boston on April 7. He was 4-for-8 with three homers, four runs and five RBIs in back-to-back wins against Seattle on April 30 and May 1; Nokes single-handedly beat the Mariners, 3-2, on May 1, driving in all three runs and hitting two homers off Mike Moore.
He enjoyed an eight-game hitting streak from June 8-19 (13-for-30, .433) and on June 19 had four hits against Toronto. On August 4 against Boston, he was 3-for-3 with a double, a home run and two RBIs in an 11-6 Tiger victory. Matt batted .320 (32-for-100) from August 18-October 2, raising his batting average from .227 to a season-ending .251.
His 1989 season was interrupted on June 16 when he tore the medial collateral ligament in his left knee in 9th inning home plate collision with California's Chilli Davis. At the time of the injury Matt was among the team leaders with seven homers and 29 RBIs. He returned to action on August 5 after missing 41 games.
Matt had five home runs and 16 RBIs in April. He homered and had four RBIs against Seattle on April 25, and on May 29 stroked his third career grand slam off Eric King at Chicago. He did not homer again until September 22 against Boston. He had two four-hit games, both against Boston, on June 14 at Fenway Park and on September 23 in Detroit.
He injured his right shoulder on August 30 and was limited to designated hitter duty for the rest of the season. He batted .286 in 33 games as a DH. In 51 appearances as a catcher, he threw out 19 of 57 (33%) baserunners.
Matt played baseball and basketball for Patrick Henry High School in San Diego. As a senior, he batted a school-record .429 and was both captain and team MVP. As a junior, he led both the baseball and basketball teams to city titles."
-1991 New York Yankees Information Guide
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