When Clemson baseball finds itself ranked fifth in the Atlantic Division in the preseason, normally it means there are lots of questions regarding the team and few answers to accompany them. In Monte Lee’s first season at the helm of the Tigers’ program, there are certainly some spaces he feels the need to fill in with three weeks remaining prior to the start of the new campaign.

Catcher is not one of them.

When Lee looks at junior Chris Okey, he sees a lot of things—“a tremendous leader, a tremendous athlete, he receives, he blocks, he throws,” and the list goes on and on. Simply put, Lee sees the total package, a player he feels is the best in the country in his position.

“We feel very good about what we have behind the plate,” Lee said.

Okey brings a wealth of experience to Clemson’s dugout, having played almost every single inning behind the plate a season ago. He has performed well for Team USA and has been honored in some form or fashion following each of his two collegiate seasons.

When he arrived at Clemson in June, one of Lee’s first priorities was to get buy-in from his veteran players. He says he has been pleased with how veterans like Okey warmed to him immediately and have set the tone for the rest of the team. For Okey, it was a new beginning, as well as an opportunity to prove to his new coach that his accolades were more substance than fluff.

“It’s kind of like a new tryout, in a way,” Okey said. “You have to express yourself and try to impress the coaches. I think the process went well.”

Okey is known to fans and observers as a swing-hard force in the middle of the lineup, capable of pounding home runs yet cerebral and disciplined enough to understand how to drive in runs by other means. His greatest value, however, might be his ability to manage a pitching staff behind the plate.

That value increased last season when the previous staff gave Okey the freedom to call his own pitches for much of the second half. The junior says his new pitching coach, Andrew See, prefers to call his own pitches from the dugout. Rather than sulking, Okey sees it as a positive change—especially given his affinity for the way See calls a game—that allows him to focus more on the emotional side of the equation with several young pitchers sure to eat up innings for the Tigers.

“I’m not a huge master of pitching,” Okey said modestly, “but I think I can help with the nerves and keeping them calm and getting them to trust in themselves.

“Whoever they throw out there, we’re all comfortable with. We caught them enough this fall to where we know what they have and what we expect them to throw.”

The pitchers Okey managed last season were studs, destined to enter Major League Baseball’s minor leagues as priority prospects for their respective employers. The slate is clean in 2016, especially in the rotation, and Lee knows he will need to rely on his defense.

Specifically, he will need the experience of Okey and others on defense to help guide the pitching staff toward outs, rather than leaning on the strikeout. He hopes Okey’s reliability is an effective place to start that trickle-down effect.

“We’re going to ask our guys to execute pitches and get weak contact,” Lee said. “If we get weak contact, we have to trust that our defenders are going to make the routine play.”

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