What!!!!!!!?

Jose Trevino remembers suiting up, squatting down, and catching for the first time at Oral Roberts University.

He had just come off a first-team freshman All-American campaign as a third baseman in 2013 when the Golden Eagles decided he would move behind the plate. Trevino had only caught sparingly in high school, but he did as he was told and set up to receive pitches from the program’s pitching machine — a test of sorts. He swears it immediately launched 100-mile-per-hour fastballs at his untested mitt. All the while, members of the Oral Roberts coaching staff repeated a mantra.

“All they kept saying was: ‘Catch it. Make it look easy!’” Trevino recalled, laughing. “I’m thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’m built for that.’ Those days were tough.”

That, believe it or not, is the unlikely origin story of an unlikely All-Star catcher. Trevino is one of six Yankees who were selected to the Midsummer Classic, which will be played on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. Trevino is considered an elite defensive backstop, and the numbers back that up: No catcher has been a better pitch-framer this season, per Baseball Savant’s catcher framing runs and strike rate statistics.

Trevino didn’t envision such a future behind the plate when he first tried the position, but his coaches knew better. Ryan Folmar, a longtime Oral Roberts assistant and the university’s head coach since 2013, first imagined Trevino catching when the two met at a camp for high school recruits.

Jose Trevino remembers suiting up, squatting down, and catching for the first time at Oral Roberts University.

He had just come off a first-team freshman All-American campaign as a third baseman in 2013 when the Golden Eagles decided he would move behind the plate. Trevino had only caught sparingly in high school, but he did as he was told and set up to receive pitches from the program’s pitching machine — a test of sorts. He swears it immediately launched 100-mile-per-hour fastballs at his untested mitt. All the while, members of the Oral Roberts coaching staff repeated a mantra.

“All they kept saying was: ‘Catch it. Make it look easy!’” Trevino recalled, laughing. “I’m thinking, ‘I don’t know if I’m built for that.’ Those days were tough.”

That, believe it or not, is the unlikely origin story of an unlikely All-Star catcher. Trevino is one of six Yankees who were selected to the Midsummer Classic, which will be played on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium. Trevino is considered an elite defensive backstop, and the numbers back that up: No catcher has been a better pitch-framer this season, per Baseball Savant’s catcher framing runs and strike rate statistics.

Trevino didn’t envision such a future behind the plate when he first tried the position, but his coaches knew better. Ryan Folmar, a longtime Oral Roberts assistant and the university’s head coach since 2013, first imagined Trevino catching when the two met at a camp for high school recruits.

Right away, I thought: ‘Man, this guy’s a catcher. This guy, I can see transitioning to being behind the plate at some point,’” Folmar said. “We knew that transition was going to be easy because he was such a good baseball player.

“He had all the intangible stuff, leadership qualities and toughness, everything that needs to come with that position. And then the physical part as well. So it all just kind of lined up, it all just kind of fit.”