MLB Shifting Focus On Catching
There are few catchers in MLB that are two-way threats.
I had the opportunity this week to participate in a conference call with Keith Law of ESPN regarding his top 100 MLB prospect list and MLB organizational rankings. He answered a number of questions, and one of the ones I presented brought about an interesting look at the catching position in baseball.
First, the question and answer that prompted this:
"Q. (…looking around the league, there’s) not an elite prospect at that position. (Then) you look around the majors, there are not a lot of elite catchers on offensive and defensive end. Is that a part of where the game is going or is that just a blip in the radar right now, do you think? Curious on your thoughts at that particular position. KEITH LAW: I think you’re seeing an industry adjustment on what we expect of catchers. Now in the last two years, I am hearing more discussion, even from scouts, who are not necessarily using the data, certainly not drawing (from) the data, discussing receiving and framing in ways that were simply not a discussion five years ago. So what’s happening is the Ryan Doumit(s) of the world, the worst framers ever, they are just not going to catch. They might end up catching in the minors. But they are not going to be considered long term catchers, they are not going to end up high on my rankings because teams will say, he’s a terrible framer. He’s not going to stay back there. The bar has gone up now that we can actually measure this stuff, and what that also means is you’re going to get some really good framers that just don’t hit as much, and teams are going to be happy with that, because they are still getting value. They are just simply not getting the offensive production. And if you look at the three or four catchers on my list this year on the top 100, there’s not much elite offense coming from that position. The guys back there who tend to have the power have often been the bigger guys who turns out are not that great at framing. Wieters being a great example. He’s just a terrible framing catcher and has been one for most of his career and that type of catcher, we just may not see much of him going forward at all."
My focus is frequently on minor league prospects for CTTP, but I’m also a big-time fantasy baseball fan, and the recent induction of Ivan Rodriguez to the Hall of Fame had me thinking back to the 1990s through early 2000s of fantasy baseball where the catching position was one of the more deep positions in the game, and you could have your pick of guys like Rodriguez, Mike Piazza, Javy Lopez, Jason Kendall, Todd Hundley, Mike Stanley, Jorge Posada, Charles Johnson, Chris Hoiles, and many, many more.
The interesting thing was that there were plenty of plodders behind the plate who could just muscle a ball and that was the only reason they were tolerated, but you also had plenty of guys like Rodriguez and Charles Johnson that were elite on both sides. That is extremely rare now, but let’s take a look at just how rare…
In the Majors
To begin with, only eight catchers even qualified for the batting title in 2016. That’s a very normal number, as between eight and 10 have been qualified the last five years.
I lowered the number to those with 300 plate appearances to get more participants in this look. That brought the number to 24 catchers in 2016 that had over 300 plate appearances.
Out of those 24, only eight returned positive numbers in Fangraphs’ offensive runs above replacement number, though only one – Jonathan Lucroy – produced double digits in value.
This was completely shifted defensively, as out of the 24, 21 provided positive defensive runs, and six catchers produced double digits in value, led by Salvador Perez with 14.7.
Of all 24, only Lucroy, Buster Posey, J.T. Realmuto, Wilson Ramos, Yasmani Grandal, and Yadier Molina produced positive value on both offense and defense.
The large number difference in those who were defensive contributors of the 24 versus the offensive contributors is quite telling in the shift, but it should be notable to take a look in the minor leagues as well.
Let’s take a look at some of the top minor league catching prospects…
Next: Minor League Prospects