MLB: AL Sabermetric All-Stars
By Jim Turvey
Catcher: Brian McCann (Houston Astros)
The backstop position in the American League has been a bit of a disaster this season. The two leaders atop the FanGraphs’ WAR leaderboard are Alex Avila and Welington Castillo, a pair of catchers who have both failed to crack the 100 plate appearance plateau yet this season. Both of those two have also rated below average in terms of pitch framing in 2017, with Alex Avila being particularly detrimental behind the dish, ranking 65th among 76 catchers behind the plate in pitch framing this season, per Baseball Prospectus. Salvador Perez has 11 home runs and is hitting .280, but his on-base percentage is just .321 and he is somehow even worse than Avila when it comes to pitch framing, ranking 70th of the aforementioned 76 backstops in 2017.
McCann and Yan Gomes were the only two AL catchers who have both hit well and done well defensively behind the plate in 2017. McCann has been slightly better from the hitting side of things, and since those metrics are a bit more reliable at this point in time, he gets the nod. McCann has played 30 games this season and been worth just under a win for the first-place Astros. He’s one of only five hitters with at least 100 plate appearances to have as many walks as strikeouts, and he’s the only one in that group to be a catcher. He has been above-average in all defensive metrics available and only Perez has a better wRC+ with as many plate appearances among catchers.