5. Yadier Molina, St. Louis Cardinals
On the surface, Yadier Molina‘s offensive numbers look fairly pedestrian: .264 batting average, 20 doubles, 20 home runs, and a .750 OPS.
However, it’s important to remember that Molina suffered a serious testicular injury in May that required emergency surgery and kept him out most of that month and much of June. Obviously, coming back from an injury and surgery like that would have an effect on a player’s performance.
It takes a toll and it showed. As the season wore on Molina’s performance declined. After the All-Star break, the Cardinals catcher slashed just .249/.313/.397 with just seven home runs.
Even with the pedestrian offensive numbers, Molina is ranked in the top five because of his work with handling the Cardinals pitching staff. In 2018 the Cardinals were 5th in MLB with a 3.52 starter’s ERA. This despite 11 different pitchers making at least one start.
Of those eleven pitchers, three were rookies, one was Miles Mikolas (who had just come from Japan) and one was John Gant, who had 7 career starts prior to 2018.
Molina’s ability to guide a pitching staff (even one as tumultuous as the 2018 Cardinals) and his likely return to full health and better hitting in 2019 is why he clocks in at #5.
4. Wilson Ramos, New York Mets
Wilson Ramos has been one of the best offensive catchers in baseball for years. In 2018 he earned his second All-Star nod, hitting .306 with an OPS of .845 and an OPS+ of 131. The only problem has been that he can’t stay healthy. Since entering the league full time and playing 113 games in 2011, Ramos has played more games than that just twice in his career. He played 111 in 2018.
Ramos is capable of hitting 15 home runs and driving in 70 runs in just 111 games, so if he could stay healthy for a full season he could arguably hit 20-25 and drive in 90 or even 100 runs. Of course, that’s a big “if”.
But even with his durability issues, Ramos is still a better hitter than most other catchers in the league, which is why the Mets decided to hand him $19 million dollars over the next two years. The 31-year old still grades as a positive defender according to FanGraphs, too, so after getting sub-par production from their catchers last year (.698 OPS) the Mets will gladly take Ramos and his .845 as they try to re-enter the contenders’ pool.