Miami Marlins Always Allergic To Their All-Star Catchers

The Miami Marlins just sent the game’s best catcher to a division rival. That has happened way more often than you would likely expect.

The baseball world was finally shaken from its offseason torpor last Thursday afternoon, as the Miami Marlins dealt their franchise player to the division rival Philadelphia Phillies. That the Marlins saw fit to unload the All-Star catcher for prospects likely comes as little surprise.

What might come as a surprise though is that this is actually the fourth time the Miami Marlins have unloaded an All-Star catcher in his prime, and the third time said All-Star catcher has been flipped to a division rival.

That’s really quite staggering when you stop and think about it. Consider for a moment just what it was that made J.T. Realmuto so valuable this offseason. Catcher has always been a talent sparse position, at least in terms of offense. It’s the one spot in the lineup where the real word and fantasy sports really overlaps. Ten teams tops generally feel alright about their catcher, while the other two-thirds are just crossing their fingers. Realmuto held a top-ranked WAR of 4.8 in 2018; only one other backstop came within 1.2 of that score.

Since the Miami Marlins came into the league in 1993, fifty-three total catchers have made the All-Star Game.  Eight have played for Miami. That’s over fifteen percent. Four of those Marlins backstops are among the twenty-four catchers that have made the ASG multiple times. Finally, when you just go by NL catchers, the Marlins have benefited from the services of over twenty percent of the field.

And that’s not even counting the fun bonus fact that a ninth ASG catcher-Joe Girardi– went on to win Manger of the Year for the Miami Marlins in 2006. Bottom-line, Miami has come to expect a pretty high standard from their backstops for an organization that has only had six winning seasons in their history.

However, despite having had all that talent at such a thin position, the Marlins have officially extended one of those catchers exactly once. One year later, he was traded-as mentioned above, to a division rival.

Now to be fair, since the first time one of these catchers made an All-Star Game as a Marlin, the Fish have celebrated two World Series titles. That’s one more than the entire NL East combined. So the argument exists the policy hasn’t exactly hurt them.

At the end of the day though, six winning seasons out of twenty-six speaks volumes. Especially when you consider that only two of those were achieved without the services of an elite catcher (technically, only one).

So, who else besides Realmuto have the Marlins decided they didn’t need to hold on to? Time to take a stroll down memory lane.