Miami Marlins Always Allergic To Their All-Star Catchers

Everyone Gets One: Charles Johnson To The Dodgers

It all starts with Charles Johnson. First up on the Miami Marlins don’t need a catcher reality tour, and the only one of these deals that didn’t bolster the battery of an NL East rival.

CJ was part of a massive package of 1997 World Champions dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers not long after the above picture was taken. Bobby Bonilla, Jim Eisenreich, and Gary Sheffield joined Johnson in the mass move to Chavez Ravine.

Johnson was the first player drafted in Miami Marlins history, as the expansion franchise got things under way in the 1992 MLB Draft. He was a homegrown success story all the way, born in Ft. Pierce and a star player at the University of Miami. He would only go on to win four consecutive Gold Glove awards, which basically makes him the best catcher of my generation everyone seems to always forget to talk about. He was on the receiving end of two no-hitters, made an All-Star game, and again, won a World Series.

Three seasons later, he actually returned to Miami as a free agent, and earned his second All-Star berth during the 2001 season. One year later, he would be part of another massive package of Marlins shipped out of town in another blockbuster deal.

It’s probably fair to say only two players drafted in the first round of that first Marlins draft went on to have better careers, and one of them currently owns the franchise: both Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon were also first round selections in 1992.

Two other notable Marlins were picked that year as well. Fellow ’97 champion Craig Counsell would be drafted by the other expansion franchise-Colorado- ten rounds later. And eighteen picks before Johnson went in the first, the New York Mets would draft a promising young center fielder the Marlins would be trading for just six years later.

Curiously enough, the Marlins side of that trade would be the player they got when they originally dealt Johnson.