Underrated: Jake Rogers
When the Detroit Tigers completed their shocking mad dash into the playoffs last year, a frantic baseball nation made an overdue check-in on Detroit’s roster and asked “Who are these people?”. The last time the Tigers saw the postseason had been 2014, back when recognizable players like Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Miguel Cabrera graced the front covers of the media guides.
While Scherzer left as a free agent and Cabrera stuck around until he couldn’t hack it anymore, the Tigers got something back when Verlander departed: their catcher of the future, Jake Rogers.
At the plate, Rogers had a rough year in 2024. He slashed .197/.255/.352, good for a 71 wRC+. The power potential he had shown in 2023, when he smacked 21 home runs with a .224 isolated slugging percentage (ISO), seemed to have dissipated. In roughly the same amount of playing time, he managed only 10 homers and a .155 ISO in 2024.
Though he’s unlikely to ever be a great hitter, he was the victim of notable bad luck last year. The negative gap in his weighted on-base average (wOBA) and expected wOBA (xwOBA) was eighth-largest in MLB (minimum 250 PA), while the corresponding gap in his SLG and expected SLG (xSLG) was fifth-largest. Don’t be surprised to see some positive regression in his favor this season.
The biggest reason Rogers is underrated, though, is his superb defense. He was second in framing last year, only trailing framing mastermind Patrick Bailey, and graded above average in most other catching metrics as well. With better luck to come and the chance to guide a young, relatively anonymous core back to the playoffs, Jake Rogers may be a more important catcher this year than most fans realize.