[NoOne]

EDIT: a platoon may or may not be worth the effort. L/R split could give a small advantage... but still talking about terrible batters... so a few % better than terrible isn't so important and not much of a gain, typically due to starting with small #s.

"Is there any value in pairing catchers with pitchers in OOTP? This happens a lot in real baseball, but strikes me as something very difficult to model."
--pretty sure that is not in the game. catcher ability does influence pitchers -- it must be incredibly small factor from my experience. i've had bad and good years with good and bad catchers... it's so weakly correlated i wouldn't worry too much beyond common sense... ie don't employ a catcher wtih 10/100 ability.

keep the cheaper one with ~equivalent ability, because there's very little differentiation between most catchers.

few catchers are actually "good" beyond playing their position. a "good" catcher is typically barely average and batting 7-8-9 in order on any playoff team. on top of that they are only playing 3/4ths to 4/5ths of the season... .75 of a normal batter factored into anything they do well.

i wouldn't spend 10-20m on 2 crap players -- 80-90% of catchers are crap batters in any 800+ RS offense, or a ~playoff-caliber offense. so it depends on cost. even 5-10m sitting on bench 50% of the time is a gigantic waste with 2 starters sharing and could exceed waste of just 1 overpaid catcher. you can gain more wins be investing that capital elsewhere with a greater return per dollar. an extra 5m spent at any other position will net a greater increase in wins -- on average, infinite sample.

i rarely spend big money on a catcher unless they are obviously a step above the rest. usualyl 1-2 of these types in league and any time in a fictional league.. .sometimes more, somtimes only ~1. even more rare is an offfesnive bat that can not only hit home runs but consistently bat for a decent BA each year, instead of crossing your fingers and hoping.

a weak (~10hr or less average over 130gs) catcher with high BA can give you 80runs/80rbi most years. add a few hr and deduct 20-30pts off BA nd you get the same results, but more likely clumpy. a higher BA essentialyl hedges things a bit as far as RS in any given year (reduces volatility of results).

either way, i'm not spending 10+M on some jobber given me ~80rs ~80rbi and only playing 130g. take the cheap defensive guy or the cheap guy with ~80 contact with no power... the money you saved and spend elsewhere will more than make up for the 5-10 lost RS/RBI. don't pay millions for a player that's only slightly better than average and due to position causes high demand and exorbitant costs for return.

you have to have a catcher... compare what you gain or lose and you'll quickly see that the 'loss' is smaller than other positions with similar cost differences... so, obviously you take the net positive and go cheap on the positions with weak talent.

every context is different.

what's opportunity cost?

what are you getting at various costs and how they compare to each other... paying too much for a menial increase? probably not the best path to take.