Quote:
Originally Posted by Mancandy
Yeah, all I ever really look at with catchers is their defensive ratings. The only thing I care about offensively is making sure I move them to a different position if they’re great hitters. It’s wild to me that MLB teams keep guys like Joe Mauer and Buster Posey at catcher.
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A catcher's value to the team defensively is imho much harder to quantify than any other position player since there is a lot of intangibles (prefenrence of catcher from pitcher, in-game pitch choices, handling of pitchers emotions, framing, etc.), hence why some teams maybe have not gotten on board with the program. There's also the fact that the catcher doesn't play as much as other position players and the position is very physically demanding and takes it toll. A team might be willing to field a poor defensive catcher if it means giving him 45-60 starts a year, but wouldn't give a SS or CF the same leeway since they would be expected to play more games.
As you pointed out, a decent catcher that has a great bat can also be converted to another position later on, especially dh, which might explan why teams are willing to put up with guys who aren't great at game calling while they can still play the position and then later convert them once their body/ability can't follow.