Walks way up -- does catcher matter

[rink23]

I am playing my 2017 season of the St. Louis Cardinals -- it can be followed in the thread Repairing the Redbirds.
One thing I have noticed through the first 19 games of the season is a drastic increase in walks issued by the pitching staff.
The one thing to note, is I lost catcher Yadier Molina in the second game of the season to an injury he isn't due back for over a month.
This means my catching has been handled by Brayan Pena and a pair of minor league callups, Eric Fryer and Carson Kelly.
In 170 innings, I have walked 84 batters, essentially 4.4 per nine innings easily highest in the league.
In the 2016 season, Molina caught around 120 games and the team averaged 3.1 walks per nine innings, which ranked as sixth fewest in the NL.
Is all of this because of Molina's absence -- Pena is not a good defensive catcher -- and it would not surprise if it was.
But I was wondering if the game figures a catcher's all-around defensive abilities -- calling pitches, framing them, etc. -- into how it formulates out a game.
If that is so, I may go with my minor league catchers, especially Kelly, as my primary backstop until Molina's return.

[bwburke94]

Yadi is definitely making a difference. Catcher pitch framing matters.

[drhay53]

those catcher intangibles are wrapped up in the catcher ability defensive attribute

[Curve Ball Dave]

Originally Posted by bwburke94

Yadi is definitely making a difference. Catcher pitch framing matters.

Framing along with calling a smart game.

[NoOne]

If you did some research online to see what people have deduced what effects that has between a bad catcher and a good one, i'd bet it's something similar to what ootp does... find multiple sources and average it out or get a range of likely opinions.

however, mostly what you are using as evidence, isn't.... yet.

i gaurantee no matter how awesome (250/250) you make your catcher's ability in the editor, you will not see a 133% (3.1 to 4.4) or more increase in walks when you substitute the league's worst catcher for a comparison.

if he is at least 50% of your scale in catcher ability, i wouldn't worry too much about it. if you have a low resolution scale, figure ~10 or less, then you may want 60% of your scale to feel safe that it is at least "average" ability for a catcher.

Catcher ability does make a difference with various aspects of pitching, but nowhere near what you are showing above in your numbers. so, that is mostly caused by other things, not excluding sample error.

As far as your choice between offense/lacking ability and a MiL'er with defense... i'd suggest making that decisions based on your lineups needs... if you don't have a functioning offense, then i'd pick the offensive guy. if you have at least 1-5 of suitable players (not saying all-stars, either), then go with the defensive guy, if there is a concern. Like i said, if they are average, they aren't bad at their jobs... they just aren't yadier molina.