Who is the best MLB Catcher?, Buster Olney’s top 10
Who are the best in MLB to direct the game behind the dish? Buster Olney presents its Cathers Top 10
The Spring Training of the MLB teams is underway, which means that it is time to analyze the status of baseball. As part of our previous view of the 2025 season, Buster Olney of AM850 Bring your classification series by positions back, in which you surveyed people in the industry to help you classify the 10 best players in each position.
The objective of this exercise is to identify the best players for the 2025 season, not who could be the best in five years or throughout their career. We will present a position per day for the next two weeks. With the catches first and with this calendar to follow: First base (18/2), second base (19/2), third base (20/2), campocortos (21/2), corner gardeners (24/ 2), central gardeners (25/2), designated batters (26/2), opening launches (27/2), relieved (28/2).
Who are the best players of today? Let’s see who appear on the list in each position in AM850+.
Adley Rutschman was the apparent heir of JT Realmuto’s throne as the best receptor of the major leagues, someone who, as a realmuto, would apparently dominate the position during most of a decade. Rutschman was the first general selection of the Baltimore Orioles in the 2019 Draft, stood out at each stop at the minors and when he was promoted to the big leagues in May 2022, his team began to win immediately.
But the second half of last season was an interruption in his reign, with Rutschman really battling in all phases of the game. In 71 games after June 28, he hit .189, with an OBP of .279 and a slugging percentage of .280.
“He began pursuing releases up in the area and really didn’t fit,” said a rival evaluator.
The perception of some members of other teams of other teams is that Rutschman became a bit heavy in the second half and did not move so well behind the dish, with his skills to catch coming to less. As their production declined, sources within the organization of the Orioles acknowledged: it was not injured. This was just a situation of a really talented player who had a bad performance.
It was not the first rising star that went through something like that. Johnny Benchconsidered as the best receiver in general, won the most valuable player in the National League in 1970, and then hit .238 the following season, with a drop in PAHO of 210 points. In a telephone interview, Bench recalled in 1971 and how he had started well: nine home runs in the first 20 games of the Cincinnati Reds. But the team was not playing well and began to have problems; He began to doubt himself on the plate and became reactionary instead of instinctive. After finishing that season with the second lowest average batting of his career, Bench connected 40 homers and towed 125 races the following year on the way to his second MVP.
Bench’s recovery the following season shows that Rutschman could still recover his title as the best baseball catcher today. But will it keep that place in 2025? Let’s take a balance of the position and classify the 10 best receptors of the major.
The 10 best receivers
When the Atlanta Braves changed Contreras to the Brewers, there were never doubts about whether it would hit. It had already been an All-Star as a batter designated with Atlanta in 2022, connecting 20 home runs with a .504 rambling percentage. The great mystery was if it would become useful to the defensive, and that has happened, another example of how a receiver improved working within the Brewers organization. Tampa Bay Rays are known for helping players to improve, Cleveland Guardians are really good in cultivating pitchers and no one can overcome brewers in the development of receptors.
Milwaukee receptors occupy the first place in the big leagues in FWAR since 2008, and their value as a receiver – feast and defensive – has been approximately $ 38 million per season since 2010, according to Fangraphs. Brewers receptors have been particularly good, as a group, at the frame.
The common denominator has been Charlie Greene, who has had different labor titles over the years – currently is coach of the Brewers Bullpen – but has been involved in the development of receptors.
“He taught me everything I know about the receiver’s position,” he said Jonathan LucroyBrewers Catcher for more than six seasons in the 2000s. “It is absolutely the best.”
Lucroy says that Greene believes in doing recipient exercises (which are difficult) so that the game’s action seems easier. “It is really good to analyze videos of what you are doing, working with the referees, the positions of the receptors, the technique of the glove and organizing exercises around that,” added profit.
Contreras is not an elite receiver (he held 35th among 58 receivers in reception races), but it was good enough in his reception work to help the Brewers win the central division of the National League. He also continued to hitting, scoring 99 races and promoting 92 with an OPS+ adjusted 129 last season.
“He began to realize the little things he could do when he received the ball, little things that can make a difference,” said the Brewers manager Pat Murphy About Contreras. “It is hard as a rock and is improving in the control of its emotions. It does not have a cheerful personality, it does not shrink before the pitchers. But he did a good job with many different players and did not want to leave. He is a pit bull.”
2. Adley Rutschman, Baltimore Orioles
The second half of last season of Rutschman cost him the number one position in this ranking. However, even in a year, it had an OPS+ adjusted from 107 in 2024.
There is a lot of curiosity in the rival central offices on how Rutschman will go in 2025.
“It’s too talented not to recover,” said an executive. “One assumes that he will make adjustments. By how the team is, they need to be a force near the top of the lineup.”
Bench has come to know Rutschman a bit, exchanging text messages with the young receiver, and what he noticed was that Rutschman became a hitter of the top of the body in the second half, and that his hands began to do Your swing too late. Bench believes that Rutschman will learn from his 2024 season and recover: “Oh, yes,” he said, with confidence, when questioned.
He had 34 homers and 100 races promoted last season, receiving some MVP votes among the 10 best. Raleigh finished second among all the players in their position in terms of races framed by the receiver, only Patrick Bailey of the Giants had more.
“(Raleigh) has the advantage of working with a great team, which will make you look better,” said a member of the rival team. “But it does a very good job and has a lot of power.”
Among 58 receptors, Smith was the last in terms of framing races (minus 10), and rival evaluators have a list of small things that believe they can do better behind the plate. But Smith is respected for his invariable personality in the game: “He is always under control,” said an evaluator.
And Smith bat. He has had four consecutive seasons of at least 19 home runs and 75 ranked races; Realmuto is the only receiver with more homers since the Smith debut season in 2019.
Díaz is one of the best batting receptors in the elderly, one that can hit in the line of Lineup, and hit .299 last season.
More and more, its offensive production is the priority for the royals with the manager Matt Quatraro Working to keep it in the Lineup every day: Pérez played 158 commitments last season and of them, he was a receiver in 91. Freddy Fermin, the other receiver of the Royals, is highly appreciated by the rival evaluators for his defense.
He will be 34 years old this season, the last of a five -year contract signed in 2021. The rival evaluators love how he directs the game and how he drives the pitchers, but they say that it has become more difficult to get strikes in the part lower of the area.
“That will happen to the receptors as they age,” said a coach.
At the end of its first complete regular season in the big leagues, Wells was among the leaders in the launch framing metric, while carrying the responsibility of hitting behind Aaron Judge in the alignment. He finished third in the vote to the rookie of the year of the American League. There is space to grow.
He won a gold glove last year and is seen as one of the best in the pitching frame. But the giants could benefit from an upward push in their offensive: Bailey had an OPS+ adjusted 82 last year.
Moreno would probably be higher on this list if he had not been off due to injuries during an important part of last season.
Honorary mentions
Iván Herrera, St. Louis Cardinals: It will enter the Top 10 next year, with the change of Willson Contreras to the first base.
Shea Langeliers, Athletics: It comes from a great year of power, with 29 homers.
Alejandro Kirk, Toronto Blue Jays: He is considered a defensive player in improvement.
Francisco Álvarez, New York Mets: It will go up on this list. Rival team members like their production, but believe they need to control their emotions when they work behind the dish.
