3 Most Underrated Players At Each Position — Catchers
There’s no question that JT Realmuto is the best all around catcher in baseball. At the plate, behind the plate, even running the bases, JT Realmuto is a true 5 tool catcher. The 3 guys on this list, aren’t JT Realmuto. They are, however, very good at their jobs but are frequently overlooked due to the team they play on. Let’s jump right in to today’s list.
3. Will Smith
Get Cody Bellinger’s name out your- oh wait. Sorry, wrong list. Leading off today’s list will be a guy overlooked because, frankly, the rest of his team is comprised of multiple MVP candidates. Will Smith is not a guy to take lightly, however. Having a career line of .261/.363/.522 with 49 homeruns and a 135 OPS+ over 868 plate appearances and 230 games, Smith is a guy that can provide solid on base numbers and some pop in the late middle of the powerful Dodgers lineup.
Behind the plate, Smith has only committed 6 errors over 1,755.1 innings of catching and has a fielding percentage of .997. He doesn’t have the best arm for a catcher as his career caught stealing percentage is below league average over his career (24% to 25% respectively), but you can stick him behind the plate and feel comfortable that he will block any curve balls in the dirt. Will Smith still has a few more years before the Dodgers’ lineup clears up for him to be the guy, and until then, he will most likely be wrongfully overlooked.
2. Omar Narvaez
From a guy overlooked because of being a part of a stacked lineup to a guy overlooked because he doesn’t put up gaudy power numbers, Omar Narvaez is the next person to make our list today. With a career line of .267/.351/.399 with 48 homeruns and a 105 OPS+ over 1,817 plate appearances and 524 games, Narvaez can get on base at a good clip despite not putting the ball over the wall as much as teams (and fans) like to see in this generation of baseball.
Narvaez walks at a higher clip than league average and strikes out at a rate below league average, so he would fit nicely in any lineup as he is usually putting the ball in play when he comes to bat. A below average defender behind the plate, Narvaez doesn’t have the glove or the arm that the top tier catchers do, but he can stand toe-to-toe with any of them with his bat to ball skills.
1. Tyler Stephenson
Finally, a guy that’s often overlooked not only because of his brevity in the league, but also because of the team he plays for not getting as much national attention as others, Tyler Stephenson. Stephenson debuted for the Reds in 2020 and was their primary catcher in 2021, finishing 6th in NL RotY voting with a line of .286/.366/.431 with 10 homeruns and a 104 OPS+ over 402 plate appearances and 132 games.
Stephenson, like Narvaez, has a better walk rate than league average and strikes out less than league average. Stephenson will also give you more gap-to-gap power and a better glove behind the plate as he has yet to commit an error as a catcher over 685 innings. Stephenson is a guy that won’t be overlooked much longer and will soon be in the conversation for best catchers in the game with the likes of Realmuto, Yasmani Grandal, and Salvador Perez.
3 catchers very much alike, but also very different. All of them, however, deserve more national attention and recognition than they currently receive. This has been the second part of our series in which we go position by position and point out the 3 most underrated guys at each. Check out the first part we did on starting pitchers! Let me know who you think is underrated and deserves more national attention on Twitter @TroyBrock1993. Next up will be first base!
