Miami's Inability to Develop Catchers Defies Explanation

With one notable exception, the Miami Marlins have not had a lot of luck with catchers

Philadelphia Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto celebrates on 2nd base after a double against the Miami Marlins - drafted by Miami, he was traded to Philadelphia after the 2018 season. / Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

The Miami Marlins haven’t been particularly lucky when it comes to catchers. 

It didn’t used to be this way. 

The Marlins took J.T. Realmuto in the 3rd round of the 2010 MLB Draft out of Carl Albert HS in Oklahoma and got him to the majors by 2014, where he blossomed into one of baseball’s best backstops. From 2014-2018, Realmuto batted .279/.327/.442 with 59 homers, 255 runs scored, and 243 RBIs. He was an All-Star and Silver Slugger in 2018 after batting .277/.340/.484 with 21 homers, 74 runs, & 74 RBIs.

Oh, and he was also one of the best defenders in baseball behind the plate, putting up over a 30% caught stealing and being one of the league leaders in defensive WAR and fielding percentage. 

So naturally, Miami traded Realmuto away, sending him to the Philadelphia Phillies for catcher Jorge Alfaro, pitcher Sixto Sánchez, LHP Will Stewart (who is out of the league), and international bonus pool money. 

Philadelphia promptly watched Realmuto put up a 10th-place finish in the NL MVP race in 2019 before eventually signing him to a five-year, $115.5M contract. 

Meanwhile, back in Miami, the Marlins have been stuck in the wilderness at the catcher position ever since. 

Seven different players have played more than 25 games behind the dish for Miami since 2019, with only one of them having an OPS+ within fifteen points of league average. (Bryan Holaday in 2019). Fifteen total players have started at least one game at catcher since 2019, and none of them were considered to be good players. 

And for some reason, when catchers leave Miami, they seem flourish in their new cities. The most recent example is Jacob Stallings. Traded from the Pittsburgh Pirates to Miami in November of 2021, the veteran was coming off a Gold Glove year and was expected to provide a level of competence that Miami hasn’t had since the Realmuto trade. 

But despite having batted .254 during his time in Pittsburgh, Stallings’ two years in Miami saw him put up only a .210/.287/.290 line with seven homers in 202 career games for the Marlins. 

Miami let him walk in free agency at the end of last season, replacing him with a trade for Tampa Bay Rays catcher Christian Bethancourt. Stallings instead signed with the Colorado Rockies. 

He’s flourishing in Denver. 

Stallings is batting .351/.419/.568 in his age-34 campaign with the Rockies. Yes it’s early, but he’s already showing offensive improvements across the board, with his barrel rate (12.1%) more than doubled and his strikeout rate (11.6%) more than cut in half. 

Another stop on the Jacob Stallings Revenge Tour 🤘 pic.twitter.com/PdgmRCyWwt

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) May 5, 2024

And while loanDepot Park is a pitcher’s park and Coors Field is an offensively-advantageous environment, he’s actually doing most of his damage on the road, batting .435 with a 1.258 OPS away from Coors. 

Meanwhile, Bethancourt is batting .070, going just 3-43 with one extra-base hit, a double, and nine strikeouts in 4 at-bats. 

Drafting catchers hasn’t led to better results for Miami. Incumbent starter Nick Fortes was one of Miami’s attempts to prepare for life after Realmuto, being a 4th round pick out of Ole Miss in 2018. Debuting in 2021, he’s a lifetime .211 hitter who is batting just .141 this season (9-64). Blake Anderson was taken with the 36th pick of 2014’s MLB Draft, just to bat .174 across parts of four seasons in the lower minors and was out of baseball after 2018. Going back farther, Miami took Kyle Skipworth at #6 overall in 2008 and he made exactly four plate appearances for the Marlins at the major league level, all coming in 2013. (He went 0-3 with a walk and strikeout). 

Joe Mack, a former 1st-round pick (#31 overall) in the 2021 MLB Draft, is now ranked just 28th in the Marlins system by Baseball America and 26th by MLB Pipeline.

Maybe this will change under the new regime of Peter Bendix. Maybe some more talented prospects will help - Baseball America has the Marlins taking the #1 college catcher on the board, Cal’s Jacob Lomavita, in their latest mock draft. Maybe his natural talent, combined with whatever player development changes Bendix is implementing, will be enough to overcome whatever issue this organization has with finding and developing catchers into productive major leaguers.