Let’s Talk About the Colorado Rockies Catchers

Perhaps you’ve missed it, what with all the losing going on with the 16-32 Colorado Rockies, but their catching corps has been quite effective. Take this from Brooks Gate:

Here’s the relevant graphic with the Rockies highlighted where a 1 ranking is the best in MLB and 20 is the worst:

We already know that Ryan McMahon is having a stellar year, so no surprises there. But check out the Rockies catchers. Only the Milwaukee Brewers have been better. (And as someone who drafted William Contreras onto a fantasy team, I absolutely understand why.)

This raises a couple of interesting questions. First, what’s happening with the Rockies catchers, and, second, what might this mean for the future.

How Good Are the Rockies Catchers?

Let’s start with FanGraphs. The Rockies catching tandem of Elias Díaz and Jacob Stallings has been successful on both sides of the plate. With a collective 1.9 fWAR, they are tied for third with the Kansas City Royals. (Ahead of them are the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals.)

When turning to individual stats, Díaz ranks fifth overall (1.4 fWAR) while Stallings is 34th (0.4 fWAR). This is not the best season of Stallings’ career — that was in 2021 — but after two years of negative fWAR, Stallings has risen above league average although Stallings has not seen as many innings as Díaz (159.1 to 254.0).

Now consider their work behind the dish.

First, there’s pitch framing, a metric measured by Baseball Savant. In this, Díaz is second. (Only Jose Trevino has been better.) Stallings comes in at 40th. However, when looking at catcher blocking, Stallings is fourth while Díaz is 42nd. He ranks eighth in Pop Time to Stallings’ 37th. And in Catcher Throwing, Díaz ranks third while Stallings is 48th.

In short, Stallings and Díaz are an effective tandem in all parts of the catching game who do a nice job of balancing out each other.

They have been less effective defensively. Díaz and Stallings have nine DRS (14th), o.5 UZR (17th), and one OAA (16th). Those are fairly average numbers.

Is there a possibility one or both might be dealt at the trade deadline? Díaz’s three-year, $14.5 million contract ends this season as does Stallings’ one-year, $2 million contract with a mutual option for 2025. Although Bud Black would probably be loath to part with an experienced catcher, given that the Rockies have two, moving one seems like a real possibility.

But Then What Happens?

While it gets less attention than the Rockies’ traffics jams at first and in the outfield, the catcher position is becoming a bit crowded, too.

After all, Hunter Goodman came up as a catcher. Although he’s only caught one game for the Rockies — and he did solid work — he could easily move back into that position full time.

Plus, Goodman’s call up has been one of the Rockies’ more confounding moves. He was called up on April 24, but has only appeared in 11 games (36 plate appearances). However, he has made the most of his opportunities, hitting two home runs, two singles, and two doubles. He’s still in small-sample-size territory, but by giving Goodman so little consistent playing time, the Rockies are losing an opportunity to evaluate a promising player.

Should the Rockies move either Díaz or Stallings, Goodman is ready to put on his catcher’s gear.

Then there’s Drew Romo down in Albuquerque. The former first-round draft pick has a staggering 131 wRC+ in Triple-A Albuquerque, including five home runs.

There’s reason to believe we’ll see Romo at Coors Field before the end of the season. Clearly, he’s getting ready to make the move.

Final Thoughts

There’s no reason the Rockies should not be shopping Díaz and Stallings. Both are having solid seasons, and the Rockies have young help waiting in the wings that needs developmental playing time.

Whether that happens remains to be seen.

What I’m Reading

• Michael Rosen’s “What If the Rockies Only Threw Knuckleballs?” (FanGraphs) — Rosen explores whether the knuckleball is perhaps the ideal pitch for the Rockies. His findings — as he admits — are inconclusive.

• Patrick Lyons’ “Cal Quantrill’s Mindset Is Exactly What the Colorado Rockies Need” (Just Baseball) — The Rockies 2024 season hasn’t been all bad, and Quantrill’s pitching has been a clear bright spot. Lyons talked with him about his approach to pitching at Coors Field.

• Daniel R. Epstein’s “The Colorado Rockies Are Bogged Down by Sunk Costs” (Forbes.com) — It’s all those aging veterans. Epstein does the math.

Closing Thoughts

And that’s it for this week.

What began as a triumphant series in San Diego ended in a series of extra-innings bullpen meltdowns in Oakland.

Hopefully when the Rockies get back to Coors Field, they can get back on track. Believe it or not, that winning streak was less than a week ago.

Thanks for reading —

Renee

Rockies Pitch is a newsletter that focuses on Colorado Rockies baseball and tries to tell the stories no one else is.