The 2020 Flowers
The Braves are paying Tyler Flowers $4 million to share time behind the plate with Travis d’Arnaud, who broke out with the Rays in 2019.
The Braves will have $12 million invested in their two catchers in 2020. Between Flowers’ above-average bat (at the catcher position) and his stellar defense combined with the middle-of-the-order bat Travis d’Arnaud proved to be for the 96-win Rays last season, there’s a good chance the Braves’ backstops could end up tops in the MLB in WAR in 2020.
We can expect more veteran leadership from behind the plate. We can expect great defense, despite a few passed balls. We’ll go ahead and address the elephant in the room now. Tyler Flowers led the league with sixteen passed balls last season.
To put that in perspective, Brian McCann finished with seven passed balls. If the only knock on the guy is he allowed nine more passed balls than his counterpart last season, then I think we can take the bad with the great.
We’d like to see those passed balls decrease, but if it’s a part of what makes him great at his game then we’ll have to deal with it every now and then.
Over the past four seasons, Flowers has been an above-average hitting catcher for the Braves and has been one of the best defensive catchers on the planet.
To have a player like this as our number-two catcher is an insane luxury. It’s the type of luxury and depth you see on a World Series-caliber team.
The guy grew up in Cobb County and finds himself playing the best professional baseball of his life in Cobb County. He’s a player we should all continue support. He’s brought a lot to the Braves already and we should expect more of the same from the reliable, hometown-player.
Plus… he has awesome glasses!
Are you as excited as I am to watch Tyler Flowers frame pitches in 2020!?!