Atlanta Braves vs. NL East position by position 2020 Preview: Catcher

We begin our position by position preview of the Atlanta Braves and the NL East by taking a look at the catcher position in 2020.

For years now the Atlanta Braves have put together a very solid combination of catchers behind the plate and let them split the duties.

It’s worked out really well for them, but they may be moving towards a more traditional catching tandem in the future with one player getting most of the reps and the other serving as the back-up.

Last year the Braves catching duo of Tyler Flowers and Brian McCann combined for 3.2 WAR, which ranked ninth-best in all of baseball.

Most of that came from their defense as they ranked third in all of baseball by FanGraphs’ defensive rating.

Offensively, Braves’ catches were pretty bad last year combining to hit just .236/.311/.377.

Still, they ranked 12th in baseball with a solid wRC+ of 88. But that was tied for last among NL East teams as the Nationals and Mets’ catchers also had a wRC+ of 88.

The Phillies, as you might imagine, led the NL East with a wRC+ of 99, which ranked sixth-best in all of baseball.

Surprisingly, the Marlins ranked eighth in baseball with a wRC+ of 96 from their catchers.

Going back to WAR, the Phillies ranked second in baseball with 5.8 WAR from their catchers. They and the Braves were the only NL East teams ranked in the top 15.

The Marlins came in at 18 with 1.3 WAR, the Nationals were right behind them at 1.1 WAR, and the Mets were 21st at 0.8 WAR.

Overall, there was some pretty solid catching in the NL East in 2019, but it certainly wasn’t as good as it could have been.