Russell Martin ($82 million) and other catchers who don't play much.

Russell Martin May 3, 2013
by Sports Crazy
via Wikimedia Commons

Russell Martin just signed a huge contract with the Toronto Blue Jays: five years, $82 million.  Unfortunately for Toronto, they were so busy looking at Martin's ability to deceive umpires into thinking balls are strikes (pitch framing) that they did not notice that Martin had only 460 plate appearances (PA), embarrassingly short of the meager 502 PA needed to qualify for leading in an average stat like batting average.  Martin started only 106 games at catcher.  I think the Blue Jays are out of their minds.  Martin cannot frame any pitches from the bench where he's increasingly likely to be as he enters his age 32 season.

Framing pitches by catchers: doesn't that mean there's a serious problem with calling balls and strikes?  Wednesday, April 30, 2014

In creating a list of 2014 catchers I used only 400 PA as the criteria, rather than 502, to include Martin and other catchers who struggle to play much.  Here they are sorted by OPS+ and including their WAR:

Rk	Player	OPS+	WAR/pos	PA	Year	Age	Tm	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	SH	SF	GDP	SB	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	Pos
1	Devin Mesoraco	149	4.8	440	2014	26	CIN	NL	114	384	54	105	25	0	25	80	41	4	103	12	0	3	5	1	3	.273	.359	.534	.893	*2/HD
2	Buster Posey	143	5.2	605	2014	27	SFG	NL	147	547	72	170	28	2	22	89	47	5	69	3	0	8	16	0	1	.311	.364	.490	.854	*23/HD
3	Russell Martin	136	5.5	460	2014	31	PIT	NL	111	379	45	110	20	0	11	67	59	5	78	15	2	5	16	4	4	.290	.402	.430	.832	*2/HD
4	Jonathan Lucroy	132	6.7	655	2014	28	MIL	NL	153	585	73	176	53	2	13	69	66	3	71	2	0	2	13	4	4	.301	.373	.465	.837	*23/HD
5	Evan Gattis	125	2.2	401	2014	27	ATL	NL	108	369	41	97	17	1	22	52	22	3	97	8	0	2	9	0	0	.263	.317	.493	.810	*2H/D
6	Yan Gomes	122	4.4	518	2014	26	CLE	AL	135	485	61	135	25	3	21	74	24	3	120	3	0	6	13	0	0	.278	.313	.472	.785	*2/DH
7	Derek Norris	118	3.0	442	2014	25	OAK	AL	127	385	46	104	19	1	10	55	54	2	86	1	1	1	12	2	2	.270	.361	.403	.763	*2HD
8	Yasmani Grandal	112	1.2	443	2014	25	SDP	NL	128	377	47	85	19	1	15	49	58	1	115	2	0	6	7	3	0	.225	.327	.401	.728	*23H/D
9	Travis d'Arnaud	105	0.3	421	2014	25	NYM	NL	108	385	48	93	22	3	13	41	32	5	64	2	1	1	15	1	0	.242	.302	.416	.718	*2/HD
10	Kurt Suzuki	105	2.2	503	2014	30	MIN	AL	131	452	37	130	34	0	3	61	34	0	46	9	1	7	9	0	1	.288	.345	.383	.727	*2H/D
11	Carlos Ruiz	102	3.2	445	2014	35	PHI	NL	110	381	43	96	25	1	6	31	46	1	60	12	1	5	11	4	2	.252	.347	.370	.717	*2/H
12	Yadier Molina	101	2.4	445	2014	31	STL	NL	110	404	40	114	21	0	7	38	28	4	55	6	1	6	14	1	1	.282	.333	.386	.719	*2/DH3
13	Dioner Navarro	100	2.3	520	2014	30	TOR	AL	139	481	40	132	22	0	12	69	32	1	76	1	0	6	12	3	0	.274	.317	.395	.712	*2DH
14	Tyler Flowers	95	2.3	442	2014	28	CHW	AL	127	407	42	98	16	1	15	50	25	0	159	8	1	1	10	0	1	.241	.297	.396	.693	*2/H
15	Miguel Montero	95	0.7	560	2014	30	ARI	NL	136	489	40	119	23	0	13	72	56	11	97	9	0	6	12	0	4	.243	.329	.370	.699	*2/HD
16	Brian McCann	93	1.8	538	2014	30	NYY	AL	140	495	57	115	15	1	23	75	32	1	77	7	0	4	16	0	0	.232	.286	.406	.692	*23HD
17	Alex Avila	91	2.0	457	2014	27	DET	AL	124	390	44	85	22	0	11	47	61	1	151	3	1	2	6	0	3	.218	.327	.359	.686	*2/HD3
18	Salvador Perez	90	3.3	606	2014	24	KCR	AL	150	578	57	150	28	2	17	70	22	2	85	3	0	3	22	1	0	.260	.289	.403	.692	*2/DH
19	Welington Castillo	89	1.8	417	2014	27	CHC	NL	110	380	28	90	19	0	13	46	26	0	102	7	2	2	7	0	0	.237	.296	.389	.686	*2/H
20	Mike Zunino	88	0.6	476	2014	23	SEA	AL	131	438	51	87	20	2	22	60	17	1	158	17	0	4	12	0	3	.199	.254	.404	.658	*2/HD
21	Jason Castro	83	1.7	512	2014	27	HOU	AL	126	465	43	103	21	2	14	56	34	1	151	9	1	3	11	1	0	.222	.286	.366	.651	*2D/H

Jonathan Lucroy led the National Conference in WAR.  Martin was second in WAR among catchers.  How did last year's off season five year catcher mega deal do?

Brian McCann: is he worth $17 million for each of the next five years?  Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Among catchers: McCann was 16th in OPS+, 15th in WAR.  McCann is also supposed to be good at pitch framing.  At least McCann stayed pretty healthy: 538 PA, 101 starts at catcher, plus others at first and DH.

In PA nine catchers had at least 502 PA.  NINE among 30 teams.  Lucroy to his credit had the most for a catcher in addition to leading in WAR and being fourth in OPS+.

OPS+: 13 of 21 >= 100

WAR: all positive; 8 of 21 >= 3.0