In June 2014, Jamie Ritchie played four matches for Scotland’s Under-20 at the 2014 IRB Junior World Championship. A rugby flanker for Edinburgh in the PRO14, that Jamie Ritchie will thankfully be one less person blocking the progress of the Houston Astros’ identically-named Jamie Ritchie, whose father actually hails from Scotland.

The Jamie Ritchie enjoying his second major league Spring Training will have his mitts full making a name for himself, as several catchers stand (and occasionally squat) in his way on the Astros’ depth chart.

James Christopher Ritchie

The kilt-less, right-handed Jamie Ritchie was born in South Hadley, Massachusetts, but it didn’t take long for his family to make Georgia home. Ritchie attended Buford High School, less than an hour northeast of Atlanta.

Another catcher, MLB’s #2 overall draft pick last summer, and top-ranked prospect (according to MLB Pipeline) for the San Francisco Giants, Joey Bart, also attended Buford. Ritchie, who caught and played the outfield for the Wolves, has yet to crack Houston’s top 30 prospect list.

Just a few weeks after being drafted by Houston in the 13th round of the 2014 MLB draft, Jayne Hansen of What The Heck Bobby cornered Ritchie while he was getting his pro feet wet at Houston’s Tri-City ValleyCats Class A affiliate.

“I Couldn’t Turn it Down”

He detailed his college trek to Hansen: “I got recruited by [Nashville’s] Belmont University between my junior year and senior year of high school. I had a couple schools looking at me, but the scholarship for Belmont was really good, so I couldn’t turn it down. I really enjoyed Nashville. It was fun times, cool city.

“The baseball team was awesome. It was a great group of guys in the three years I was there. I think my catching has always been pretty consistent. I think in college, it was pretty much the same.

“My hitting, though, freshman year, I didn’t hit very well at all [.203 in 178 plate appearances]. I was pretty bad. But then my sophomore year I improved [.221 in 185 PAs], and [in 2014] I really got a lot of help hitting, and I [hit around] .302 in my junior year. I really enjoyed college, but I’m happy to be here now.”

He finished up at Belmont with a walk total that eclipsed his strikeout numbers, 88-60, while stealing 17 bases in 23 attempts, unusual numbers for a catcher. His 21 doubles and 10 homers in 598 college PAs point to a need for increased power for the 6’2″, 205-pounder.

Pro Progress

Ritchie recounted his draft day experience to Hansen: “I had four or five teams that were interested and the Astros were at the bottom of the list as far as who had talked to me the most. I’d only gotten a [medical] questionnaire from the Astros.

“The Cubs had been the main ones interested. I’d actually had a couple meetings with an area scout there, and I’d talked to Cincinnati and the Mets. I was in Wisconsin the day of the draft playing with the [collegiate summer baseball] Northwoods League.

“I got a call that they were going to draft me in the 10th round, and it ended up that it didn’t work out, but the next day, it was like 20 minutes after the draft started, they told me that they were going to draft me in the next couple rounds. When it finally happened, it was a huge relief.

“I knew that Houston’s minor league system was really good so I was happy to be part of a really good minor league system. It’s an organization where I think you can move up quickly so I’m excited about that. Hopefully, I’ll get the opportunity.”

Ritchie has posted impressive on-base-percentages throughout his career in the Houston organization. For the team’s Advanced-A affiliate in 2016, he had a .389 OBP, a .382 for Double-A Corpus Christi in 2017, and a combined .390 OBP for Corpus and AAA Fresno in 2018, bringing his MiLB career OBP to .406.

For 2018, Ritchie had a .293 combined average, a 121 wRC+ and an 11.0 BB percentage, on 31 walks and 57 Ks. So, while power likely won’t be his MLB calling card, OBP and a consistent contact rate will be.

“I guess that’s something I’ve always been good at is to draw a lot of walks,” Ritchie told Hansen in 2014. “I don’t think I swing at a lot of pitches out of the zone. Sometimes I take a lot of first pitches, maybe more than I should, which sometimes gets you ahead in the count. I think that’s always been one of my strong points is fighting off pitches that are borderline, making the pitcher work as hard as he possibly can so maybe he can’t find the zone and I can draw a walk.”

While scouts agree Ritchie, who turns 26 the second week of April, is a solid receiver, many have noted his arm as average. Last season, he threw out 32% of baserunners (for comparison, AL leaders have never dipped below 40%).

Minding His Ps and Queues

Lined up in front of Ritchie, at the major league level, anyway, are Max Stassi and newly-acquired Robinson Chirinos. Just ahead of Ritchie on Houston’s depth chart is Garrett Stubbs, a left-handed hitter with an attractive speed element to his game who’s also approaching 26. Stubbs spent his entire 2018 at AAA Fresno, logging 84 games to Ritchie’s 25, who began the season with 45 games at Double-A.

Should the Astros opt to carry a third catcher in 2019, odds are it’ll be Stubbs. Should an injury occur in Houston, Stubbs would get the call over Ritchie.

Nipping at Ritchie’s cleats are the 30-year-old Lorenzo Quintana and Chuckie Robinson, 24. Both, like Ritchie, are in camp as non-roster invitees. Quintana spent his 2018 at AA Corpus, while Robinson toiled at Houston’s Advanced-A Carolina League team.

However, manager AJ Hinch left open a door of optimism for Ritchie’s MLB debut this season:

“The playing time will be the biggest puzzle to figure out,” the skipper recently told MLB.com’s Alyson Footer, recapping the team’s catching situation. “But there’s 162 games we’re playing for all those guys. We use four catchers a year, basically. It’s a tough position, and you can never have too much depth there.”