This offseason, I will be releasing a top ten list for each position, beginning with catcher. They'll likely come out of traditional positional order, as I plan on waiting for the rollout of Statcast's "Infield Outs Above Average" and Sports Info Solutions' new PART system DRS update before finalizing my infield lists.

Before we start, I feel it necessary to explain my process a bit. To begin, the idea of “right now” isn’t about what happened most recently, it’s about using data from the past few seasons to predict what should happen in the immediate future. I looked at a plethora of stats while researching this list, but the ones I leaned on most were undoubtedly FanGraphs’ Depth Charts projections, Baseball Savant’s “x stats,” and Baseball Prospectus’ FRAA.

For ease of ranking, I decided to put together rough 2020 projections for these players, including “RC+,” “FR,” and “WAR.” These aren’t stats you can find in any database, but you can think of them as storebrand versions of wRC+/DRC+/OPS+, DRS/UZR/OAA/FRAA, and fWAR/WARP/rWAR/gWAR, respectively. Additionally, the numbers don't represent an actual performance prediction, just an estimate of true talent performance with a standard amount of playing time. With that in mind, let’s begin.

JUST MISSED

The consensus seems to be that catcher is one of the weakest positions in terms of the current talent pool, so I was somewhat surprised to find myself struggling to exclude several players. The standouts among this group included the Rays’ Mike Zunino, free agent Jason Castro, and the Padres’ Austin Hedges. Zunino had a rough 2019 at the plate in a limited sample but still managed to put up good value with his glove. Castro, who performed very well in a platoon role for Minnesota, should be a great option for a number of teams this winter.

Hedges is perhaps the most interesting case. The phrase, “If only he was an average hitter,” is often used to describe defense first guys. In Hedges’ case, the glove is so good that we can drop that to “if only he was a passable hitter.” At this point, it’s hard to imagine the bat ever coming around, but he’s arguably the most valuable defender in the sport at the moment (at least on a rate basis), and considering the fact that Matt Chapman and Andrelton Simmons exist, that’s no easy feat. It hurt to leave him off the list, but the guys below just made it too hard, beginning with…

10. Will Smith - 2.5 WAR, 100 RC+, 0 FR