Catcher, with 15 HOFers, is a position that is slightly misrepresented in the Hall of Fame, along with second base and third base.
Looking at the career WAR list, everyone with a WAR of 48 or higher and a WAR7 over 30 is already enshrined except Mauer, who should make it.
Looking down the list, Hall of Famer Roy Campanella sits at 42.0 with Roger Bresnahan a tick above him at 42.1.
Just below that are Jason Kendall (41.7), Darrell Porter (40.8), and Jim Sundberg (40.5). Those guys don't feel like Hall of Famers to me.
So, at least at the moment, 42 WAR "feels" like the area where players above that might be Hall of Fame catchers (in my opinion).
The catchers above 42.0 WAR who aren't in the Hall of Fame:
Wally Schang - 48.0 (lower than 30 WAR7 as referenced above)
Gene Tenace - 46.8
Buster Posey - 44.8
Bill Freehan - 44.8
Jorge Posada - 42.7
Yadier Molina - 42.3
Posey and Molina, who aren't yet eligible for the HOF ballot, are two catchers who have been often spoken of as future Hall of Famers. I don't disagree with that. For the others, are any of them NOT being in the Hall of Fame a travesty? Probably not. Would any of them being IN the Hall of Fame render the place a irrelevant storage unit for old baseball junk? Also no.
Also, there are 4 Hall of Fame catchers with less than 40 WAR (Gibson, Lombardi, Ferrell, Mackey).
After those six guys listed above, are there any current players on a Hall of Fame trajectory? Leaving out young but promising guys like Adley Rutschman, who's careers will be fun to watch develop?
J.T. Realmutoat 33.3 and Salvador Perez at 33.0 are the two with the best chance. After that, it's Willson Contreras at 24.2 and then a significant drop-off. So, even adding the six above plus Mauer wouldn't overload the Hall of Fame with catchers anytime soon.
If all of the above guys were in, is there anyone would put forth a compelling agreement for? Nobody jumps out at me, but I'd love to hear of any other candidates people would advocate for.
|