JAWS and the 2025 Corridor of Fame Poll: Russell Martin

The next article is a part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing have a look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2025 Corridor of Fame poll. For an in depth introduction to this 12 months’s poll, and different candidates within the collection, use the device above; an introduction to JAWS may be discovered right here. For a tentative schedule, and an opportunity to fill out a Corridor of Fame poll for our crowdsourcing venture, see right here. All WAR figures seek advice from the Baseball Reference model except in any other case indicated.

Russell Martin was sneaky good. On the plate he mixed a compact swing and mid-range energy with robust on-base expertise and (early in his profession, a minimum of) the flexibility to steal the occasional base. Behind the plate, he was distinctive. Shifted from third base after his first skilled season, he took to the brand new place with the zeal of a convert. Martin mixed excellent athleticism — a powerful arm, extraordinary lateral mobility, and elite pitch framing — with an intense aggressive drive, an off-the-charts baseball IQ, and a pure management capacity that was already obvious throughout his 2006 rookie season with the Dodgers.

The 23-year-old Martin’s arrival went a good distance towards turning that squad round. In his first 4 seasons, he helped the Dodgers to 3 playoff appearances, together with their first two journeys to the Nationwide League Championship Sequence since their 1988 championship run. When the tight-fisted workforce nonsensically non-tendered him after an injury-wracked 2010 season, Los Angeles missed the playoffs in every of the following two years. In the meantime, the nomadic Martin helped spur his subsequent groups — the Yankees (2011–12), Pirates (2013–14), and Blue Jays (2015–18) — to a complete of six straight postseasons.

That wasn’t a coincidence. The overall managers of these three groups (New York’s Brian Cashman, Pittsburgh’s Neal Huntington, and Toronto’s Alex Anthopoulos) all acknowledged that along with the softer elements that made Martin such an excellent catcher and chief, he was constantly among the many recreation’s greatest on the newly quantifiable and extremely helpful artwork of turning borderline pitches into strikes — an space that landed within the public highlight with Mike Quick’s 2011 Baseball Prospectus article, “Eradicating the Masks.” Constructing on earlier analysis by Dan Turkenkopf and others utilizing PITCHf/x knowledge, Quick confirmed that the distinction between a superb framer and a nasty one might quantity to one thing on the order of 4 wins per 12 months, and recognized Martin as having accrued extra worth by way of framing over the 2007–11 span (71 runs) than any backstop moreover Jose Molina.

Viewing him as a transformative addition each on the sector and within the clubhouse, Huntington and Anthopoulos every positioned Martin atop their winter procuring lists. For signing him — which for Anthopoulous required the second-largest free agent deal for a catcher to that time, at 5 years and $82 million — they have been rewarded with groups that broke epic postseason droughts, then returned to the playoffs the following 12 months as effectively; not flukes or Cinderellas, these have been groups anticipated to contend. Martin, who excelled at framing till he retired, wasn’t solely answerable for these turnarounds, however he definitely performed a significant function in his groups’ qualifying for the playoffs 10 instances throughout his 14-year profession. Alas, Martin by no means reached a World Sequence, not even within the twilight of his profession with the 106-win Dodgers in 2019.

Apart from Baseball Prospectus’ WARP (the unique foundation for JAWS), not one of the main worth metrics integrated pitch framing into their calculations till FanGraphs launched its personal methodology within the spring of 2019. That replace retroactively added framing to fWAR going again to 2008. Whereas Sports activities Data Options’ Defensive Runs Saved does monitor what it calls “strike zone runs” (RszC), Baseball Reference doesn’t embrace them in its WAR calculations. Since framing has been proven to be so impactful — with a lot wider spreads from high to backside than catchers’ blocking or throwing out baserunners — I imagine we’re doing Twenty first-century candidates a disservice if we fail to include this significant space into our evaluation. Thus, for this profile and that of fellow first-year candidate Brian McCann, I’ll be utilizing a FanGraphs-based model of WAR, one that comes with BP’s framing metric (BP Fram) for the years earlier than 2008, as the principle worth metric. As you’ll be able to see, this makes a major distinction in understanding Martin’s profession, and likewise these of his framing friends:

Whereas framing metrics have been standard in analytical circles since Quick’s article, they have been slower to catch on within the mainstream. Martin in all probability missed out on a few of the All-Star alternatives, down-ballot MVP assist, and Gold Glove honors he was due, although having McCann, Yadier Molina, and Buster Posey — all wonderful framers in their very own proper — in the identical league for many of his profession didn’t assist. Although I’ve been anticipating the purpose once I might write Martin’s title on a Corridor of Fame poll since he entered his closing season within the majors, I worry he’ll battle to realize sufficient assist merely to stay eligible. Nonetheless, I see him as a powerful sufficient candidate to advantage enshrinement. It received’t occur in a single day; I simply hope it doesn’t take 20 or 30 years.

Russell Nathan Coltrane Jeanson-Martin Jr. was born on February 15, 1983 in East York, Ontario, Canada. He was named after his father Russell Martin Sr., an African Canadian carpenter-turned-saxophone participant; great-grandfather Nathan; saxophone legend John Coltrane; and his mom Suzanne Jeanson, a French Canadian singer and actress. The younger household moved to Winnipeg, Suzanne’s hometown, however she and Russell Sr. cut up when their son was two. Suzanne remarried and moved to Paris when Russell Jr. was 9, whereas Russell Sr. moved to Montreal, the place he made a residing enjoying his sax in Metro stations. Their son cut up his 12 months between continents, overindulging on chocolate croissants, to the detriment of his younger physique, and lacking baseball fiercely.

“Soccer is the principle sport over there [in France]. I really like soccer, however not having baseball and never having hockey was type of torture for me,” Russell Jr. informed Sportsnet’s Steven Brunt in 2015. He had been a fast research when it got here to the game; after studying to stroll at simply 9 months outdated, he was swinging a bat at two; he skipped t-ball, and by the point he was seven, he was pitching in opposition to 12-year-olds. Father and son would bike round Montreal, stopping at diamonds alongside the way in which to apply throwing, catching, and hitting. Driving the Montreal Metro to Olympic Stadium to see Expos stars similar to Marquis Grissom and Larry Walker, Russell Sr. would play the a part of a radio broadcaster. “He invented situations during which native phenom Russell Martin, simply up from the minors, knocked the dust off his cleats, stepped within the field and belted one over the fence,” wrote ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick in 2006. “As Little Russ listened from his seat on the prepare, his 10-year-old coronary heart pounded feverishly.”

On the finish of sixth grade, Suzanne relocated from Paris to Chelsea, Quebec. Russell Jr. enrolled at Polyvalente Edouard-Montpetit, a Montreal highschool that emphasised sports activities — and produced former Cy Younger winner Eric Gagne — and lived together with his father 12 months spherical. Whereas he dabbled in hockey, he was already centered on changing into an expert baseball participant. In highschool he pitched and performed shortstop, finally making the nationwide junior workforce; on the World Junior Championship in 2000, he hit a team-high .414 with two residence runs.

In June 2000, the Expos drafted Martin within the thirty fifth spherical, however as an alternative of signing he headed to Chipola Faculty, a junior school close to Tallahassee, Florida. A 12 months youthful than his friends, he struggled to maintain up, however a Dominican outfielder/pitcher named José Bautista — his future teammate in Toronto — made an impression. “I performed a 12 months with him and noticed the work ethic behind him and noticed how passionate he was in regards to the recreation. I discovered so much from him,” Martin informed Brunt.

To his disappointment, Martin went undrafted on the finish of his freshman 12 months (2001), however the Dodgers selected him within the seventeenth spherical in 2002. Bypassing a scholarship supply from North Carolina State, he signed for a $40,000 bonus, and started his professional profession with the Dodgers’ Gulf Coast League affiliate, enjoying third base — his major school place — and hitting .286/.412/.357. He had a smattering of expertise catching in school, and his athleticism and arm energy impressed catching coordinator Jon Debus, who advised the Dodgers transfer him behind the plate, a conversion that started within the tutorial league. The going was tough, initially; Martin allowed 95 steals and 31 handed balls in 63 video games cut up between Rookie-level Ogden and A-level South Georgia in 2003, however he hit .276/.360/.437 with 9 homers. He improved on either side of the ball at Excessive-A Vero Seashore in 2004, with Baseball America writing partly, “He’s fast, makes use of his wonderful footwork to assist him block balls within the dust and has a well-above-average arm.”

After putting 89th on Baseball America’s High 100 Prospects record within the spring of 2005, Martin broke out to hit .311/.430/.423 at Double-A Jacksonville, stealing 15 bases to go together with his 9 homers. He performed for the World Staff within the All-Star Futures Recreation, and climbed to forty second on BA’s High 100 record for 2006, with the publication lauding his capacity to soak up instruction and his superior receiving and blocking expertise relative to his expertise.

The Dodgers had gone 71-91 in 2005 with Jason Phillips and Dioner Navarro doing a lot of the catching (and never effectively). The workforce retooled that winter, with basic supervisor Ned Colletti and supervisor Grady Little taking up, and free brokers similar to Rafael Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra, Kenny Lofton, and Invoice Mueller bolstering the lineup. The 22-year-old Navarro, a High 100 prospect himself in 2004, started the ’06 season because the starter, however in early Might, he landed on the disabled record with a proper wrist contusion. The Dodgers, off to a 12-17 begin, known as up the 23-year-old Martin after simply 23 video games at Triple-A Las Vegas. He debuted on Might 5, 2006 in opposition to the Brewers, going 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles off Chris Capuano, the primary of which drove in two runs in a Dodgers 4-3 win. Two days later, he hit his first residence run, off Dave Bush.

By the tip of Might, the Dodgers had gone 18-4 in Martin’s begins. Navarro was optioned to Las Vegas as soon as he was wholesome, and in late June was traded to the Satan Rays in a five-player deal that introduced in backup catcher Toby Corridor and back-end starter Mark Hendrickson. Navarro would earn All-Star honors whereas serving to Tampa Bay attain the World Sequence in 2008, however the Dodgers had determined upon their catcher not solely of the long run, however of the current.

Martin hit .282/.355/.436 (101 OPS+) with 10 residence runs and 10 stolen bases for an 88-win Dodgers workforce that secured the NL Wild Card spot. A type of homers, on September 18, was the third in a collection of 4 consecutive ninth-inning solo photographs — Jeff Kent and J.D. Drew off Jon Adkins, Martin and Marlon Anderson off Trevor Hoffman — that tied the sport; a Garciaparra homer received it within the tenth. Writing about Martin’s dark-horse Rookie of the 12 months candidacy, Crasnick discovered scouts, executives, and a future Corridor of Famer lauding him:

The child by no means warmed to a musical instrument, however he performs the place of catcher as if it’s a method of expression. Scouts rave about his gentle fingers and lateral motion, his fast ft and skill to border a pitch, as if he was born to be a backstop.

Dodgers assistant GM Roy Smith, who as soon as labored in Pittsburgh, says Martin’s toughness and management expertise recall to mind a younger Jason Kendall.

… “He has superb baseball sense,” [Greg] Maddux says. “In case you can’t throw to this man, you’ll be able to’t throw to anyone.”

Although Martin went 4-for-12 within the Division Sequence in opposition to the Mets, the Dodgers have been swept. The workforce receded to 82 wins in 2007 regardless of the emergence of homegrown children Chad Billingsley, James Loney, and Matt Kemp, however Martin caught a league-high 145 video games, hit .293/.374/.469 (116 OPS+) with 19 homers and 21 steals, received the NL All-Star voting at catcher, and claimed a Gold Glove as effectively. His 5.5 fWAR ranked ninth within the league, and that doesn’t even account for his framing; in line with the up to date model of Baseball Prospectus’ Retroframing methodology, he was estimated to have added one other 24.8 runs there (after 22.9 in 2006), the majors’ second-highest whole.

Whereas drawing 90 walks and once more catching a league-high 149 video games in 2008 — with 11 appearances at third base as effectively — Martin hit .280/.385/.396 (108 OPS+) whereas once more reaching double digits in homers and steals (13 and 18, respectively) and making his second All-Star workforce. Per FanGraphs’ PITCHf/x-based methodology, he added 30.3 framing runs, third within the majors behind McCann (34.5) and Jose Molina (32.4); his 7.3 fWAR ranked sixth within the NL. The Dodgers, whose deadline commerce for Manny Ramirez helped paper over the catastrophe that was Andruw Jones’ lone season with the workforce, allowed a league-low 4.0 runs per recreation and eked out out an NL West title with simply 84 wins in Joe Torre’s first season on the helm.

To that time, the Dodgers had gone 1-12 in postseason video games since successful the 1988 World Sequence, however they swept the 97-win Cubs within the Division Sequence, with Martin hitting a solo homer off Jason Marquis in Recreation 1, breaking open Recreation 2 with a bases-loaded second-inning double off Carlos Zambrano, and doubling twice off Wealthy Harden in Recreation 3. Alas, he was held to a 2-for-17 efficiency because the Phillies beat the Dodgers in a five-game NLCS.

Whether or not it was his heavy workload or a 2008–09 offseason during which he misplaced energy whereas making an attempt to enhance his flexibility, Martin tailed off in ’09. He caught “solely” 137 video games, however nonetheless led the NL in innings behind the plate; the third base cameos have been curtailed, however he slipped to seven homers and an 86 OPS+. His framing nonetheless elevated his worth to three.6 fWAR, and the Dodgers received 95 video games and the NL West flag. Martin hit simply .200/.355/.240 in a Division Sequence sweep of the Cardinals and one other five-game NLCS loss to the Phillies.

In response to his flagging energy, Martin bulked up after the season, reportedly including 25 kilos to push his weight to 231. He nonetheless hit for simply an 88 OPS+ in 2010, and his season resulted in early August when he stumbling into residence plate on a sacrifice fly as an alternative of sliding, sustaining a hairline fracture of his pelvis and a small labral tear in his proper hip. The Dodgers sank to 80-82, and within the pennywise and pound silly means that marked the latter-day period of Frank McCourt’s possession, Colletti non-tendered Martin quite than taking him to arbitration and having to threat giving him a increase from his $5.05 million wage.

Martin quickly signed a $4 million-plus-incentives cope with the defending-champion Yankees, a workforce that was forward of the curve in valuing pitch framing and notably keen to maneuver on from the ageing Jorge Posada’s struggles in that space. Although he hadn’t wanted surgical procedure for his hip, Martin did go underneath the knife to restore a torn meniscus in early February, however he was prepared by Opening Day, and rebounded to hit .237/.324/.408 (95 OPS+) with 18 residence runs whereas making his third All-Star workforce and tying for twelfth within the AL with 5.4 fWAR. The Yankees received 95 video games and a division title, however they have been knocked out in a soggy five-game Division Sequence in opposition to the Tigers. Re-signed to a one-year, $7.5 million deal, Martin wasn’t fairly as sharp in 2012, setting a profession low in batting common (.211/.311/.403), however his 4.0 fWAR and 91 OPS+ for a catcher was nonetheless loads of bang for the buck. The Yankees reached the ALCS earlier than bowing to the Tigers, not that Martin was a lot assist in October, hitting .161/.235/.290.

After Cashman informed the going-on-30-year-old free agent backstop that cash was tight, Martin listened to a gross sales pitch from Pirates supervisor Clint Hurdle. The Pirates hadn’t completed above .500 since 1992, however they’d simply gone 79-83 in 2012 after having assembled a promising core. In line with Travis Sawchik’s e-book Massive Information Baseball, Hurdle informed Martin how a lot the workforce would worth his veteran presence throughout the clubhouse and with dealing with a younger pitching employees, to not point out his robust arm and skill to manage the working recreation. What Hurdle didn’t inform Martin was how the nascent makes an attempt to quantify the worth of pitch framing had singled him out as the most effective, and that Quick had particularly recognized Pirates incumbent Ryan Doumit because the majors’ worst framer, costing his groups 66 runs over the earlier 5 seasons. (Fashionable-day estimates at BP and FanGraphs place the unfold between Martin and Doumit even wider.) As with the Moneyball-era A’s roughly a decade earlier, the small-budget Pirates wanted to capitalize on market inefficiencies to get an edge, and right here they felt they’d discovered one. Throughout the Pirates’ entrance workplace, quantitative analyst Mike Fitzgerald was pounding the desk to advocate signing Martin.

Although the Rangers and, to a lesser extent, the Yankees confirmed some curiosity, the Pirates’ two-year, $17 million supply was Martin’s strongest. The signing paid off; whereas his offense was once more modest (.226/.327/.377, 100 OPS+), together with his framing he was price 5.0 fWAR, tied for eleventh within the NL on a framing-heavy leaderboard that additionally included the Cardinals’ Molina, the Giants’ Posey, and the Brewers’ Jonathan Lucroy, all of whom outhit Martin. The workforce — which featured MVP winner Andrew McCutchen, rookie Gerrit Cole, and reclamation initiatives A.J. Burnett and Francisco Liriano — received 94 video games and ended its 21-year playoff drought by capturing a Wild Card berth. Martin dominated the Reds within the Wild Card Recreation, going 3-for-4 with solo homers off Johnny Cueto (who was rattled by the gang to the purpose of dropping the ball) and Logan Ondrusek to key a 6-2 win.

Martin went simply 2-for-13 within the Division Sequence in opposition to the Cardinals, however drove in two runs in every of the Pirates’ two wins with a single and a sacrifice fly; even so, the Bucs misplaced the collection in 5 video games. Whereas they dipped to 88 wins in 2014, they claimed one other Wild Card spot, with Martin hitting .290/.402/.430 with 11 homers to set profession highs on OBP and OPS+ (135) and rank sixth within the NL with 6.1 fWAR. This time the Giants steamrolled the Pirates within the Wild Card Recreation, 8-0.

By the point Martin hit free company once more, the baseball world was far more conscious of what he delivered to the desk — notably Anthopoulos. Martin’s groups had certified for the postseason seven instances in 9 seasons, whereas the Blue Jays had missed the playoffs yearly since successful the 1993 World Sequence. That they had received 83 video games in 2014 with Navarro (!) behind the plate regardless of subpar framing (-23.9 runs by FanGraphs’ present measure), so Anthopoulos noticed the necessity for an improve. He signed his high offseason precedence to a five-year, $82 million deal, at that time the second-largest free agent contract for a catcher after the five-year, $85-million contract McCann inked with the Yankees in December 2013, although the extensions of Posey and Joe Mauer exceeded each.

The signing reunited Martin with Bautista, by this level one of many recreation’s high energy hitters. Martin drove in a pair of runs with an Opening Day single off the Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka, however then went 0-for-22 earlier than homering off Julio Teheran and Jim Johnson of the Braves on April 17. He went on a tear in early Might, and adopted a dreadful August with a powerful September during which he hit six homers and slugged .559. The Blue Jays have been simply 50-51 as of July 28, however they received 24 of their subsequent 29, taking up first place within the AL East in late August and ending first with 93 wins. Martin hit .240/.329/.458 (112 OPS+) with a career-high 23 homers and 4.5 fWAR. Although he scuffled within the postseason (.154/.333/.231), the Blue Jays beat the Rangers in an epic Division Sequence punctuated by Bautista’s bat-flip residence run off Sam Dyson.

The Jays fell to the Royals within the ALCS, however Martin’s influence had resonated. In a 2016 Sportsnet article the place All-Star Marco Estrada and his rotation-mates lauded Martin, supervisor John Gibbons informed Arden Zwelling, “I feel we take Russell with no consideration round right here… Simply the way in which he strikes round behind the plate, blocks balls, a few of the acrobatic performs he makes. You realize, he’ll go flying into dugouts after foul balls. There’s no worry in any respect. I feel while you see one in every of your individual gamers try this so typically, you find yourself type of anticipating it. However while you see any person on the opposite aspect who doesn’t make these performs, it reminds you that the man you’ve bought is fairly particular.”

The abandon with which Martin threw himself round caught up. Hampered by frayed cartilage in his left knee over the ultimate two months of the 2016 season, he nonetheless homered 20 instances with a 96 OPS+ and three.7 fWAR because the Blue Jays received 89 video games and claimed a Wild Card berth. Sadly, between his knee and a freak left pinky harm that required stitches following a celebratory low-five from Troy Tulowitzki, Martin’s ache made him an offensive non-entity through the workforce’s postseason run, which ended with a five-game ALCS loss to Cleveland. After the season, he underwent surgical procedure to restore a torn meniscus within the knee. A battle with the insurance coverage underwriters for the World Baseball Basic prevented him from representing Canada within the event. After catching for the 2009 squad, he had needed to play shortstop for Staff Canada, first in ’13 after which in ’17, however knee soreness doomed the primary try and the bean-counters quashed the second. As a substitute, he served as a coach.

Upon turning 34 years outdated, Martin mentioned his knee felt nice getting into the 2017 season, however with shoulder and indirect accidents sending him to the injured record twice, he caught simply 83 video games and totaled 1.7 WAR in 2017, then dropped to 71 video games caught — however 21 at third and even three at shortstop (!) — in ’18. The Blue Jays completed underneath .500 in each seasons. Wanting to retool, in January 2019 Toronto traded Martin and $16.4 million to the Dodgers for a pair of prospects who by no means panned out.

By this level, the Dodgers have been coming off back-to-back World Sequence losses — to the Astros and Pink Sox, respectively — and the departure of beginning catcher Yasmani Grandal by way of free company, leaving them with backup Austin Barnes because the incumbent and going-on-24-year-old prospect Will Smith sprucing his recreation at Triple-A Oklahoma Metropolis. Martin spent a lot of the first half backing up Barnes, although decrease again irritation despatched him to the IL for 17 days in April. Smith pressured the problem, swapping locations with Barnes in late July and shortly securing the beginning job, which he nonetheless holds as we speak. In his reserve function, Martin moreover noticed at third base within the late innings seven instances, and even threw 4 scoreless innings — three when the Dodgers had leads of 9 or extra runs. In his first one, on March 30, 2019, he grew to become the primary place participant to shut out a win since Senators outfielder Willie Smith on Sept. 23, 1963.

With 106 wins, the Dodgers took the NL West for the seventh straight time, and sought their third straight pennant. Dealing with the Nationals within the Division Sequence, Martin began Recreation 3, catching Hyun Jin Ryu, with whom he’d paired 20 instances through the common season. He went 2-for-4 with a two-run double off Patrick Corbin that gave the Dodgers a 3-2 lead within the sixth inning, then added a two-run homer off Hunter Strickland within the ninth because the Dodgers received 10-4 to take a two-games-to-one collection lead. Nonetheless, the Nationals received the ultimate two video games, eliminating the Dodgers.

Although the going-on-37-year-old Martin introduced his intent to proceed his profession in 2020, he by no means performed once more. The A’s and Mets, together with a couple of different groups, confirmed curiosity over the winter, however he didn’t signal then, and likewise when his title surfaced as an possibility after Posey opted out of enjoying as a result of COVID-19 pandemic in July. On Might 28, 2022, he lastly made his retirement official with an Instagram put up.

…

By conventional measures, Martin doesn’t look like a powerful Corridor of Fame candidate. His 4 All-Star appearances and Gold Glove are respectable however not distinctive totals, and even whereas serving to his groups to 10 playoff appearances — together with 5 in his first 12 months with golf equipment (not that the 2019 Dodgers actually wanted the assistance) — he by no means reached the World Sequence. He completed with a modest 1,446 hits and 191 homers, and even together with his fundamental superior stats (101 OPS+, 38.8 bWAR, 33.0 JAWS), he seems wanting the mark. His .248 profession batting common is 5 factors under that of catcher Ray Schalk, whose .253 is the bottom mark of any Corridor of Fame place participant.

That mentioned, by a number of methodologies, Martin’s pitch framing was elite, not solely reinforcing observations concerning his receiving expertise regardless of his comparatively late conversion, however undergirding the view of him as a transformative participant. I’ve been saying this since Martin and McCann neared the tail finish of their careers: We merely can’t take a correct measure of Twenty first-century catchers with out incorporating framing knowledge. In order with relievers, right here the off-the-shelf model of JAWS received’t suffice. Baseball Reference’s model of WAR (which is utilized in JAWS) has no framing element, and there aren’t any framing numbers anyway for 13 of the 17 enshrined catchers. BP’s pre-PITCHf/x stats solely cowl the previous few years of Carlton Fisk’s profession, which resulted in 1993, although between that model and the PITCHf/x, FanGraphs, and Statcast numbers, now we have the complete careers of Ivan Rodriguez and Mike Piazza lined. Rodriguez, whereas identified for his all-around defensive excellence, was not a lot of a framer, whereas Piazza, typically derided as a poor defender for his low caught stealing percentages, was super at framing.

When Jared Cross launched FanGraphs’ framing numbers for 2008–18 in March ’19, he famous that McCann and Martin gained essentially the most worth, adopted by Yadier and Jose Molina. The methodology has since been tweaked, and time has handed, however listed below are the highest 10 framers in line with our knowledge:

In line with the most recent iteration, one-tenth of a run separates Martin and McCann, although Martin is “solely” fourth on a charge foundation. Notice that simply two of the ten backstops above are nonetheless energetic, and that the unfold between the most effective and worst framers has decreased considerably since groups started reacting to the info, each by removing the Doumits of the world and by coaching catchers to enhance their receiving. Thus these early adopters are at one thing of a bonus, not not like beginning pitchers who pitched deeper into video games a long time in the past. That will make cross-era comparisons tougher, but when now we have the info, we ought to include it into our evaluation.

Whereas FanGraphs’ framing numbers (FRM) solely go far again sufficient to cowl the PITCHf/x period, BP’s pre-2008 numbers — which return to 1988, the beginning of the pitch-count period, and use known as strikes above common by way of Max Marchi’s Retroframing methodology — may help fill within the gaps. For the seven catchers with a minimum of 50 WAR by our present methodology, I’ve completed that, utilizing our runs-to-wins converter to regulate their particular person WARs for the 1991-2007 interval, and calculating seven-year peak totals together with revised profession totals in an effort to generate a FanGraphs WAR-based model of JAWS (frJAWS) for this group:

Together with the pre-2008 framing numbers leads to about an 11-WAR swing for Piazza relative to Rodriguez, with the sport’s greatest-hitting catcher placing far between himself and the remainder of this pack. Rodriguez is nearer in frJAWS to the newer catchers, who’re intently grouped collectively, although McCann has fallen a bit additional behind the pack as a consequence of tweaks in our framing methodology and that of BP. On our finish, a 2024 change from Final Base Operating (UBR) to Statcast’s baserunning metric (labeled XBR) diminished Martin’s fWAR from 55.0 to 54.5, and McCann’s from 54.5 to 52.1.

I want we had framing numbers for extra catchers, however as we don’t, we’re left to check those we do have, and everybody within the desk above is head and shoulders above the remainder. The subsequent-highest ranked catcher is Grandal (36.8 frJAWS), whereas Posada, with -113.4 framing runs between BP and FanGraphs, is down at 31.6 frJAWS.

To those eyes, the truth that Corridor of Famers Rodriguez and Mauer are clustered with the extremely regarded Posey and Molina, each more likely to be a part of them — and that Martin is correct there within the combine — means that they’re all affordable decisions for Cooperstown. I can perceive the temptation to ding Martin for not having the {hardware} the opposite guys have, but when the info now we have now had been extra extensively circulated 10–15 years in the past, I feel he would have been held in larger regard. Not solely may he have snagged one other couple of All-Star appearances and maybe one other Gold Glove someplace alongside the way in which, however a wiser Dodgers group in all probability wouldn’t have non-tendered him within the first place.

We will muse on the what-ifs, however my level is to not write an alternate historical past of Martin’s profession. Somewhat, it’s to elucidate the one he had. Whether or not or not it was universally appreciated in his day, Martin’s profession was excellent. From 2006–16, his 50.6 fWAR ranks fifth within the majors, behind solely Miguel Cabrera (62.5), Albert Pujols (52.7), Adrian Beltré (52.1), and Chase Utley (51.8) — a quartet of present or probably future Corridor of Famers. None of these 4 ranked second in innings caught behind Yadier Molina (whose 44.4 WAR ranked 14th) — and keep in mind, the FanGraphs rankings don’t embrace Martin’s two huge years earlier than PITCHf/x framing.

Having spent over twenty years recognizing underappreciated Corridor of Fame candidates and selling their instances, I see Martin as one who belongs in the identical sentence as Tim Raines, Edgar Martinez, Larry Walker, Billy Wagner, Scott Rolen, Todd Helton, and Utley — and one who belongs in the identical plaque gallery in Cooperstown. I’ll be checking the field subsequent to his title on the poll, hoping he garners sufficient assist that I can test it once more.