Weighty philosophical questions of our time: What is our ultimate purpose in the Universe? Why does evil exist, and can it be countered and defeated by good? Are the New York Yankees everything that’s right about baseball, or everything wrong with it?
Like any honest seeker of truth, I shall endeavor to keep my personal opinions apart from this debate, but as I’m a Mets fan from New England, you may draw your own conclusions…1
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
Don Slaught 1988
Johnny Blanchard 1961
Kyle Higashioka 2023
Bob Geren 1989
Russell Martin 2011
Jake Gibbs 1970
Slaught hit .266 with 14 homers over slightly more than a full season's plate appearances in 1988-89. It doesn't look like much now, but in the 80's, that was just short of rock star level. Well, maybe a lesser group with a couple of hits, like Men Without Hats. Blanchard cracked 21 homers in an AL expansion year when everyone was hitting them out; Elston Howard and Yogi Berra were also on the team, so it's not like a third catcher was going to make or break the '61 Yankees. But he did hit .385 with 10 homers in May and June for one of the greatest teams of all time. Higashioka didn't reach 100 plate appearances in his first four years in the league, but afterward settled in for 10 homers in 200 at-bats per year. Geren is one of my favorite one-season fluke players, perhaps because the Yankees were so uncharacteristically poor in that era that a part-time catcher hitting well seemed like big news. We'll always have '89... The Yankees were perhaps the least successful stop of Martin's career, as the .224 average attests. The 39 homers over two seasons remind us he was still better than most. Frank Fernandez and Jake Gibbs had successful part-time seasons back to back in '69 and '70. Fernandez saw more playing time, but Gibbs was a long-term Yankee, so we'll give him the final spot.
One of the most easily overlooked starters on any great team of my lifetime. When you think of those Yankee teams, you remember Jorge Posada as their catcher, but Girardi started on their first championship team and continued to hold a share of the job through their third win in '99. Over twelve different postseason series with the Yankees, '95 Rockies, and '89 Cubs, hit only .184 with two extra-base hits (both triples in 1996). So it's not clear that was helpful, but on the other hand, his Cubs and Rockies teams made the playoffs, so he might actually be magic.
The prototypical backup catcher who can hit and play multiple positions, always a useful wild card to possess in this age of shortened benches. Didn't play any third base or outfield in '94, but split the catcher spot with Stanley and DH'd a fair amount. Hit 31 homers and drove in 111 runs in about a full season of plate appearances in '93-94. Traded to Anaheim after the team's first World Series win, he bounced around the league, then stopped back in the Bronx to win another championship in '99. In-between, he faced the Yankees in the '98 Series with San Diego. Went 0-for-10, after homering in three straight Division Series games.
Won the Gold Glove and made the All-Star Team in '22, looking like the new Girardi as the Yankees roared to 99 wins. Failed to follow up in '23; the team slumped and he got hurt. Back to doing well in the early season so far. 1 for 21 performance in the playoffs ended his best year on a sour note. He'd been cold late in the regular season as well, hitting .177 from September on. Seems like a shame he's not related to Alex Trevino, a similar model of catcher from 40 years earlier.
Sort of a strange, inside-out career. Posted his most impressive full season in his rookie year, 1976, and drove in 148 runs in his first two years. That seemed to be his ceiling, so in mid-1982 the Twins traded him to the Yankees for filler. Wynegar's bat reignited in New York, but he once again followed up with two steps back, so they sent him on to California. Alan Mills was part of the return, and he had a future... but not for the Yankees. These little loops of player movement chase each other around baseball history, eventually collapsing like dying stars.
The Yankees being the Yankees, they provide a second act for lots of players, generally because they signed another big free agent or traded for an impending free agent, from Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter to Gerrit Cole and Juan Soto. The "reclamation project" route is somewhat less common for a team that's had little need of them, but it worked out for Nokes: The 1987 rookie sensation slumped in Detroit and got traded for two previously decent pitchers who never did much for the Tigers. Nokes then recovered 85 percent of his best form, posting a second career peak with 46 homers over two years. He gave way to Mike Stanley, but still cameoed as backup catcher when the Yankees turned the ship around with their AL-best record in 1994.
McCann and Russell Martin, the top of the National League catching crop circa 2008, both bounced around after a run of success with their initial team and both put in time with the Yankees, as all expensive veterans must ultimately do. McCann succeeded Martin in the job—actually, there was a lost year of Chris Stewart between them. McCann maintained more of his initial value and hit 20-plus homers for three straight years in New York. Dropped to 32 walks for a career low OBP in 2014, but rebounded to an acceptable level thereafter. Went 0-for-4 in the 2015 Wild Card game, making him part of the illustrious Yankee postseason history... I... guess?
1980 was a ridiculously crowded season for American League catchers. Cerone drove in 85 in a career-best season for a 103-win team, but John Wathan also had a career year for the AL champs, Ron Hassey had his best overall year, hitting .318, and Rick Dempsey posted his best season with Baltimore (although he had others nearly as good). That's before you get to the Fisk/Parrish/Sundberg guys who were good every year. If you were making career-year rosters, a concept I return to again and again, who do you leave out? Well, probably Dempsey since you can use him in '85, say, but then Hassey makes one hell of a third catcher...
Felt like this guy should have been a bigger star in New York than he was. If he'd twice hit 30-plus homers as a catcher for a World Champion Yankees team, they'd be reserving his room on Mount Olympus. Instead, he came around while the Yankees suffered postseason disappointments year after year, and looks to be remembered more like Earl Williams from the 70's: an impressive slugger whose overall catching career never amounted to much. He's hitting .171 in the postseason, so it's not like he wasn't part of those defeats, but he did add 7 homers in 111 at-bats...
The Yankees are blessed by the baseball gods with a terrific catching performance in each decade, although whether it's an all-time great taking up residence or a guy playing out of his mind for a few months varies: Howard, Munson, Cerone, Stanley, Posada, Sanchez. Go back to the 50's and it's Yogi Berra. The 1940’s, Aaron Robinson had a great year in '46. The thirties, it's Bill Dickey. Before that, I'm out. You could make a similar list for each tenured team, but most will suffer a drought somewhere. The modern Yankees have never had a lengthy one at catcher. Stanley got the 90's version off to a rousing start by hitting .342 with 18 homers from May through July of '93. They ended July tied with eventual World Champion Toronto, as a four-year down cycle vanished into the mists of time.
Munson burst onto the scene with a great 1970, but his best five-year run is probably '73 through '77, from his career best 20 homers through the three AL pennants in that era. He hit .300 in each of those seasons except '74, the only relative down year of the bunch. Worth noting he's perhaps the third-best catcher in baseball during that stretch, behind Bench and Simmons, with Tenace, Sanguillen, Fisk also in the conversation. Do you know how many guys have ever driven in 100 runs for three straight Yankee World Series teams? Ruth and Gehrig (20’s), Dickey, Gehrig, and DiMaggio (30's), Roger Maris (60's), and Paul O'Neill (90's). Munson would have done it if he'd had his third big RBI year in '78 instead of '75. Yeah, I... got the years mixed up and thought he'd made the list. Hate to waste a good factoid, though.
If you want to pick his 1963 MVP season, that's fine with me. I can't resist the .348 batting average for the iconic '61 team. (Or for you whippersnappers, the 65 extra points of OPS.) True, hitting was a lot tougher in the pitcher's era that began in '63, but on the other hand, the '61 team won the World Series while the '63 team lost to the Dodgers. Which isn't really on Howard—he hit .333 in the losing effort. But he had four extra-base hits in the '61 win, too. The bottom line, I think, is you can't go wrong with a peak year by Elston Howard. His '61-64 stretch is super impressive in context, but he had off years on either side of it, so he can't match Munson for a five-year stretch, let alone the eight-year prime of the next man on the list...
A career Yankee, so let's look at some of his career splits: Played just over a full season against New York's division rivals, between 578 and 700 at-bats against each. Hit .256-.372-.462 against the Orioles, .266-.371-.473 against the Red Sox, .258-.362-.421 against the (Devil) Rays, and .295-.378-.510 against the Blue Jays. 115 RBI each against Boston and Tampa Bay. Failed to drive in 100 only against Baltimore (96). Really the picture of consistency, which makes sense for a guy whose 2000 (.944 OPS) could have been picked as easily as his 2003 (.923) or his 2007 (.969). 2003 was near the center of the range and his sole 30 homer season, so we'll pick that one. Dropped off a bit later in the playoffs: .790 OPS in the Division Series, .742 in the LCS, .666 in the World Series. 416 at-bats in total, so the sample size isn't nothing.
Nevertheless, when choosing among three near-Hall of Fame options from the last 60-plus years of Yankee catching, I'm going with the most consistently successful of the three. That's Posada, but any of the top four or five on the list could have been the best catcher for another franchise. Turns out, a list of great Yankees performances will be full of Yankee greats; love 'em or hate 'em, you know what you're getting.
On Friday: Red Sox catchers.
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