The Baltimore Orioles face important decisions this offseason when it comes to their rotation and lineup with Corbin Burnes and Anthony Santander becoming free agents. While those two players are certainly the most important parts of the 2024 team who could leave, there’s another area of the roster that could look different next year: backup catcher.
James McCann is a free agent this offseason, creating an opening for a player that will be expected to appear in at least a third of the team’s games.
In 2024, McCann started 63 times at catcher, spending over 550 innings behind the plate while providing 223 plate appearances. There’s also a chance the backup catcher could see more playing time if, knock on wood, Adley Rutschman has any major injuries.
So, let’s take a closer look at McCann and some other free agents to get an idea of who could be Rutschman’s backup to start 2025.
James McCann
McCann is coming off a 2024 in Baltimore where he wasn’t considered an above-average defensive catcher by any Statcast metric from MLB.com’s Baseball Savant. His blocking, ability to throw out runners, pop time and framing were all regarded as below the 50th percentile. McCann’s blocking was the worst among those four metrics, with Baseball Savant putting him in the 11th percentile among catchers for preventing passed balls and wild pitches.
Offensively, McCann was one of the few Orioles who was more productive in the second half, posting a .785 OPS after the All-Star break.
The best case for bringing back McCann might be his familiarity with the team’s pitchers. While the Orioles won’t quite have an identical pitching staff compared to last year, it will still be a group largely made up of people who have already worked with McCann. The ERA and OPS allowed by Orioles pitchers was remarkably similar between McCann and Rutschman catching last season, seeming to indicate a sense of stability regardless of who was behind the plate.
Yasmani Grandal
The main argument in favor of Yasmani Grandal is his framing. Grandal’s framing was in the 86th percentile for catchers and he was tied with four other catchers for the eighth-most framing runs in baseball. Grandal’s framing was also considered in the 70th percentile or higher in 2022 and 2023, so it’s clearly a repeatable skill for him.
Meanwhile, the main argument against Grandal is he might be the worst catcher in baseball at throwing out runners. According to Baseball Savant, Grandal allowed nine steals that an average catcher would’ve prevented, the worst mark among all catchers. Unsurprisingly, this means Grandal also had the worst pop time of 2024, ranking dead last among 51 catchers who saw at least 20 stolen base attempts.
Grandal provides some extra value by being a switch-hitter, but he does a better job hitting right-handed pitching, which isn’t exactly ideal for using him as a platoon bat in a lineup filled with left-handed hitting regulars.
Elias Diaz
Elias Diaz is able to frame and throw out runners at a clip that makes him a very useful defensive option. Baseball Savant placed him in the 77th percentile for both throwing out runners and framing and his pop time is even better in the 87th percentile.
However, his blocking is his one weakness behind the plate, with Baseball Savant deeming him to be in the 20th percentile.
While Diaz ended the year with the San Diego Padres, he began 2024 with the Colorado Rockies and also played there in 2023 when he became an All-Star. According to OPS+, which adjusts for things like Coors Field’s offensive environment, Diaz had an 85 OPS+ with the Rockies from 2020 to 2024.
An 85 OPS+ at catcher isn’t exactly going to make you Mike Piazza, but it seems competent enough for a backup who can frame and throw out runners.
Martin Maldonado
Throughout his tenure with the Orioles, Mike Elias has had a soft spot for players who were once part of the Houston Astros organization. Rio Ruiz appeared in 213 games between 2019 and 2021 and Thomas Eshelman pitched in 98.1 innings across that same three-year period. More recently, Tony Kemp made last year’s Opening Day roster but only appeared in five games before that experiment ended.
The precedent set by Elias means it’s certainly fair to wonder if Martin Maldonado could be considered as an option to be the backup catcher. Maldonado was acquired by Houston in 2018, Elias’ last season with the Astros, and remained in Houston through the 2023 season. During his six-year tenure as an Astro, he won the 2022 World Series and appeared in 66 postseason games.
Maldonado spent 2024 with the Chicago White Sox, where he struggled offensively and defensively, but was graded as an above-average catcher for blocking pitches, throwing out runners and his pop time in 2023 with Houston.
The 38-year-old had the weakest 2024 of anyone in this article, but you should never rule out Elias taking a flier on someone whose time with the Astros overlapped with his.
BSL Analyst
Rose Katz is a recent graduate of the University of Maryland’s journalism school, where she worked for The Diamondback as the online managing editor and a sports blogger. As a student, she spent almost all of her time on campus in The Diamondback’s newsroom or at Xfinity Center, Ludwig Field and Maryland Stadium. Rose gained intern experience with the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN).