Offseason Question: Who is the Back-up Catcher in 2021

One of the positions for the Pirates that is not in question for 2021 is Jacob Stallings as the starting catcher. However, when Stallings needs a day off, who is going to be the man behind him working behind the plate.

As the Pittsburgh Pirates entered Spring Training 2020, one of the biggest questions on the field loomed around the catcher's role. The clear-cut starter was Jacob Stallings, but this was his first time as a starting catcher at the Major League level. Turns out not only was Stallings a good option, but he turned out to be one of the best catchers in all of Major League baseball as he was nominated for a Gold Glove award. Stallings is back in 2021, but now the question looms around who will be doing the back-up catching duties behind him. Catcher is one position the Pirates are not very deep at, and that could pose a problem for one of the most injury-prone positions on the field.

One of General Manager Ben Cherrington's goals this off-season is to add some catching depth. He has already signed one catcher and still has many trade bait players ready to dangle out to other teams. If the season started today, the only two Major League ready back-up catchers are Luke Maile, who missed all last season with an injury, and Michael Perez, who was claimed off waivers a few weeks ago. Neither has very much experience at the Big League level, but they both bring strong defensive skills to the table. Last season's back-up John Ryan Murphy is a free agent and the next closes player behind those two is Christian Kelley in Triple-A Indianapolis. Today, we will look at all the back-up catching options and see who is most equipped to back-up Jacob Stallings in 2021.

Michael Perez

The newest player added to the Pirates back-up catcher mix is 28-year-old Michael Perez. Perez was claimed off waivers from the Tampa Bay Rays and was a member of the Rays World Series roster in 2020. He served as the back-up catcher for the Rays in 2020 and hit .167 with one home run and 13 RBI in 38 games played. It was his third season in the MLB, and his highest workload yet. Perez has never really been an offensive catcher in the Major Leagues, with a career batting average of .221 over parts of three seasons. His best effort came in his rookie year when he appeared in 24 games and hit .284 with one home run and 11 RBI. He isn't a very patient hitter at the plate and tends to strike out a lot with a career strikeout rate of 28.5%.

However, what he lacks in offense he highly makes up for on the defensive side of the ball. He has spent parts of the last three seasons as a catcher and has committed just two errors in 549 innings of work for a .997 fielding percentage. He didn't allow a passed ball until last season and is an excellent pitch framer behind the plate. He has a 46.4% strike rate and does his best work on the corners where he gets 62.1% strikes on the left corner of the plate and 56.5% strikes on the right side of the plate, both ranking him in the top 10% of the league. He also does a nice job controlling the run game, as he has a career caught stealing rate of 40% (15 of 60). Perez was the first signing of the off-season by Cherrington and is looking to bring his World Series experience to the Pirates

Luke Maile

With 11 players ending the year on the Injured List, the Pirates had to make some tough calls with the 40-man roster. One of those calls was outrighting Luke Maile off the 40-man roster, but he has since cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Indianapolis. Maile signed with the Pirates on December 16th, 2019, and is very similar to Perez whereas he has been a career back-up. He has spent parts of five seasons in the MLB with the Rays and Toronto Blue Jays and has hit .198 with 10 home runs and 60 RBI. His biggest workload came for the Blue Jays in 2018 when he appeared in 68 games hitting .248 with three home runs and 27 RBI. Maile seems to possess a little more power than Perez, collecting 13 doubles in that 2018 season and a total of 30 doubles in his career.

Like Perez, Maile is also a defensive first catcher, with a career .990 fielding percentage behind the plate. However, he is coming off his worst defensive year in 2019, when he posted a .989 fielding percentage with four errors in 345.1 innings behind the plate. He also has a strong arm, catching 33.3% of would-be base runners in his career, and he has the advantage of having worked with the Pirates pitchers last year in Spring Training. Maile missed the entire 2020 season with a broken index finger and never really got to show the Pirates what he had to offer. Maile will have to show that he is back and fully healthy so he can compete with Perez for that back-up role in 2021.

Christian Kelley

Kelley is the most unlikely option to win the role on this list, but he is also the next most MLB ready option for the Pirates. Kelley has spent the last five seasons in the Pirates Minor League system and worked at the satellite campus last season. Offensively, it has been a struggle for the 27-year-old to find his groove at the plate. In 2019, he hit .179 with five home runs and 21 RBI in 80 games with the Indianapolis Indians. His career batting average isn't much better at .229 and he has never owned a batting average higher than .250. It isn't that he strikes out a lot, he just doesn't generate a lot of hard contact, and as a result, doesn't catch a lot of breaks.

However, like so many other catchers in the Pirates system, Kelley is very good on the defensive side of things. He had a .992 fielding percentage in 2019 with Triple-A and has a career caught stealing percentage of 31%. Kelley has been a non-roster invitee to Spring Training for each of the last three seasons and, even if he had a breakout spring, he probably wouldn't make the Opening Day roster. He has yet to make his Major League debut, but with the Pirates being so thin at catcher, 2021 might be his year barring an injury or ineffectiveness from someone on the big league club. It will mark his second full season in Triple-A as he tries to get his offensive game to match up with his defensive abilities.

Someone Outside the Organization

Those are the three main options the Pirates have right now, but there is still a lot of off-season to go. Cherrington could swing a deal for a player not currently on the Pirates roster to serve as the back-up catcher. We profiled free agent catcher Tyler Flowers on last week's Free Agent Friday, and that is just one option for the Pirates. Last season, it was John Ryan Murphy who came in as the veteran behind the plate for Pittsburgh. This year, it could be someone else with names like Josh Phegley, Jame McCann, and Robinson Chirinos all on the market, there are plenty of veteran options if Cherrington wants to go after them.

If the season started today, my best guess would be Michael Perez as the back-up to Stallings with Kelley and Maile splitting time in the Minor Leagues. Perez has the most experience in big-game situations of anyone on the Pirates and can provide a spark behind the plate. He will challenge Stallings to continue his strong performance from the 2020 season, lest he loses his job. At just 28-years-old, Perez can also be a guy who steps in when Stallings moves on and take over while the Pirates continue to build their Minor League catching depth. Stallings is still one of the best catchers in the league, but a catcher is only as strong as his support system.

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