d’Arnaud, Contreras, & Proactive Prolongation
How being proactive & honest can help all involved.
Travis d’Arnaud & William Contreras have formed baseball’s best catching duo of 2022. What’s even more encouraging is the fact that they both individually embody the catcher of the future.
Let me explain: when robotic laser equipment is used across Major League Baseball to call balls and strikes, the art & need for pitch framing will be nonexistent. In turn, transforming the catching position into an offensive-centric position, with a side of pitch reception (including blocking).
There’s also an argument for the ability to throw runners out to become a more sought-after trait in a catching acquisition. BUT, MLB is making no bones about their desire for there to be more runs manufactured by way of the stolen base. They’ve already taken the first step of giving the elite runners a free pass to 2nd base by installing bigger bases in MiLB’s lower levels, to be implemented in MLB in the near future. So if a team signs a catcher for his ability to shut down the run game, that catcher will have to be so elite in that aspect that their offense doesn’t matter.
The Tyler Flowers’ of the world will no longer have a place in baseball. To some extent, neither will the Yadier Molinas.
Luckily, both Travis d’Arnaud & William Contreras are top-10 offensive catchers in baseball. You might’ve heard, they were both named to the National League All-Star team this season, William as the DH.
Translation: the Braves have the exact two catchers needed in tomorrow’s game.
The Future, Deeper
Now that we’ve established our top two catchers are the guys we need moving forward, how do we move forward?