So many catchers

It occurred to me that with Jonah Heim not going to be with the Rangers in 2026 (what a fall, but that’s another story), I thought I’d take a look back at our catching situation since Pudge came up many a moon ago.  When Pudge was our primary catcher, he’d catch something like 140 games or so, and our backup would only catch like one day a week, or the day game after a night game type of thing.  Since then, we’ve never had a dominant catcher like that.  A few times I thought we might have someone who would fit that bill, and I really thought we had found it when we got Heim from the A’s in the Elvis Andrus trade.  Especially in 2023, I really thought that, but no, he’s back down with the rest of the pack after his peak that year.

I wanted to go through and create a list of everyone who has caught a game for the Rangers since the early 90’s.  I suspect it will be a long list. I can remember the majority of these guys, but the actual game numbers they caught was something I had to go research.  A quick note – the numbers caught don’t always add up to 162, because it’s “games at catcher”, not “games started at catcher”.  Defensive subs or injuries will result in more than one guy catching per game.

With that in mind…

1991

Pudge came up on 20 Jun 1991, and never went back to the minors.  Despite that, Pudge started the most games of any of the six Rangers catchers we used that year, although Geno Petralli comes close.  Petralli caught 118 in the year before Pudge got here, so he was the primary before Pudge.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 88 (54.3%)
• Geno Petralli: 66
• Mike Stanley: 58
• John Russell: 5
• Mark Parent: 3
• Chad Kreuter: 1

1992

Pudge is now cemented as primary catcher for the Rangers, catching the majority of the games this year (116 out of 162).  Petralli is still here, but has clearly taken a back seat by the number of games he’s caught.  This is the last year for Bobby Valentine as manager.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 116 (71.6%)
• Geno Petralli: 54
• Russ McGinnis: 10
• Ray Stephens: 6
• John Russell: 4
• Doug Davis: 1

1993

Pudge continues as primary catcher under new manager Kevin Kennedy.  He cements this by increasing even further by catching now 82% of the total games the Rangers played this year. His second full season, there’s no doubt who the Rangers “guy” is behind the dish.  It’s also the last year for Geno Petralli, who retired after this year. Same for John Russell.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 134 (82.7%)
• Geno Petralli: 39
• John Russell: 11

1994

The season impacted by the strike was the first year the Rangers had only two catchers.  The game numbers are down of course because the season ended prematurely – no more games after 11 Aug.  This was also the only year for Junior Ortiz as Pudge’s backup, as he was out of ball after this year.  Starts a long sting of backups like that.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 99 (86.8%)
• Junior Ortiz: 34

1995

The 95 season had its total number of games reduced from 162 to 144 to accommodate less time due to the resumption of play after the end of the strike.  Pudge of course was the man again catching 127 out of the 144 games – a massive 88.2%.  It’s also the first year for Dave Valle as the backup.  I also totally forgot Mickey Tettleton caught a few games here – I remember him as a DH with the Rangers, but not as a catcher.  It is the last time he did that, though.  I’ll have to remember Tettleton for the Immaculate Grid, that would be a good answer.  It’s also the first year with Johnny Oates as manager, and the first year I started following the Rangers (because of Oates mostly).

• Ivan Rodriguez: 127 (88.2%)
• Dave Valle: 29
• Mickey Tettleton: 3
• John Marzano: 2

1996

The first year we made the playoffs.  I remember that well, was great times.  Great team too.  It’s also Pudge moving along at a stupid huge clip of games caught.  It’s also the second and final year for Dave Valle as backup.  He was a great backup, as all reports say he was a huge part of the clubhouse culture that year. Valle was also one of the backup broadcasters at the tail end of the Bally Sports era of TV broadcasting in the 2020’s.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 146 (90.1%)
• Dave Valle: 35
• Kevin Brown: 2 (not the pitcher)

1997

A down year for the team after making the playoffs.  It was also the first year I had season tickets for the Rangers (A mini plan, but still).   I remember Jim Leyritz well, but I thought he was the main backup guy behind Pudge this year – the numbers don’t bear that out.  I don’t remember Mercedes at all.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 143 (88.3%)
• Henry Mercedes: 23
• Jim Leyritz: 11
• Kevin Brown: 4

1998

Back the the playoffs, and just a two man catching tandem.  Bill Haselman returns to the team after being here briefly in 1990.  He and Pudge catch all the games this year, but it’s no surprise who caught more.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 139 (85.8%)
• Bill Haselman: 36

1999

Second year in a row we get to the playoffs, and the second year in a row with a two man catching tandem.  And was the pattern at the time each year brings a different backup catcher.  Out was Bill Haselman, in was Gregg Zaun.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 141 (87%)
• Gregg Zaun: 37

2000

Bill Haselman takes on a larger role here, as Ivan Rodriguez’s season ended on 24 Jul when he was hit by a bitch that broke his right thumb, and kept him out for the rest of the year.  Pudge STILL ended up catching the most games that year even though his final game was in July. It’s the lowest amount of games caught by Pudge as a Ranger (with the exception of 2009 when he came back for two months). We also have a larger cast of backups due to this.

This was also the year that Scott Sheldon became one of just five players to play all nine positions in a single game all time.  That happened on 6 Sep – you can see a clip of that here.  He was the emergency catcher that year too hence his two other appearances there.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 87 (53.7%)
• Bill Haselman: 62 (38.3%)
• B.J. Waszgis: 23
• Randy Knorr: 15
• Scott Sheldon: 3

2001

Pudge is back as the primary catcher, but with a slightly reduced workload.  His percentage caught is still high, but not stratospheric as it was in the mid/late 90’s.  Haselman remains as the backup, but with a pile of other backups too, including a final appearance there by Scott Sheldon.

It’s weird how the mind cheats, as I didn’t remember Marcus Jenson as a catcher – I thought he was an outfielder, but looking at his stats today, it’s all catcher.

It’s also the last year with Johnny Oates as manager – he was fired halfway through the season.  It was also the first year of the Alex Rodriguez experiment.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 106 (65.4%)
• Bill Haselman: 47
• Doug Mirabelli: 23
• Marcus Jensen: 11
• Mike Hubbard: 5
• Scott Sheldon: 1

2002

The third year in a row with Bill Haselman as the primary backup catcher.  It’s not just him as there’s a few other guys (and an experiment).  This must still be a concession to Pudge who is still by far the dominant catcher, but his percentage is down a bunch from the years before his hand got broken.  It is also the last year with Jerry Narron as manager.

• Ivan Rodriguez: 100 (61.73%)
• Bill Haselman: 67
• Todd Greene: 15
• Hector Ortiz: 7
• Mike Lamb: 3

2003

The first season without Pudge as a Texas Rangers player since 1990.  We’ve moved on from Bill Haselman as well.  Our primary catcher was someone new, and while Todd Greene was still around as a backup, he was never going to be “the man”.  Gerald Laid makes his first appearance.  Chad Kreuter also returns for a token appearance (after having caught for Texas from 1988-1991). It’s also the first year with Buck Showalter as our manager.  So changes all over the place.

• Einar Diaz: 101 (62.34%)
• Todd Greene: 51
• Gerald Laird: 16
• Chad Kreuter: 7

2004

The Einar Diaz era didn’t last one as we moved on to a new primary catcher in 2004 – Rod Barajas.  I recall thinking at the time he could have been a permanent ongoing replacement for Pudge, but he only lasted three years before moving on.  Laird is still here, too.

• Rod Barajas: 105 (64.81%)
• Gerald Laird: 49
• Ken Huckaby: 16
• Danny Ardoin: 6

2005

Barajas continues as the primary catcher, and while Gerald Laird remains, he’s not the primary backup.  A well traveled vet is brought in to be the main backup – Sandy Alomar Jr (brother of Roberto, son of Sandy Sr).  Also Barajas has a slightly higher workload than the primary catcher has had in the last 5 years or so prior to this.  Still not at Pudge’s stratospheric schedule, but this was where I thought he might be the “new Pudge” when his workload increased like this.

• Rod Barajas: 119 (73.46%)
• Sandy Alomar: 46
• Gerald Laird: 13

2006

Barajas’ third and final year saw a decrease in workload.  As I write this 19 years after the fact, I don’t recall if this was declining ability, or just Laird finally grasped the opportunity and took playing time – that part of it is lost to me right now.

• Rod Barajas: 94 (58.02%)
• Gerald Laird: 71
• Miguel Ojeda: 5

2007

2007 was the first year for Ron Washington as manager after Buck Showalter was let go.  They must have seen something in Laird, as he clearly became the top dog this year, with several new faces backing him up.

• Gerald Laird: 119 (73.46%)
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia: 22
• Chris Stewart: 17
• Adam Melhuse: 15
• Guillermo Quiroz: 8

2008

Laird retains top dog in 2008, but with a reduced workload.  Salty doubled his games and the other three combined for 30 games total.

• Gerald Laird: 88 (54.32%)
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia: 54
• Taylor Teagarden: 12
• Max Ramirez: 12
• Adam Melhuse: 6

2009

After the 2008 season, Laird was traded to the Tigers, and Salty was elevated to top dog, but not with a commanding percentage of games caught. The season also featured the return of Pudge Rodriguez, who appeared in 25 games in August & September that year before leaving for a good a second time after the end of the year.

• Jarrod Saltalamacchia: 83 (51.23%)
• Taylor Teagarden: 60
• Ivan Rodriguez: 25
• Kevin Richardson: 4

2010

Our first World Series team started off odd catcher wise.  Salty remained, but was traded to the Red Sox after the first week of the season for three players that never amounted to anything.  As such we ad a new guy as top dog this year, despite a few of the other tertiary catchers still hanging around.  We also had vet Bengie Molina as our primary backup, and Molina’s cycle in Boston – the clip of that is worth another watch.  It was one of the more evenly spread out catching crews, as the “top dog” caught exactly 50% of the games.

• Matt Treanor: 81 (50%)
• Bengie Molina: 55
• Taylor Teagarden: 28
• Max Ramirez: 26
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia: 1

2011

You’d think after getting to a World Series, the team would remain mostly intact, but it didn’t – at least not catching wise.  While we did get back, the bulk of the games caught were by two new guys to the Rangers.  Teagarden & Treanor were still here, but between the two of them, they caught just 21 games.

• Yorvit Torrealba: 98 (60.5%)
• Mike Napoli: 61
• Taylor Teagarden: 14
• Matt Treanor: 7

2012

The same two guys who had the most caught games last year also had the most caught this year, but the numbers were reversed.  Additionally, it’s the first time on this chart that I’ve put together where the “top dog” caught less than 50% of the games.  That’s a new wrinkle.

• Mike Napoli: 72 (44.4%)
• Yorvit Torrealba: 49
• Geovany Soto: 44
• Luis Martinez: 10
• Brandon Snyder: 1

2013

Only Soto remains from last year’s crew, and he’s the primary backup.  We brought in an old grizzled vet who was in his 16th year of 19 overall to be the primary catcher, putting up big numbers for the top dog of the catchers room this year.

• A.J. Pierzyński: 119 (73.46%)
• Geovany Soto: 53
• Robinson Chirinos: 3

2014

Robinson Chirinos gets promoted to top dog this year, and leads a crew of 5 overall guys who caught games in 2014.  Soto still carries over, but is the low man on the totem pole here.  He was traded to the A’s for cash in August.  Ron Washington also resigns in the middle of the season with Tim Bogar being interim manager for the remainder of the season.

• Robinson Chirinos: 91 (56.17%)
• Chris Gimenez: 26
• J.P. Arencibia: 22
• Tomas Telis: 17
• Geovany Soto: 10

2015

The first year with Jeff Banister as manager sees Robinson continue on as the main guy, but without 50% of the games caught.   We had five guys again catch, but 2-4 on the list caught a relatively similar amount of games – was oddly spread out here.

• Robinson Chirinos: 78 (48.14%)
• Chris Gimenez: 36
• Carlos Corporan: 31
• Bobby Wilson: 31
• Tomas Telis: 4

2016

The workload being more evenly spread out is even MORE of a thing in 2016 – makes me wonder if this was a Jeff Banister thing I never picked up when it was happening.  It’s an even lower percentage for the top dog.  If you’re reading this – do you remember something said about how evenly this stuff was spread out when Banister was here?  I certainly don’t.  What I do remember was thinking how good Lucroy was going to be when we got him via trade.  He was going to be our #1 catcher for 10 years, I was sure of it.  Then he fizzled.

• Robinson Chirinos: 54 (33.33%)
• Jonathan Lucroy: 44
• Bobby Wilson: 42
• Bryan Holaday: 27
• Brett Nicholas: 15

2017

Robinson goes back to catching more than 50% of the games in 2017, but still not a dominant amount.  It’s mostly back to a two man catching team with a couple of others handing a couple oddball starts at catcher.  This is more traditional in focus, while still under Jeff Banister.

• Robinson Chirinos: 85 (52.47%)
• Jonathan Lucroy: 66
• Brett Nicholas: 19
• AJ Jimenez: 5

2018

2018 has Jeff Banister manage nearly the entire season when he’s fired with 10 games to go, having Don Wakamatsu act as interim manager for the end of the season.  It was also the year where we experimented with trying to turn Isiah Kiner-Falefa into a catcher for awhile.  Robinson went back to a more “top dog” kind of number of games caught, and we saw the entrance of Jose Trevino this year.

• Robinson Chirinos: 108 (66.67%)
• Isiah Kiner-Falefa: 35
• Carlos Perez: 19
• Juan Centeno: 10
• Jose Trevino: 3

2019

2019 brings in new manager Chris Woodward.  It also brings in a totally new guy to be the #1 catcher while Trevino & Izzy are still here.   It’s also where they decided to not try and make Izzy a catcher anymore.  This was the final year for him at that position – with any team.

• Jeff Mathis: 86 (53.09%)
• Jose Trevino: 40
• Isiah Kiner-Falefa: 38
• Tim Federowicz: 29

2020

2020 was a bizarre year – for everything. The Covid year resulted in an extremely shortened MLB regular season of just 60 games.  Our catching crew was all holdovers from 2019 with one exception.  The fourth place guy was someone I think a lot of fans thought would be the next Pudge – but then wasn’t.  A familiar story.

• Jeff Mathis: 24 (40%)
• Jose Trevino: 21
• Robinson Chirinos:13
• Sam Huff: 10

2021

2021 sees Jose Trevino get the top dog spot, but he won’t hold it for long, as his #2 stays as our primary catcher for the next several years – that’s Jonah Heim who we got via trade when we sent Elvis off to the A’s.  At the time I thought it was a steal, Heim was gonna be “the guy” – yet another one I kept thinking would work out – and for a time it did.  But didn’t end up that way (see later entries).  We are at least back to a full schedule this year.

• Jose Trevino: 88 (54.32%)
• Jonah Heim: 78
• John Hicks: 8
• Yohel Pozo: 2

2022

2022 sees the end of Chris Woodward, who was fired with 48 games to go.  The remainder were managed by Tony Beasley, who honestly I would have liked to have seen kept as permanent manager.  Jonah gets the top dog spot with a heathly percentage of games caught.  Sam Huff is his primary backup – the other guys caught less.  Two of which I’d be surprised if most Rangers fans even remember.

• Jonah Heim: 111 (68.52%)
• Sam Huff: 29
• Meibrys Viloria: 20
• Mitch Garver: 14
• Kevin Plawecki: 3

2023

The first year of Bruce Freakin’ Bochy – I was stunned when we got him as manager.  He then tops if off by leading the 2023 squad to the World Series title.  Absolutely one of those sports moments where I knew what I was and what I was doing.  That playoffs gave us the line “…and I guess we’ll never know”.  haha.   Catching wise Heim cemented the position as top dog having an even higher percentage of games caught in 23 than he did in 22.  At this point I really DID think he was the second coming of Pudge.  Boy was I wrong about that.

Sam Huff has already kind of worn out his welcome, he has fizzled out by this point. Austin Hedges, couldn’t hit worth a darn, but man was he super important to the WS team from a chemistry standpoint, and I was a bit annoyed they didn’t keep Garver in 24.  I really thought he was superb compliment to Heim.

• Jonah Heim: 124 (76.53%)
• Mitch Garver: 28
• Sandy Leon: 21
• Austin Hedges: 15
• Sam Huff: 10

2024

Jonah still sees the vast majority of the starts at catcher this year, but his offense was in the toilet, he didn’t hit like he did in the title year.  OK, I was gonna let it slide as world series hangover.  His backup crew is all new.  Well, not *ALL* new, as Sam Huff was still hanging around, but he only caught two games in 2024,  and was gone when the Giants picked him up off waivers in the off season.  Carson Kelly was one I would have liked to have not let go either as he’s done quite well with the Cubs in 2025.

• Jonah Heim: 119 (73.46%)
• Andrew Knizner: 34
• Carson Kelly: 24
• Sam Huff: 2

2025

Jonah is still the main guy in 2025, but his numbers were down slightly – but not extremely so.  He still was the top dog in 2025, but his offense got even worse than 2024, and his attitude on the field was visibly bad.  Many fans (myself included) picked up on the fact that it seemed like he wanted to be anywhere else besides there.  We brought on Kyle Higashioka on a two year deal to lighten the load on Heim – at the time the thinking was if he didn’t have to catch AS much, perhaps his offense would recover.  It didn’t.

• Jonah Heim: 96 (59.26%)
• Kyle Higashioka: 71
• Tucker Barnhardt: 7

One thing that’s odd.  As I write this the 2025 season is over for the Rangers, but not over totally – the AL/NL DS is still happening.  My memory says we had more guys at catcher than this in this – the most recent season, but the stats say otherwise.  I could have sworn we had more backups than this, but no.

Summary

I was a little surprised it was Jonah Heim with 76.53%.   Three others (Rod Barajas, Gerald Laird, & AJ Pierzynski) all were at 73% – I honestly don’t remember any of those guys having 3/4 of the games caught in a single year.  The numbers don’t lie.

I have no idea how it will go in 2026 with Kyle Higashioka & Danny Jansen splitting time.  Probably close to 50/50, but we’ll find out.  Time always tells.