Black catchers might soon be back behind MLB plate
TEMPE, Ariz. – It’s the most stunning, appalling and numbing statistic in all of baseball.
It has been 20 years since there was an African American everyday catcher in Major League Baseball.
Major League Baseball has seen the Black population decline to just 6.1% on opening-day rosters this past year – the lowest percentage since 1955 – and no position has had a steeper decline than catcher.
Oh, there have been backup catchers along the way like Lenny Webster and Terry McGriff and most recently Bruce Maxwell. There have been catchers who came up briefly like Chuckie Robinson of the Cincinnati Reds in 2022.
But as far as an everyday African American catcher?
Not since Charles Johnson in 2004. “I don’t have an answer for it, I really don’t,” said MLB executive Theo Epstein, who won three World Series titles as a general manager with the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. “It’s strange.”
It would be naïve to believe racial bias isn’t involved to some extent, but it’s much more than that. It’s not necessarily a matter of money for baseball equipment, youth officials say, considering there’s shin guards and masks usually available shared among youth teams.
With such a scarcity of Black catchers, there’s really no one for kids to emulate.
Who wants to play a position when there’s no one who looks like you?
“I think it’s one of those positions where there are so few scouts who were former catchers,” said former Angels catcher Darrell Miller, who is director of MLB’s urban youth academy in Compton, California, “and they don’t know really what to look for. They don’t have a clue what goes into being a major league catcher. No one really knows the position.
No one really understands it.
“So teams see an athletic kid and move him to another position. They see a valuable bat, or a great arm, and don’t want to mess him up being behind the plate. The young athletic African American athletes are kind of being pigeonholed into different positions.”
This troubled approach is why it’s such a beautiful sight this weekend at the Los Angeles Angels spring training complex in Tempe, Arizona. There were 15 Black high school catchers together at Major League Baseball’s DREAM Series, celebrating Martin Luther King Jr.,
hoping to open baseball’s eyes.
None of these catchers were even born the last time Johnson, a two-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner, played in a game.
Their parents weren’t even alive to see catching greats Roy Campanella, Elston Howard, John Roseboro or Earl Battey play.
“I want to be someone that kids can look up to and believe they can be a catcher too,” said Sir Jamison Jones, who is projected to be drafted in the first three rounds this summer and has a college scholarship to Oklahoma State. “People ask how I chose to be a catcher. I tell them catching kind of chose me. I remember they needed a catcher in a game one day, I volunteered, and fell in love with it. It just grew up on me.
“It’s a high-demand position. You have to have leadership qualities. You have to be loud. You have to have your pitcher’s back. You have to be sane when everything’s going insane.”
And, yes, you have to understand why your peers may tease you, and wonder what’s wrong with you squatting behind home plate all day instead of playing a more glamorous position.
“A lot of kids don’t want to do it because I feel like it’s such a demanding position,” Jones said, “and they want to be cool. They don’t think putting on the gear is cool. Look, you’ve got to be a little crazy to catch and voluntarily getting beat up.
“But I want to do this. I’m going to catch for as long as God wants me to catch. I want to make it and have kids look up to me and say, ‘Hey, if he can do it, I can do it.’ ”
Jeter Worthley, named after the Hall of Famer, wants to prove to Black players that being a catcher is just like being the quarterback. You’re the leader. You control the action. You’re involved in every single pitch.
“I’ve been a catcher my whole life, and I love it,” said Worthley, who has committed to the University of Michigan. “My older brother was a pitcher, and I always caught him. So it was just like natural and I fell in love with it.”
Worthley has listened to friends and coaches try to talk him into switching positions. They see the speed. They wonder if he can be an outfielder or a shortstop. Why stay behind the plate?
“I wasn’t alive since there was a [Black] everyday catcher, so I’m like, ‘I want to keep trying to grow the game.’ Hopefully, I can make that difference. Hopefully, I can be that role model, and have kids that look like me catch, too.”
There is hope along the way with players Ian Moller, a Class A catcher in the Texas Rangers minor league system, considered by scouts as a potential everyday big-league catcher. Catchers George Baker and Zion Rose are playing collegiately at the University of Louisville with professional aspirations. Canadian catcher Bo Naylor has already reached the big leagues with the Cleveland Guardians.
“I see things changing,” said Marcus Jensen, the former backup catcher and now Oakland Athletics quality control coach, whose grandfather caught in the Negro Leagues. “I just think this has been a byproduct of the decrease in the Black population in baseball in general. The perception of the catching position is that it may not necessarily be the most athletic position, but I think that’s changing. There’s a lot of technicalities that come with the position, and we need more at the younger levels to teach it.
“It’s not a glamorous position by any means. It takes a certain mindset and desire and willingness to want to play it. ... But if you can handle the rigors of the position, you can play this game for a long time.
“I’m optimistic things will change.” Outside of players from Latin American countries, most catchers in today’s game come from the collegiate ranks.
Teams don’t want to take the time to develop catchers out of high school. They want kids who have already been groomed for the position.
Ivan Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican, was signed by the Rangers and won 13 Gold Glove awards en route to the Hall of Fame. The Molina brothers all became stars with Yadier Molina almost certainly headed to the Hall of Fame, too.
Yet, when it comes to Black catchers, they’ve become extinct.
“I think a lot of the catchers that we’re seeing are coming from Latin America because they’re being groomed early on,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of African American kids that love the game just as much as anyone else, but you’re seeing those guys get moved off the catcher’s position to protect their other tools.”
But Webster, who had a 12-year career as a backup catcher, predicts that Moller will be the next Black catcher to make it in the majors.
“It’s mind-boggling, to be honest with you, what’s happened,” said Webster. “Typically, they’ve been taking these athletic kids from back there and putting them in other positions. But that’s changing. We’ve got some pretty promising kids coming along through these programs and are starting to flourish. ...
“I believe the next kid to come along will be Moller. He’s a promising young man who catches and throws well and has a good head on his shoulders. He has a promising career. And once he makes it, I believe you’ll see others follow.
“Really, that’s the dream for all of us.”