MLB Network continued their annual rankings of the top 10 players at each position on Saturday night. Catcher was one of the positions they ranked and Yasmani Grandal got the top spot in all of baseball on the list.
Grandal, 31, certainly deserves that given his strong offensive numbers regardless of the position he plays with a .246/.380/.468 slash line, 28 home runs, 77 RBI, and 121 wRC+.
In fact, his offense was so valuable this past season that the Milwaukee Brewers had him play 143 innings at first base in order to keep his bat in the lineup on his off days from catching.
However, he did rank second behind J.T. Realmuto in fWAR (5.7) as Grandal had a 5.2 fWAR in 2019.
Defensively, Grandal was elite as well with the second-most framing runs (19.4), third-most FRAA (20.1), and 14th-best blocking runs (1.8) according to Baseball Prospectus.
The switch hitter was a phenomenal addition for the White Sox as they look to develop their young pitchers in 2020.
Having a catcher as strong defensively behind the dish certainly adds comfort for a pitching staff as they look to establish themselves at the big league level.
While James McCann was solid for the team offensively in 2019, his defense is below average and the South Side is much better off with Grandal and his ranking by MLB Network further exemplifies it.
Outside of Realmuto and Grandal, there are not many truly elite catchers on both sides of the ball and the list shows that.
The other starting catcher in Chicago, Willson Contreras, ranked third on the list followed by Twins’ catcher, Mitch Garver.
Gary Sanchez, Wilson Ramos, Robinson Chirinos, Buster Posey, Yadier Molina, and Omar Narvaez rounded out the list.
Grandal could very well turn out to be the best signing the team has made in years and if the White Sox are going to contend in 2020, he’s going to play a major part in that.