UTK Special 11/17/25

Catching the Risk

Signing Josh Naylor is fine. Some people will argue about the money, the value, how he fits on the team, and the roster spots. For us, though, this move pushes us to talk about something front offices should have been discussing a long time ago. Seattle now has Naylor, Cal Raleigh, and Harry Ford. That means three players who can catch and three strong hitters you want in the lineup. And there’s one question that no one seems comfortable asking straight out.

Why do we still act like star catchers need to catch every day, even when we know how risky the position is?

This isn’t about what catching means in a pure baseball sense. It’s not about calling pitches, working with pitchers, framing, or receiving or any new term that might pop up next season to describe the connection between a catcher and the umpires. Smart people disagree on how much of this stuff you can measure, how important it is, and how things might change with automated strike zones coming, but that’s not the point here.

Catching is the toughest job in baseball when it comes to getting hit. It’s the only position where you might do everything right but still end up missing six weeks because of one bad foul tip. Sure, every position has some risk, but looking at the numbers and common sense, catchers have the highest chance of getting hurt.

Oh it’s just getting good. You can’t squint like you did at Skinemax when you were a teenager, but you can pay me $5 a month and you get everything. Please consider it.