Although the Arizona Diamondbacks are one of the newest teams in the big leagues, they've already had a handful of talented catchers appear on the roster at one time or another. 

This article focuses on these players, as we highlight the best Arizona Diamondbacks catchers in team history based on each player's career and single season Wins Above Replacement (WAR).

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Background on the Diamondbacks

The Arizona Diamondbacks franchise was born in the last MLB expansion in 1998. That season, the purple and teal Dbacks joined the equally colorful Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the major leagues, becoming - and still remaining - the newest teams in the league. 

In just their fourth season, the Diamondbacks shocked America by defeating the mighty New York Yankees with a walk-off hit in game 7 of the World Series. With their 2001 World Series victory, the Dbacks became the fastest expansion team to win a World Series championship in baseball history.

Two legendary pitchers - Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling - helped lead Arizona to that Series title over the Yankees, and other solid players like Paul Goldschmidt and Brandon Webb have also rocked Dbacks jerseys over the years.

In addition to these men, a number of talented and productive catchers have spent time with the Diamondbacks. This article highlights these catchers in more detail, as we showcase Arizona's best backstops since 1998.

Wins Above Replacement (WAR)

The baseball metric known as Wins Above Replacement, or WAR, does a phenomenal job of capturing and communicating the comprehensive value that a player has from both an offensive and defensive perspective. 

If you want to better understand WAR, this write-up provides a good overview.

For this article, we researched each and every catcher to have played for the Arizona Diamondbacks since 1998, then we ranked them by their highest career and single-season WAR (using the Fangraphs calculation, also known as fWAR).  

Keep reading to find out who the top three Diamondbacks catchers of all time are based on WAR, starting with the career WAR leaders.

Top 3 Diamondbacks Catchers by Career WAR

Please note: The catcher must have at least 100 defensive games played as a member of the Diamondbacks to be eligible for our career WAR list.

#1. Miguel Montero, 27.2 career WAR

The best Diamondback catcher in team history, according to WAR, is Miguel Montero. 

The Venezuelan native made his major league debut with the D-backs in 2006. He would go on to spend 13 years in the MLB, nine of which were in Phoenix. 

Miggy had a .751 OPS and a .256/.340/.411 career slash line with a total of 973 hits, 126 home runs and 550 RBIs. 

He caught 8,879 innings across his big league career. Montero had a strong lifetime fielding percentage as a catcher of .990 and he had a 26% caught stealing percentage (CS%).

Montero made two all star teams (2011, 2014) and earned NL MVP shares in two seasons (2011, 2012). Later in his career, he earned a world series ring with the 2016 Chicago Cubs.

#2. Alex Avila, 15.0 career WAR through 2021

The most recent active catcher on our list, Alex Avila played in 13 seasons in the major leagues, two of which were with the Dbacks (2018 - 2019).

Over the course of his career in the bigs, Avila has a .233 batting average and has collected 715 hits, 105 homers and 397 RBIs (through the 2021 season).

Avila has appeared in 929 defensive games behind the plate and he has maintained an excellent career fielding percentage as a catcher of .995. He has thrown out a total of 213 runners attempting to steal, which is good for a 30% CS%. 

For multiple seasons, Avila has led league catchers in runners caught stealing, double plays turned and putouts, among other categories. He was an all star in 2011 while with the Detroit Tigers, and he also won a silver slugger that year.

#3. Damian Miller, 12.5 career WAR

Damian Miller was a member of the Diamondbacks’ inaugural 1998 team and the 2001 World Series championship team. In fact, he was Arizona’s primary catcher during the Series and he played an important role in the amazing comeback that the Dbacks had in the crucial ninth inning of game seven.

The Wisconsin product and one-time all star played a total of 11 seasons in the big leagues, five of which were in Phoenix (1998 - 2002). He owns a .262/.329/.411 slash line with 834 hits, 87 home runs and 406 RBIs over his career.

A strong defensive catcher, Miller has a lifetime .995 fielding percentage behind the dish and he led league catchers in this category twice. His 37% career CS% is much higher than the league average of the time.

Honorable Mentions

• Chris Snyder, 7.4 career WAR

• Kelly Stinnett, 4.0 career WAR

 

Top 3 Seasons by Diamondbacks Catchers, Ranked by WAR

Please note: The catcher must have at least 70 defensive games played in one season as a member of the Diamondbacks to be eligible for the single-season WAR list.

#1. 2011 - Miguel Montero (5.9 WAR)

The best single-season that a Diamondbacks catcher has had based on WAR is Miguel Montero's 2011 campaign.

That year, the 27 year old Montero hit .282/.351/.469. He had career highs in multiple offensive categories such as doubles (36), home runs (18), total bases (231), and more.

Behind the dish in 2011, Montero kept a .989 fielding percentage and he led all NL catchers in CS% (40%) and total zone runs (9). 

Miggy helped lead the 2011 Dbacks to a first place finish in the NL West. Of note, he made his first all star team that year and he finished the season with two points in NL MVP voting.

#2. 2012 - Miguel Montero (5.6 WAR)

In 2012, Montero had a strong follow-up season to his all star campaign the previous year. 

Montero hit .286 in 2012, matched a career high in hits (139) and reached a career high in RBIs (88). He also hit 15 home runs that season and had an .829 OPS.

Defensively, Montero played in a league leading (and career high) 139 defensive games behind the plate, and he had a career high 42% CS% that season. He also kept a solid .992 fielding percentage and led league catchers with 1,008 putouts.

Although Miggy didn’t make the all star team in 2012, he finished the season with an NL MVP point.

#3. 2009 - Miguel Montero (4.5 WAR)

Miguel Montero's first season in the majors where he appeared in more than 100 games came in 2009. The then-25 year old caught 68% of the Diamondbacks games that season under managers Bob Melvin and AJ Hinch.

Miggy hit a career high .294 in 2009 with 125 hits, 16 home runs and 59 RBIs. He also had a career-best .832 OPS that season.

Montero had a .989 fielding percentage and a 26% CS% in 2009. He tied for fourth in the NL that year in runners caught stealing (23).

List of All Diamondbacks Catchers With a 2.0+ WAR Season

If a catcher has a year with a 2.0 or better WAR, that typically indicates that they had a productive season. 

A few Dbacks catchers have reached - and in some cases - exceeded this mark since the franchise got its start in 1998.   

Take a look at the list below to learn more about every Diamondbacks catcher in the team’s history to have had a 2.0 + WAR in a single season.

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Diamondbacks Catchers over the Last 10 Years

Please note: catchers appear in the order of games caught that season for the Dbacks. Catchers with the greatest number of games caught per season start at the top. 

2014 Diamondbacks - Finished fifth in NL West 

• Miguel Montero (primary)
• Tuffy Gosewisch
• Bobby Wilson

 

2015 Diamondbacks - Finished third in NL West

• Welington Castillo (primary)
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia
• Tuffy Gosewisch
• Jordan Pacheco
• Oscar Hernandez
• Gerald Laird

 

2016 Diamondbacks - Finished fourth in NL West

• Welington Castillo (primary)
• Tuffy Gosewisch
• Chris Herrmann
• Oscar Hernandez

 

2017 Diamondbacks - Finished second in NL West, lost NLDS

• Chris Iannetta (primary)

• Jeff Mathis
• Chris Herrmann
• John Ryan Murphy

 

2018 Diamondbacks - Finished third in NL West

• John Ryan Murphy (primary)

• Jeff Mathis
• Alex Avila
• Chris Stewart

 

2019 Diamondbacks - Finished second in NL West

• Carson Kelly (primary)
• Alex Avila
• John Ryan Murphy
• Caleb Joseph

 

2020 Diamondbacks - Finished fifth in NL West

• Carson Kelly (primary)
• Stephen Vogt
• Daulton Varsho

 

2021 Diamondbacks - Finished fifth in NL West

• Carson Kelly (primary)
• Daulton Varsho
• Stephen Vogt
• Bryan Holaday

 

2022 Diamondbacks - Finished fourth in NL West

• Carson Kelly (primary)
• Jose Herrera
• Daulton Varsho
• Cooper Hummel
• Grayson Greiner

 

2023 Diamondbacks - Finished second in NL West, lost World Series

• Gabriel Moreno (primary)
• Jose Herrera
• Carson Kelly
• Seby Zavalla

 

Complete List of All Diamondbacks Catchers Over the Last 10 Years

The below list shows every Arizona Diamondbacks catcher to have appeared in at least one defensive game as a catcher for the team since 2013. 

Players below are listed in alphabetical order by their first name.

• Alex Avila
• Bobby Wilson
• Bryan Holaday
• Caleb Joseph
• Carson Kelly
• Chris Herrmann
• Chris Iannetta
• Chris Stewart
• Cooper Hummel
• Daulton Varsho
• Gabriel Moreno
• Gerald Laird
• Grayson Greiner
• Jarrod Saltalamacchia
• Jeff Mathis
• John Ryan Murphy
• Jordan Pacheco
• Jose Herrera
• Miguel Montero
• Oscar Hernandez
• Seby Zavalla
• Stephen Vogt
• Tuffy Gosewisch
• Welington Castillo

 

That’s a Wrap!

Thanks so much for stopping by Catchers Home to read this article. We hope you found it to be interesting and useful. 

We’re always happy to hear from readers, so if you have questions or comments please reach out to us. You can leave a message via our contact page or by sending an email to scott (at) catchershome (dot) com.

 

Sources for this Article

• AZ Central

• Baseball Reference

• Fangraphs

• Retrosheet