One of the most important skills a catcher should have is quickness, especially when it comes to quickly throwing out a runner attempting to steal.

A statistic used to help measure this is called pop time.

In this article, we go into detail about pop time for catchers and we showcase MLB catchers who stand out in this area.

What is Pop Time in Baseball?

Pop time is a relatively new statistic used in both baseball and fastpitch softball.

Measured in seconds, pop time tracks how quickly a catcher gets the ball out of their glove and throws it to a base on a steal attempt. 

Take a moment to watch this brief video which highlights the quick pop times of a variety of MLB catchers a few seasons ago.

How is Pop Time Measured?

The pop time clock begins as soon as the pitch hits the catcher's mitt and ends when the infielder receives the ball at the base.

Two sub-components of pop time are exchange time and arm speed, or velocity, which we discuss later in this article.

MLB Catchers Pop Time - Top 5

This section explores Major League Baseball (MLB) catchers with the best pop time. 

To compile our list, we used data from the 2022 season, which is the most current dataset from a full MLB season that's available.

For the list, catchers must have a minimum of five attempts to throw out a runner stealing second and at least one attempt to throw out a runner stealing third. 

Following this approach, the MLB catchers with the best pop time are as follows:

Best Average Pop Time to Second Base

Note: team names are those the player was on in 2022.

The catcher with the fastest pop time in MLB in 2022 was J.T. Realmuto, as you can see in the following list. Others in the top five are in this list as well.

What was J.T. Realmuto's pop time to second base on average that season? It was just 1.82 seconds.

1. J.T. Realmuto of the Philadelphia Phillies - 1.82 seconds

2. (Tie) Sean Murphy of the Oakland A's, Jorge Alfaro of the San Diego Padres, Rene Pinto of the Tampa Bay Rays, and Christian Bethancourt of the Tampa Bay Rays - 1.89 seconds

3. Chuckie Robinson of the Cincinnati Reds - 1.90 seconds

4. Garrett Stubbs of the Philadelphia Phillies - 1.91 seconds

5. (Tie) Martin Maldonado of the Houston Astros, Connor Wong of the Boston Red Sox and Gabriel Moreno of the Toronto Blue Jays - 1.92 seconds

 

You may have noticed that one of the most famous recent MLB catchers, Yadier Molina, was not in the above list - which was his last season in the big leagues. 

What was Yadier Molina's pop time to second base you ask? In 2022, Yadi's average pop time to second was 2.05 seconds. 

Best Average Pop Time to Third Base

The catcher with the fastest pop time in MLB on throws to third base was a tie between J.T. Realmuto and Sean Murphy. Take a look at the full list. 

1. (Tie) J.T. Realmuto of the Philadelphia Phillies and Sean Murphy of the Oakland A's - 1.40 seconds

2. Elias Diaz of the Colorado Rockies - 1.43 seconds

3. Aramis Garcia of the Cincinnati Reds - 1.45 seconds

4. Willson Contreras of the Chicago Cubs - 1.47 seconds

5. (Tie) Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals and Martin Maldonado of the Houston Astros - 1.48 seconds

 

MLB Catchers Pop Time - Bottom 5

Worst Average Pop Time to Second Base

Note: team names are those the player was on in 2022.

65. Stephen Vogt of the Oakland A's - 2.12 seconds

64. Yasmani Grandal of the Chicago White Sox - 2.09 seconds

63. (Tie) Michael Papierski of the Cincinnati Reds and Austin Romine of the Cincinnati Reds - 2.08 seconds

62. Kurt Suzuki of the Los Angeles Angels - 2.07 seconds

61. (Tie) Patrick Mazeika of the New York Mets and Austin Barnes of the Los Angeles Dodgers - 2.06 seconds

 

Worst Average Pop Time to Third Base

65. Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals - 1.95 seconds

64. (Tie) Francisco Mejia of the Tampa Bay Rays and Joey Bart of the San Francisco Giants - 1.73 seconds

63. Curt Casali of the Seattle Mariners - 1.71 seconds

62. Patrick Mazeika of the New York Mets - 1.70 seconds

61. Tres Barrera of the Washington Nationals - 1.69 seconds

 

The Rest of the Pack

Although we’ve looked at each end of the pop time spectrum, there are a wide variety of pro catchers with pop times somewhere in the middle.

This table shows you the pop time of all the other MLB catchers - those whose average times weren’t the best or the worst.

Averages to Second Base (Middle Group)

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Averages to Third Base (Middle Group)

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What is the Overall Average MLB Pop Time?

Using statistics from the 2022 season, the average MLB pop time is 1.98 seconds.

That 1.98 seconds statistic is the average pop time to second base among all MLB catchers in 2022 with at least five throws to second on attempted steals. This is an improvement over the average MLB pop time from 2019, which was 2.01 seconds.

Fastest Exchange Time Among MLB Catchers - Top 5

A major component of pop time, exchange time is a metric for catchers that comes into play during a stolen base attempt.

It measures the amount of time it takes, in seconds, from the point at which the ball enters the catcher’s mitt to when the catcher releases the ball on his throw to either second or third base (depending on the location of the steal attempt).

Using our data from 2022, the top MLB catchers with the quickest exchange time on throws to second base are listed below.

1. Tomas Nido of the New York Mets - 0.63 seconds

2. (Tie) J.T. Realmuto of the Philadelphia Phillies, Reese McGuire of the Boston Red Sox and Gabriel Moreno of the Toronto Blue Jays - 0.66 seconds

3. (Tie) Nick Fortes of the Miami Marlins, Christian Vazquez of the Houston Astros and Jose Trevino of the New York Yankees - 0.67 seconds

4. (Tie) Mike Zunino of the Tampa Bay Rays, Yan Gomes of the Chicago Cubs, Kyle Higashioka of the New York Yankees, Stephen Vogt of the Oakland A's, Austin Barnes of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Tucker Barnhart of the Detroit Tigers - 0.68 seconds

5. (Tie) Salvador Perez of the Kansas City Royals, Andrew Knapp of the San Francisco Giants - 0.69 seconds

 

MLB Catchers with the Fastest Arm - Top 5

Another element of pop time is the catcher’s velocity when throwing to a base on a stolen base attempt. 

It is measured in miles per hour (MPH) and is simply the speed of the catcher's throw to a base.

Big league catchers with the fastest velocity on stolen base attempts to second base in 2022 are listed below.

1. Christian Bethancourt of the Tampa Bay Rays - 88.3 MPH

2. Jorge Alfaro of the San Diego Padres - 88.2 MPH

3. Sam Huff of the Texas Rangers - 88.1 MPH

4. J.T. Realmuto of the Philadelphia Phillies - 87.6 MPH

5. (Tie) Francisco Mejia of the Tampa Bay Rays and Shea Langeliers of the Oakland A's - 86.9 MPH

 

Top Amateur Catchers Pop Time and Draft Picks

Perfect Game measures pop time for catching prospects at the high school level who attend their showcase events. 

Many of these elite high school catchers have incredible pop times, especially when compared with averages at the MLB level.

We thought it would be interesting to look at those amateur catchers with the highest pop time from past Perfect Game showcases and explore whether or where they ended up being drafted.

We use data from high school showcases in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in our analysis. Keep in mind that these pop times are the player’s one-time best and not overall averages as the MLB times are above.

See below for details.

Top 5 Times in 2013

1. Brian Navarreto - 1.80 seconds

• Drafted? Yes, 6th round of the 2013 draft
• MLB Debut? Yes, 2020

 

2. Brandon Davis - 1.82 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

3/4/5. (tied) Nick Ciuffo - 1.83 seconds

• Drafted? Yes, 1st round of the 2013 draft
• MLB Debut? Yes, 2018

 

3/4/5. (tied) Andrew Dunlap - 1.83 seconds

• Drafted? Yes, 33rd round of the 2013 draft
• MLB Debut? No

 

3/4/5. (tied) Mickey Peterson - 1.83 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

Top 5 Times in 2014

1. Alex Jackson - 1.73 seconds

• Drafted? Yes, 1st round of the 2014 draft
• MLB Debut? Yes, 2019

 

2. Seth Wall - 1.84 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

3. Darren Miller - 1.85 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

4/5. (tied) Robbie Nardelli - 1.87 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

4/5. (tied) Ryan McCullers - 1.87 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

Top 5 Times in 2015

1. Sam Wheatley - 1.83 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

2. Dominic DiCaprio - 1.83 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

3. Noah Croft - 1.91 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

4. William Hancock - 1.91 seconds

• Drafted? Yes, 31st round of the 2018 draft
• MLB Debut? No (at the AAA-level as of 2022)

 

5. (tied) Wyat Maxwell - 1.94 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

5. (tied) Zeke Pinkham - 1.94 seconds

• Drafted? No
• MLB Debut? No

 

Of note, while the majority of the (then) high school catchers mentioned above did not get drafted, almost all of them played NCAA baseball at the division 1 level.

That's a Wrap!

Hopefully you found this article about catcher pop time to be useful and interesting! 

If you'd like to reach out, please do so by going to our contact page or by sending an email to scott (at) catchershome (dot) com. 

Thanks for stopping by Catchers Home.

 

Sources

• Baseball Reference
• MLB
• Perfect Game
• Statcast