C: Jett Bandy/Manny Pina

If this were a real All-Star team, my editor would lock me in a broom closet until I tearfully chose one of the two batting title-qualified catchers carrying an
C: Jett Bandy/Manny Pina
C: Jett Bandy/Manny Pina /

If this were a real All-Star team, my editor would lock me in a broom closet until I tearfully chose one of the two batting title-qualified catchers carrying an OPS above .750 (flip a coin for the Marlins' J.P. Realmuto or the Astros' Brian McCann). But it’s April and so I'm going with the two-headed beast that’s emerged in Milwaukee in the wake of the trades that sent Jonathan Lucroy to Texas last August and Martin Maldonado to the Angels in December. The latter deal brought back the 27-year-old Bandy, whose name wouldn’t be out of place in a Star Wars movie. Bandy’s been paired with Pina, a 30-year-old rookie who passed through four organizations while amassing a total of 98 big league plate appearances from 2004 to '16; in roughly equal playing time, the duo has combined to hit a sizzling .369/.411/.655 with five homers, four of them by Bandy. Pina thrown out five of 13 would-be base thieves and climbed into the top 10 among Baseball Prospectus' best pitch framers. ​


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