Derek Shelton Excited About Pirates' Depth At Catcher
Heading into the 2025 season, few positions boast more depth for the Pittsburgh Pirates than catcher.
Joey Bart emerged as a top option for the Pirates after they acquired him via trade at the beginning of the 2024 season from the San Francisco Giants. Along with Bart, Endy Rodríguez and Henry Davis are two other options who could play a big role behind the dish for Pittsburgh next year.
Pirates general manager Ben Cherington said at the Winter Meetings that Bart will get the first crack at catcher and manager Derek Shelton believes the former No. 2 overall pick is only scratching the surface of his potential.
"It's one of those things everybody wants to put a timeline on what a prospect should be," Shelton said at the Winter Meetings. "Sometimes it takes a little bit longer. Sometimes it takes a change of scenery. I think what we saw was a really productive major league player, and he got volume last year catching. We will take that next step forward in terms of how he drives the ball [and] how he controls at-bats. The steps forward he made last year were really impactful for us."
Bart, 28, strung together the best season of his young career, posting a career-best 2.2 Wins Above Replacement and he batted .265/.337/.462 with 13 home runs and 45 RBIs in 80 games. Bart also had a 120 OPS+, which was also the best of his career. Had he not missed time due to multiple injuries, Bart could have had an even better breakout campaign for Pittsburgh.
Along with Bart, Rodríguez, 24, should make his return to the big leagues after nearly all of last year due to UCL surgery. The switch-hitting catcher played in 10 games across Double-A Altoona and Triple-A Indianapolis at the end of last season. Rodríguez was the Pirates' top prospect before being called up to the big leagues in 2023 and he batted .220/.284/.328 with 3 home runs and 13 RBIs across 57 games.
Davis, 25, was the No. 1 overall pick for Pittsburgh in the 2021 MLB Draft. While Davis has torn up minor league pitching, that success has struggled to carry over into the majors. Davis has batted .191/.283/.307 with 8 home runs and 29 RBIs across 99 games in the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
If Rodríguez and Davis can find their way in the big leagues, the Pirates could have one of the best trios of catchers in baseball. And given Bart's success after struggling in his first few seasons, Shelton wouldn't be surprised to see Rodríguez and Davis take the next step in 2025.
"Everything doesn't work on the timeline we want," Shelton said. "But we're really excited about our catching group. We're really happy with the work and the process that going so we should have a deep group going into camp."
