Mike Redmond is the latest catcher to be named a major league manager, but interestingly the trend continues of Redmond being another manager who was not a major league catching hitting star. With two vacancies remaining, 13 of the 28 current major league managers have catching experience in the majors or minors.
In this season’s postseason, the final four teams all were managed by catchers.
- Bruce Bochy – Lifetime .239 hitter with 26 homers and 93 RBI in 358 career games.
- Jim Leyland – Minor league catcher only
- Mike Matheny - Lifetime .239 hitter with 67 homers and 443 RBI in 1305 career games.
- Joe Girardi - Lifetime .267 hitter with 36 homers and 422 RBI in 1277 career games.
As you can see, to be a successful manager you don’t have to have been a particularly successful big league hitter.
In fact, it may prove that the best catcher/managers may not be great hitters at all.
Here are the 25 catchers with the most career homers:
| Rk | Player | HR |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Piazza | 427 |
| 2 | Johnny Bench | 389 |
| 3 | Carlton Fisk | 376 |
| 4 | Yogi Berra | 358 |
| 5 | Lance Parrish | 324 |
| 6 | Gary Carter | 324 |
| 7 | Ivan Rodriguez | 311 |
| 8 | Jorge Posada | 275 |
| 9 | Javy Lopez | 260 |
| 10 | Ted Simmons | 248 |
| 11 | Mickey Tettleton | 245 |
| 12 | Roy Campanella | 242 |
| 13 | Gabby Hartnett | 236 |
| 14 | Benito Santiago | 217 |
| 15 | Todd Hundley | 202 |
| 16 | Bill Dickey | 202 |
| 17 | Gene Tenace | 201 |
| 18 | Bill Freehan | 200 |
| 19 | Jason Varitek | 193 |
| 20 | Ernie Lombardi | 190 |
| 21 | Darrell Porter | 188 |
| 22 | Mike Stanley | 187 |
| 23 | Del Crandall | 179 |
| 24 | Walker Cooper | 173 |
| 25 | Charles Johnson | 167 |
Of the catchers on this list, Yogi (930 games) and Del Crandall (833 games) were MLB managers for any length. The others on this list who managed were Gabby Hartnett (383 games) , Bill Dickey (105 games), and Gene Tenace (33 games).
We’ll have more on this in the coming days, it’s great Hot Stove talk.
