Starting Catcher
This Spring Training battle won’t really have any active roster implications like the previous battles in this list. However, it’s going to be interesting to watch with two brand new catchers in the locker room this spring.
With the two new additions behind the dish, generally, we’ll likely see one catcher three times through the rotation and the other two times. But management will likely end up favoring one over the other where possible and will end up starting 100 or so games.
Yan Gomes has to be the favorite to be the de-facto starter. Coming off of an All-Star season with the Cleveland Indians, he’s proven himself as a solid hitter, at least by catcher’s stands, after slashing .266/.313/.449 with 16 home runs and 48 RBI.
While Kurt Suzuki, who is returning to D.C. on a two-year deal also has the offensive stats, Gomes is far superior defensively at this point in his career. We’ve previously looked at the Brazilian’s defense, especially his blocking and how it may make him the team’s best acquisition this offseason.
A possible way for this to play out could be Gomes taking on Max Scherzer, Patrick Corbin and Jeremy Hellickson for the majority of their starts. That would leave Suzuki to catch Stephen Strasburg and Anibal Sanchez, the latter of whom Suzuki had a lot of success with last year. That would make Yan Gomes the starter, by default.
Prediction: Yan Gomes