Buster Posey is slated to announce his retirement Thursday afternoon at Oracle Park, ending a tremendous career spent exclusively with the San Francisco Giants.
That's prompted some to say that Posey has been the best catcher at his era, though quite a few others have countered with Yadier Molina, who has announced that he'll wrap up his excellent run with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2022.
So who will finish with the better legacy? We took a deep dive, comparing and contrasting two of the most accomplished catchers in baseball history.
Traditional Stats
Posey (12 seasons): .302/.372/.460 with 158 home runs, 729 RBIs, 1,500 hits, 540 walks and .831 OPS
Molina (18 seasons): .280/.330/.402 with 171 home runs, 998 RBIs, 2,112 hits, 537 walks and .733 OPS
Advanced Numbers
Posey: 57.6 fWAR, 44.9 bWAR, 40.8 offensive WAR, 9.8 defensive WAR, 36.6 WAR 7, 40.7 JAWS
Molina: 55.6 fWAR, 42.1 bWAR, 28.5 offensive WAR, 26.8 defensive WAR, 28.7 WAR 7, 35.4 JAWS
- fWAR is FanGraphs' version of WAR, while bWAR is the formula used by Baseball Reference.
- WAR 7 is the top 7 bWAR totals that a player had in his career (not necessarily in order) combined. To put things in perspective, the average WAR 7 of a Hall of Fame catcher 34.8.
- JAWS is a sabermetric created by Jay Jaffe that "is their career WAR averaged with their 7-year peak WAR." The average JAWS of a Hall of Fame catcher is 44.3
Awards
Posey: 2010 NL Rookie of the Year Award, 2012 NL batting title, 2012 NL MVP, one-time Gold Glove Award winner, four-time Silver Slugger Award winner, seven-time All-Star and three-time World Series Champion
Molina: One-time Silver Slugger Award winner, nine-time Gold Glove Award winner, four-time Platinum Glove Award winner, 10-time All-Star and two-time World Series Champion
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Better Hitter?
Because of his longevity, Molina will top Posey in counting numbers, but there's not a debate about which one you would have rather had hitting in the middle of your lineup at their peak. Not only was Posey an elite offensive catcher, but he was one of the best pure hitters in the sport at the height of his powers. Molina turned himself into a very good hitter, but his calling card was always how he called a game behind the plate.
Better Fielder?
Posey deserves some credit here; he'll finish his career with 175 defensive runs saved, a 128.8 framing score and a Gold Glove Award. Frankly, he may have won more Gold Glove Awards if he didn't play in the National League.
But for much of his career, the Gold Glove Award among National League catchers has become the Molina Award. He's won the award nine times, behind 175 defensive runs saved and a career framing score of 145.4. The Platinum Glove Award -- given to the best overall defensive player in each league -- wasn't introduced until 2011, Molina's age-28 season. He's still managed to win the award four times. Just as far as defensive catchers go, Molina is one of the best we've ever seen.
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Who's Better?
In some senses, it depends what you value more, peak performance or longevity.
Between 2012 and 2016, Posey slashed .309/.377/.479 with 94 home runs and 439 RBIs. The only player who topped the 38.2 fWAR that Posey posted during this period was Mike Trout. If it takes more than one hand to count the catchers who have had better peaks that Posey, it's not that much more.
With that said, by the time Molina is done he will have played seven more seasons than Posey. That doesn't reflect poorly on Posey, but rather it speaks to the incredible longevity that Molina has had at a position that often breaks your body down.
The feeling here is that peak means a bit more than longevity, so we'd lean Posey. But that's not to take away from Molina's peak, and remarkable staying power.
Hall of Fame Cases
There will be some voters that hold Posey's relatively low counting numbers against him, but it's unlikely that will keep him out of the Hall of Fame, especially when you consider that catchers typically have shorter careers than players at other positions.
Posey will become eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot in 2027. Whether he gets in on the first ballot or not, he'll certainly get in at some point.
Some of Molina's advanced numbers are underwhelming when compared to other Hall of Fame catchers, but between him being an all-time defender and playing this long, the guess here is that he's going to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
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