The backup catcher is often one of the most easy-to-like players on a baseball team. Little is expected of him except for a basic kind of “don’t fail in obvious ways” defensive competence, and some positive hitting every now and again. The Orioles signed Gary Sánchez to inhabit the backup catcher role for the 2025 season. He did not get to experience a season as one of fans most-liked players on the team.

In the 2023 and 2024 seasons, the Orioles had a player who was pretty much the platonic ideal of a veteran backup catcher: James McCann. He was capable defensively and he hit just enough that you got a little bonus from him sometimes. The guy was also tough as nails, perhaps most famously with the Orioles playing through the first game of a doubleheader after getting hit in the face by a

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