Reese McGuire

McGuire was crowded out of a busy catcher room in Toronto last season and was shipped to the White Sox shortly before Opening Day. He struggled to a .546 OPS in 53 games before being flipped to the Red Sox at the deadline. His new home seemed to agree with him, as he closed the year with an .877 OPS in 36 contests for his new team. Altogether, he hit .269/.307/.369 (good for a 90 wRC+) with three homers in 274 trips to the plate, a fine but forgettable performance for a part-time catcher. When combined with his good framing numbers, that could be enough to make him a low-end starting catcher, a role he could fill in Boston this season if the team doesn't bring in a more proven option. If the playing time is there, that would make McGuire an acceptable deep-league catcher, as his 20.5 K% for his career means he should at least provide a decent average. Don't expect much pop, however, as he owns a career 3.0% barrel rate.

Heading into last year, some viewed McGuire as being on equal footing with Danny Jansen, with either capable of earning more playing time. While Jansen's play was poor in its own right, McGuire's .073/.073/.146 line earned him an early-September demotion to the Blue Jays' alternate training site, where he spent the rest of the regular season. Nothing went right for McGuire, from a 24.4 K% with no walks in 41 PA to an 82.1 mph average exit velocity. McGuire's prospect pedigree doesn't portend to anything more than a backup receiver, though he's above-average defensively and a .914 OPS in a 2018 cup of coffee lent hope for more. With the emergence of Alejandro Kirk, McGuire could be third in the pecking order. He could theoretically leapfrog one of them with a strong spring. Even in a weak catcher pool, McGuire merits little attention.

McGuire had an .872 OPS and 128 wRC+ in 105 plate appearances with Toronto last season and even gained the playing-time edge in September, logging 47 at-bats to Danny Jansen's 33. However, in his larger samples at the Triple-A level in 2018 and 2019, McGuire was 14% and 27% worse than league average by wRC+. He puts bat to ball with good consistency, but McGuire's walk rates have been just OK and Statcast says he overachieved in the slugging department by nearly 125 points last year. To his credit, McGuire was a plus behind the plate and nearly as valuable as Jansen by fWAR in 77 fewer games. With that, it looks like an open competition for the primary catcher role heading into spring training. It's better to use something closer to McGuire's Triple-A numbers (.239/.314/.350) as an offensive baseline rather than what he's done so far at the major-league level.

McGuire made his big-league debut in September as a 23-year-old, going 9-for-31 with a pair of homers in 14 games. That's far too small a sample to draw any meaningful conclusions from. His much larger 96-game sample with Triple-A Buffalo saw him hit an unimpressive .233/.312/.339. McGuire projected as a backup or low-end starter as a prospect, showcasing good defense and decent contact but very little power. His small-sample slugging percentage of .581 is promising, but he'll have to show power over a much longer period to really raise his stock. It's hard to see him playing a major part in Toronto this season, with Danny Jansen, a higher-rated prospect, taking over the starter's job. McGuire will battle Luke Maile for backup duties in spring training.

The 21-year-old has shown good plate discipline (66:102 BB:K ratio in career) but hasn’t shown much power (3 HR, 648 OPS). He’s hit for a decent average (.271), but it’s a defense-first philosophy that’s earned him accolades — McGuire has thrown out 34 percent of baserunners. A strong Arizona Fall League performance figures to boost his confidence at the plate. He’ll likely start the season with High-A Bradenton, shooting for a possible midseason promotion to Double-A.

A former first-round draft pick (14th overall in 2013), McGuire put up spotty offensive numbers for Low-A West Virginia last season. He batted .262/.307/.334 with three homers in 389 at-bats, showing little extra-base power. McGuire is a premier defensive handler, and Pittsburgh is focusing on his defensive skills first because, at age 20, he has plenty of time to worry about offense. He collected just one extra-base hit (a triple) versus left-handed pitching in 110 plate appearances last season, compiling a .520 OPS against southpaws. McGuire is looked upon as the team's primary catcher of the future, but he has plenty of areas to improve upon.

The Pirates selected McGuire with the 14th pick of the 2013 draft. A high school catcher with big-time defensive skills, it remains to be seen whether the California product will hit. He got off to a fine start, posting a .323/.380/.380 slash line in 192 at-bats, primarily in the Gulf Coast League. The left-handed hitter went homerless but projects average power. He stole six bases, something which could help fantasy owners down the road. McGuire, who becomes the sixth catcher selected by Pittsburgh in Round 1, has a fairly easy road to the majors and could compete with fellow first-round pick, Tony Sanchez, in a couple years.