Detroit Tigers battery pairing Justin Verlander and Alex Avila have been extremely important to the team this season.
Avila has arguably been baseball’s best offensive catcher in 2017. He paces all Detroit position players in WAR with a 2.4 number.
In fact, only Michael Fulmer (3.1) has a higher WAR on Detroit’s roster.
The catcher has chipped in with 11 home runs, a 165 wRC+, a .30 batting average, a .428 on-bae percentage and a .564 slugging percentage.
Additionally, the veteran owns 16.8 walk percentage and a .419 wOBA in his return to the Motor City.