Yasmani Grandal is a big reason why the Dodgers won the National League west this year. Among catchers with at least 400 plate appearances, Grandal posted the third-highest wRC+. Baseball Prospectus, the only of the major stat sites to include catcher framing in its WAR, rated Grandal at 5.6 wins above replacement this year (FanGraphs, which doesn’t include framing, rated him at 3.6). In a season with the slimmest of margins, replacing Grandal’s performance with a full year of what Austin Barnes did would have been more than enough to cost the Dodgers the division.
The Yasmani Grandal situation has come to a head
