Whatever woes the 2021 Pirates had—and there were many of them—one they did not have was at the catcher position.
When Francisco Cervelli departed in the summer of 2019 (pauses, wipes tear, that’s amore), Bucs fans expressed a lot of doubt as to whether his backup, Jacob Stallings, was ready for prime time. That autumn, I speculated on who the Pirates might obtain to upgrade behind the plate.
That proved to be unnecessary.
Stallings moved into the number-one position in 2020, and since then he’s risen to the challenge. Although his nickname, the Cheetah, is satirical, it’s prompted a favorite BD game thread GIF:
Offensively, he was middle of the pack among National League catchers, with a slash line of .