If you are a Rays fan, you may feel that catchers who are reasonably good behind the plate and reasonably effective with the bat are like unicorns. You read about them, you dream about them, but do we have any evidence that such a creature exists?
Last year, however, Rays fans got to see a catching duo that framed, blocked, threw out runners, and was not a black hole at the bottom of the lineup. Leading that duo was Mike Zunino.
Zunino’s first two years with the Rays were not great. He was credited with managing a young pitching staff, but he struggled badly on offense, with a .