In examining Matt Wieters’ struggles behind the plate last season, Fangraphs.com’s Travis Sawchik noted that the Washington Nationals’ backstop’s framing issues did actually cause significant problems for the team.
With Wieters as the primary backstop, “the Nationals suffered a 30-run decrease in framing runs from 2016 to 2017,” he wrote.
“Last season, only the Rockies were worse than the Nationals by that measure among postseason teams.