Best Backup Backstops in Miami Marlins History

Through Miami Marlins history, 46 different men have called pitches for the assorted fireballers on the mound. Some more, some less, but all major leaguers, in the end.

It takes a special kind of ballplayer to squat for the better part of half of three hours every day during half of the calendar year. And those men need a break sometimes. Enter the mighty backup catcher. The ranks of “backup catcher” are loaded with has-beens, never-was’s, coulda, shoulda, but for whatever reason weren’t primary catcher material. Which Miami Marlins backup catchers stand out in your mind?

J.T. Realmuto, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, John Buck, John Baker, Miguel Olivo, Paul Lo Duca, Ivan Rodriguez, Charles Johnson, Gregg Zaun, and Benito Santiago spent most of their tenure with the Florida and Miami Marlins as the “primary” catcher. These 10 are exempt from our thought experiment. Which “backup” catchers stood (squatted) above the rest?

Just Missed

Taking out our primary catchers has left us with 36 choices, so lets eliminate those who barely registered a blip on the Baseball Reference database (as a Miami Marlin).

Less than 30 games

Greg O’Halloran 1
Mike Mordecai 1
John Roskos 1
Kyle Skipworth 1
Mitch Lyden 2
Terry McGriff 3
Guillermo Garcia 3
Ryan Jorgensen 3
Mike Piazza 4
Chris Hatcher 4
Mike Rivera 5
Jhonatan Solano 6
Sandy Martinez 9
Chad Wallach 14
Tomas Telis 15
Randy Knorr 15
Josh Willingham 15
Koyie Hill 18
Ron Tingley 18
Joe Siddall 18
Paul Hoover 19

This narrows the field down to 15. Of course, Wallach and Telis may have more of a say in the future, but the most of the rest have already retired. Willingham and Mordecai had long careers outside of their time behind the plate for the Marlins. Hatcher switched positions and is currently pitching for the Oakland Athletics. Piazza is a Hall-of-Fame catcher, but four games isn’t enough to make this list, and if I remember correctly, during his week in Florida, he was not considered the backup.