Gabriel Moreno Marked Down for 110-120 Starts at Catcher

In his first year with the Diamondbacks, Gabriel Moreno established himself as their go-to catcher. In 111 regular season games, Moreno hit .284 with a 104 OPS+ and won the National League Gold Glove at catcher. In total he averaged roughly 3.0 WAR between Baseball Reference and FanGraphs. At 24 with five more seasons of control, he is a key member of the D-backs young and exciting core of players. As expected, general manager Mike Hazen made it clear he has no intentions of trading him.

"I'll pick up the phone, I'll say thank you, and then I'll change the subject."

For 2024, Hazen told Jack Sommers last night he is expecting Moreno to start 110-120 games behind the plate. That's right in line with the total number of games he started in 2023, with 94 regular season starts and 17 postseason adding up to 111. That falls in line with the workload of a catcher of a division rival but similar size in the Dodgers' Will Smith. Smith, who is listed at 5'10" and 195 lbs., has started 111, 106, and 106 games in the last three seasons. 

Going even further back to 1995, there have been only 25 such seasons of a catcher listed at 5'9"-5'11", 185-200 lbs., and under the age of 30 play 100 or more games at the position. The list is populated  not only by Smith, but also Jason LaRue, Brad Ausmus, Tucker Barnhart, and Bengie Molina. All five of those players have at least three such seasons. With that past precedence in mind, the D-backs don't want to give Moreno too demanding of a workload and see him end up on the injured list like in 2023.

The question then becomes who will be primarily responsible for the other 40-50 games, perhaps more if Moreno has to miss time. Ideally they turn to a veteran option to round out the position, especially one who is excellent at handling a pitching staff. However such a catcher does not exist on their current roster. The only other catcher on the 40-man roster as of this writing is José Herrera, a career .198/.272/.231 hitter with a positive defensive reputation behind the plate. His bat has been poor, resulting in a pair of midseason demotions to Reno in each of his two seasons played in the major leagues. The team may look for a more stable option to fill the role, hence their reported interest in Barnhart.

Looking beyond the 40-man roster, another option that could be in the competition for the backup role is prospect Adrian Del Castillo. Del Castillo spent 2023 between Double-A Amarillo and Triple-A Reno, hitting .263 with 14 home runs and an .814 OPS. However much of his strong play came in the hitter-friendly confines of Amarillo, which brings into concern what level of offense he could provide for the team. The team may want to avoid the situation of having two young catchers on the roster with two of their five rotation spots dedicated to relatively inexperienced pitchers. Del Castillo isn't Rule 5 eligible until next winter, so the team could wait to see how he handles Reno in 2024 before making a decision on him.

Given the lack of internal depth at the position and trading midseason waiver pickup Seby Zavala in the Eugenio Suárez deal last month, the team very well may look more towards external options for a backup.