The position of catcher for the Boston Red Sox is an interesting one. It’s a revolving door that’s been punctuated by a couple of extensive, wonderful runs of long-term stability. And while Jason Varitek is the most recent example of the prototypical Red Sox catcher, even he remains in the shadow of the team’s most definitive backstop: the incomparable Carlton Fisk.
Fisk is most famous for one miracle moment in October 1975 — one I’ll review in a minute — but his greatest season was his first, just like later-day teammate Fred Lynn. After making his major league debut in 1969 for a hot minute, Fisk finally hit the big leagues to stay during his age-24 season in 1972. And it was a hell of a debut.
From the jump, Fisk was an offensive force behind the plate, possessing serious power uncommon for catchers. His first season was the best of what would be a 24-season career, by BP’s True Average (TAv) metric. His TAv of .330 would have been very good for a corner outfielder, or really anyone, but he paired that with good enough defense to earn a Gold Glove Award. With 22 homers, a .370 OBP, and a .538 slugging percentage, it’s no surprised that he took home the American League Rookie of the Year Award, an All-Star appearance, and a fourth-place finish in the MVP voting.
Oh yeah, and Fisk had nine triples during that amazing rookie season. Nine! As a catcher! Only Darrell Porter (10 triples) has had more in a season as a catcher since Fisk had his nine.
‘73 was another solid season for Fisk, but his batting average on balls in play dipped very, very low (.257), and it dragged his overall offensive numbers down low (.265 TAv) as a result. Still, he posted his highest homer total (26) as a Sox — he only hit more during his 37-homer season in 1985 — and earned another All-Star berth and MVP votes.
1974 should have been a bounce-back season for Fisk, but instead both ‘74 and ‘75 were half-seasons due to a nightmare knee injury. The ultimate case against home-plate collisions, Fisk had to have reconstructive surgery following a June collision, yet was able to return to action in mid-1975. Before and after the injury, Fisk was scary-effective. In 131 games in those two seasons, Fisk racked up 6.1 WARP, the equivalent of an MVP-contender season.
The Sox ventured to the playoffs in 1975, Fisk’s first chance at the postseason. As you may have heard, this happened:
Game 6 of the World Series, Fisk walks it off with a 12th-inning homer that bangs off the foul pole, serving up a deciding Game 7. In a game where miracle moments happen every so often, this one, with the image of Fisk waving the ball fair, was possibly the most enduring baseball image of the second half of the 20th century (with apologies to Kirk Gibson.)
Fisk did everything he could to pull the Sox free of The Curse, but it didn’t take, and he came into the 1976 season looking to stay healthy and return to the postseason. The former happened, the latter … not so much.
1976 was a down year for Fisk, but he did remain healthy and moderately effective. Instead of being a full middle-of-the-order bat, though, his TAv of .273 was more that of a league-average hitter instead. That wouldn’t last, and he returned to an elite level of production in 1977 and 1978. In each of those years, he’d accumulate six or more WARP, thanks to big power and a solid hit tool. In ‘77, he threw out a .402 OBP, and in ‘78 he posted 6.3 WARP during his age-30 season. By the end of 1978, he’d have earned his sixth All-Star nod, and established himself as one of the top catchers in baseball.
Carlton Fisk’s final two seasons in Boston weren’t what he would have wanted, especially 1979. Despite playing about half the season, Fisk was relatively ineffective, posting an uncharacteristic .272/.304/.450 triple-slash line — far below his usual self. He’d bounce back in 1980, with 18 homers and his usual excellent ability to reach base. After 11 seasons with the Sox, he’d already earned a spot as one of the team’s top ten position players of all time. With 162 homers, an OBP of .356, a SLG of .481, and an all-time top historical moment, he’d earned a premium place in Red Sox history.
After the 1980 season, Fisk reportedly lobbied for more money — money he certainly deserved — but a clerical error made him a free agent. The Chicago White Sox swooped in and picked him up, giving him a second home where he’d spend the last 13 years of his career. And while it might’ve been nice to see Fisk spend his entire career in navy and red, the Boston brand of Sox certainly got Fisk’s best seasons, not just his most famous. By BP’s WARP metric, Fisk’s three best seasons (1972, 1978, and 1977) all passed the six-win mark, and all were with the BoSox.
With 24 years behind the dish in the American League, Fisk waltzed into the Hall of Fame in his second year of eligibility during 2000. While he finished his career with more homers than any other catcher, and more seasons behind the dish than just about anyone, time and players like Ivan Rodriguez and Mike Piazza put his records aside with greatness of their own.
But … maybe … Carlton Fisk wasn’t just a pretty great offensive catcher? Fisk never had a sterling defensive reputation back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, save his one Gold Glove Award earned during his rookie season. He never led his league in caught stealing percentage, and only even cracked the top 10 once, according to Baseball-Reference.
In addition to being a dynamite hitter and one of the longest-lived catchers in baseball history, Carlton Fisk may have added lots of value by being a good pitch framer as well.
However, the advent of pitch framing data may allow us to examine Fisk’s defensive prowess in a new light. Back in 2012 and 2013, Max Marchi was running the numbers on historical pitch framing, and Fisk’s name came up pretty often. In his 2012 article at BP, Max pointed out that Fisk had saved the fifth-most runs through framing of any catcher since 1948, 191 runs saved. (Yes, you can read that as 19 extra wins added, but more likely it’s a bit less than that, thanks to accounting for pitcher/batter/umpire.)
In another article, about a year later, Max identified Fisk’s 1990 season as the 20th-best framing season since 1988 — a time frame that only covers the last few seasons of Fisk’s long and distinguished run. He saved 18 runs that season through framing, by Max’s measures. Generally speaking, the aging curve for catcher framing was found to be pretty flat, in that article, so you could extrapolate that Fisk was a good framer through most of his time in the bigs. And when your career spans nigh on a quarter century, that adds up to a ton of additional value.
So yeah, the power of modern metrics gives us new information … that in addition to being a dynamite hitter and one of the longest-lived catchers in baseball history, Carlton Fisk may have added lots of value by being a good pitch framer as well. Perhaps that earns him a few hidden wins that we can add on to his already-impressive career WARP totals.
So what would be the best analogue to a modern Fisk? That player would have to be a well-rounded offensive force, with plus hit and plus power tools. It’d be nice if they were a decent framer as well. And truthfully, there aren’t many current players who hit that profile. Buster Posey’s actually too good of a hitter, but he may be the closest thing to Fisk out there today. Brian McCann doesn’t hit well enough at this point, but he’s not a bad comp either (though his defense is probably much better). Russell Martin’s 2015 season is probably a good comp for a “classic” Fisk season, but not one of his best — and again, I’d imagine Martin’s defense is a little bit better. It’s just very hard to identify a player quite like Pudge.
Any way you slice it, Fisk’s prodigious power at a position where homers are the exception — and not the rule — earned him his place in Cooperstown. His uncanny longevity and framing ability only add to the legend. And, oh yeah, there’s also one of the most famous home runs of all time. Though his time with the Sox was only half his career, it was more than half his value, and he’s firmly entrenched as the greatest backstop in the team’s history.
(Sorry, ‘Tek.)
Photo by Gregory Fisher/USA Today Sports Images