3) Reese McGuire
Reese McGuire has served as a part-time/backup catcher for his entire MLB career, which encompasses the Toronto Blue Jays, Chicago White Sox, and Boston Red Sox. He now has six MLB seasons where he has less than 250 plate appearances while spending at least 95% of his games behind the dish. He signed a minor league contract with the Chicago Cubs this winter, but could find himself on another team before the start of the regular season.
McGuire is just a career .252/.300/.364 slasher with a .290 wOBA, and 80 wRC+. He’s gone yard just 16 times across 1038 plate appearances, with an ISO of .113. While his 22.2% strikeout rate isn’t awful, he also does not draw many walks and has just a 5.8% BB%. In McGuire’s defense, he did have a career-best 8.2% walk percentage last season for the Red Sox.
Unsurprisingly, defense is McGuire’s calling card. He has racked up +7 defensive runs saved with +14.7 framing runs throughout his career. McGuire has typically been a solid blocker, allowing just 15 passed balls in 2373 innings behind the dish. His throws averaged just 78 MPH, however, which was the 10th worst in baseball in 2024 and was only in the 30th percentile of poptime.
Like Pinto, McGuire has no remaining options and is on a team that already has catching depth ahead of him. The Cubs will likely deploy Miguel Amaya as their primary backstop, with offseason signee Carson Kelly serving as a backup/part-time option. On top of that, one of the Cubs’ best prospects, Moises Ballesteros, is a catcher and reached Triple-A last season.