Blue Jays: Top-five greatest catchers in franchise history

There's something humbly noble about the catcher position. It's not the flashiest position or one that easily garners the spotlight, but you can argue that it is one of the most vital and demanding positions to play on the baseball field.

There's a reason catchers are known as field generals. They have to work with and keep track of the entire pitching staff, game plan and call games, converse tactfully with umpires, and take a physical beating every night behind the plate. On top of all this, they still have to focus on their own offensive game.

The Blue Jays have had a few standout catchers over the team's 45-year history, and we're going to take a look back and attempt to rank the top five.

Who knows, maybe in the future we'll see the current duo of Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk on this list. They're both well on their way in their promising young careers; Jansen ranks fourth all-time in WAR, while Kirk ranks eighth. We just need some more time to see how they progress and contribute to the team's success.

No. 5 Darrin Fletcher

Darrin Fletcher, drafted by the Dodgers in 1987, signed with the Blue Jays in 1998 after spending six years establishing himself as an everyday catcher in Montreal with the Expos.

Fletcher was the No. 1 catcher for the club from 1998 to 2001 before he retired partway through the 2002 season. He was productive both at and behind the plate during his time in Toronto.

He improved offensively over his first three years in a Jays uniform. 1998, his age-31 season, was a down year in production by his standards, but he still managed to hit .283. He improved that mark in 1999, hitting .291 with 18 HR and scoring 48 runs while driving in 80.

His best offensive year as a Jay came in 2000 when he put up 2.8 WAR and an offensive value of 8.9. Through that campaign, he hit .320/.355/.514 with 20 HR, 43 R, 58 RBI and a 114 wRC+ through 122 games.

Defensively, Fletcher performed at the best and most consistent levels of his career while in Toronto. His defensive value rating in 1998 was 5.6, the second-best mark of his career. He rated at 4.4 the following season but went up to 5.6 again in 2000.

His best defensive year, both in his career and while with the Jays, came in 2001 when he put up an impressive 13.6 defensive value, ranking him ninth in the league among catchers.

Fletcher played in 540 games with the Jays, the third-most at catcher, and ranks fifth all-time with a 6.5 WAR.

No. 4 Gregg Zaun

After being drafted by the Orioles in 1989 and making his debut in 2005, Gregg Zaun played for six different teams over nine seasons before finding a home in Toronto in 2004 at age 33.

The hard-nosed and experienced Zaun seemed like the perfect catcher for a John Gibbons-led squad and was given a chance to play as the primary option behind the plate.

Zaun had the most productive offensive seasons of his career from 2005 through 2007. In 2005 he played in 133 games, and while he only slashed .251/.355/.373, he hit 11 HR, scored 61 runs and drove in 61.

He maintained his offense in 2006 despite only playing in 99 contests. He improved his slash line to .272/.363/.462, hit 12 HR with 39 R and 40 RBI and a 111 wRC+. In 2007, Zaun's average slipped again, down to .242, but he counted 10 HR, 43 R and 52 RBI.

His best year behind the plate came in 2008, his final season with the Jays, with a solid 14.2 defensive value, despite his offense falling off and playing fewer games.

Now that all is said and done, Zaun played 535 games in Toronto, fourth all-time among Jays' catchers. He also ranks third all-time with 8.1 WAR.

When his tenure with the Jays' ended after the 2008 season, he played two more years before hanging up the cleats prior to the 2011 season.

No. 2 Russell Martin

Canadian Russell Martin was a well-established and successful veteran when he arrived in Toronto in 2015. Through nine seasons with the Dodgers, Yankees and Pirates, he had garnered three All-Star appearances, as well as a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger award.

Blue Jays fans could celebrate the Toronto-born and Montreal-raised talent finally coming home to play for Canada's team. And this wasn't a case of the team bringing in a veteran at the end of his career for easy publicity.

Martin brought a wealth of experience and a track record of success to Toronto. He had helped guide every team he had played with to the postseason, appearing in the playoffs in seven of his nine seasons in the majors. With Martin running the show behind the plate, the Jays got back into the postseason for the first time since 1993.

Over his four seasons with the Jays, Martin accumulated 11.1 WAR, good enough for second at the position. His best offensive season came in 2015 when he recaptured his offensive prowess from his early years.

Through 129 games, he posted a .240/.329/.458 slash line and launched 23 HR, the highest total of his career. He also chipped in 76 R and 77 RBI as part of a potent offense on a team that finished first in the AL East by a healthy six-game margin. During this resurgent season, he was named to the All-Star team and received MVP votes for the third straight year.

Martin's experience helped the team climb out of an 0-2 hole against the Rangers and take the best-of-five AL Division Series 3-2 before succumbing to Kansas City in the ALCS.

The talented Canuck had another strong offensive year in 2016, where he put up 20 HR, 62 R and 74 RBI through 137 games. The Jays made the playoffs for the second straight year, beating the Orioles in the Wild Card and the Rangers in the ALDS before bowing out to Cleveland.

Although the team struggled over Martin's final two seasons in Toronto, and he was eventually traded to the Dodgers before the 2019 season, he will always be remembered as the Canadian boy who came home and helped bring winning baseball back to Toronto. And in doing so, introduced a new generation of Blue Jays fans to the excitement of the postseason.

No. 1 Ernie Whitt

Ernie Whitt was originally drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 1972 and was promoted to the majors for a handful of games in 1976. But in what became a franchise-defining move, Toronto swooped in and grabbed the as-yet unproven catcher in the 1976 expansion draft.

Whitt turned out to be the team's longest-serving player from that expansion draft, playing in 1218 games from the inaugural 1977 season until being traded to Atlanta following the 1989 season.

He was the team's primary backstop as the Jays rose to prominence through the 1980s and experienced their first tastes of success. He helped the team capture two AL East pennants, in 1985 and 1989, and gave the city its first experience of postseason baseball.

Whitt was named to the AL All-Star team in 1985, a season in which he slashed .245/.323/.444 with 19 HR, 55 R and 64 RBI.

He bettered that All-Star season in 1987 with what could be considered the best offensive year of his career. In 135 games, he slashed a healthy .269/.334/.455 and contributed 19 HR, 57 R and 75 RBI.

During his 12 seasons with the Jays, Whitt amassed 21.8 WAR and is far and away the franchise leader at the catcher position with 131 HR, 888 H, 424 R, and 518 RBI.

After stints in Atlanta and Baltimore, Whitt retired as a player in 1991. He eventually returned to the organization he had helped propel towards their early 1990s success. In 1997, he took a role as a minor league catching instructor, a position he held until 2004.

In 2005, Whitt made it back to the big leagues as the Jays' bench coach for three seasons. He then spent part of 2008 as the first base coach before being let go by the club in a sweeping coaching change.

Whitt was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009 and remains active with Baseball Canada as the national men's team manager.