Tyler Stephenson Has Been Huge for the Reds in 2024

A year ago, Cincinnati Reds fans were calling for an upgrade at catcher. Tyler Stephenson, coming off several injuries in 2022, was having a down year at the plate while looking lost behind it. Poor at-bats and passed balls raised frustration and questions within the fanbase about his future with the Reds.

Stephenson has answered those questions this season. The 28-year-old is having a career year both offensively and defensively. However, the average baseball fan probably doesn’t even realize how great of a year he is having.

Amongst catchers with at least 350 plate appearances, Stephenson is sixth in fWAR (2.7) and wRC+ (118).

Stephenson has made strides behind the plate, improving both his framing and blocking — not so much that you would confuse him with a Gold Glover, but enough to be average defensively. Factoring in his value at the plate, I’ll take his average glove behind the plate.

There’s no doubt that 2023 was a down year for Stephenson, but I think many people got ahead of themselves when discussing Stephenson. Injuries from the year prior must have carried over in 2023, and now that he’s healthy, he’s proving to be a top-10 catcher in baseball.

Stephenson’s impressive 2024 is really flying under the radar. His 118 wRC+ and 18 home runs, 9.9% barrel rate, 44.4% hard-hit rate, and 90.6 mph average exit velocities are all career highs.

He’s making hard contact and lifting the ball more, which has led to the increase in power. Although power was never a predominant part of his game, no one is complaining about him tapping into more.

Oftentimes an increase in power leads to a higher strikeout rate or some other negative. Not with Stephenson. His 19.8% strikeout rate is just one percent higher than his career-best in 2021.

Impressively, Stephenson’s approach hitting to all fields has also not dimensioned. His ability to spray the ball anywhere on the field has helped make him one of the better offensive catchers in all of baseball.

Could the Reds Extend Tyler Stephenson This Winter?

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again. We have seen a lot more good baseball than bad baseball from Tyler Stephenson. Finding catchers who are average offensively is hard enough. Finding one who is significantly above average is rare.

They don’t often hit the open market, and when they do, they do not come cheap.

Luckily for the Reds, Stephenson is under team control for 2025 and 2026. All of this makes me wonder: Could a contract extension come together this offseason?

Cincinnati has tried and tried to build up its catching depth through the minors with little to no success. Within the system, there’s not a single catcher who looks like he will be a regular at the major league level.

Top catching prospect Alfredo Duno is not only years away, but he might not be able to stick behind the dish.

Locking up Stephenson this offseason would mean buying out his last two arbitration years at a higher average annual value in exchange for additional years under contract (2027-?). The Reds made this type of deal recently with Hunter Greene, and so far, it has paid off.

To me, Stephenson is a big part of the Reds’ future. We like to focus on the flashy rookies and second-year players, but a player of Stephenson’s caliber at his position is pretty difficult to find.

You could argue getting a deal done with Stephenson, considering the lack of promise at catcher within the organization, should be amongst the top priorities for the Reds.

With so many regulars in the pre-arb stages of their careers, the money allocated to Stephenson should not hamper the Reds from keeping other top players.

And as the Reds improve (hopefully), Stephenson likely moves down the lineup, giving them some power in the bottom third of the order.

Catchers are important, and the organization has invested a lot of time into developing Stephenson. Keeping him long-term just makes too much sense.