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Throughout baseball history, there have been great catchers in every era in different shapes and forms, from Mickey Cochrane to Bill Dickey to Yogi Berra to Johnny Bench to Carlton Fisk to Gary Carter, etc. In the 1990s and 2000s, MLB’s catching landscape was dominated by two figures, Mike Piazza in the NL and Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez in the AL. As different as the two were, Piazza being the big slugger with at-best average defensive skills and Rodriguez being the all-around hitter and Gold Glover backstop, each was a dominant player at the position for well over a decade and has been immortalized in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Given their overlapping and highly accomplished careers, it is only natural to ask:
Who was better – Mike Piazza or Ivan Rodriguez?
The Beginning
There are many different paths to baseball stardom, as exemplified by these two players – Piazza was essentially drafted as an afterthought/favor to his father, while Rodriguez was signed as a teenager and quickly rose through the minor leagues to become one of the top prospects in all of baseball.
After growing up in Pennsylvania and learning to play baseball from his father, Piazza went south to Florida to play college baseball at the University of Miami; however, after not receiving any playing time, he then transferred to Miami-Dade Community College (not exactly a hotbed for baseball talent). Nevertheless, as his father Vince was a childhood friend of then-Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, Piazza was drafted as a favor in the 62nd round of the 1988 MLB Draft as the 1,390th overall pick. While in the Dodgers’ farm system, he switched positions from first base to catcher in hopes of improving his odds of making the big leagues. It worked; after making his major league debut as a September call-up in 1992, Piazza became the team’s starting catcher in 1993 and would go on to have an incredible rookie season – that year, he hit .318 with 35 home runs, 112 runs batted in, 81 runs scored, a .370 on-base percentage, and a .561 slugging percentage (good for an OPS+ of 153, which measures on-base percentage plus slugging percentage against a league-wide average of 100). As a result, Piazza took home a plethora of awards that year: NL Rookie of the Year, the first of six straight All-Star selections and Silver Sluggers, and a ninth-place finish in the NL MVP voting.
As for Rodriguez, he was born and grew up playing baseball on the island of Puerto Rico, where one of his childhood rivals was future MLB teammate and AL MVP Juan Gonzalez. At the age of eight, he became a catcher and was a big fan of Johnny Bench as a youngster (mostly because the Cincinnati Reds were frequently on television). In 1988, as a 16-year-old, he signed with the Texas Rangers and moved up quickly in the Rangers’ farm system to become one of the top-rated prospects in baseball. Only three years later, Rodriguez had bypassed Triple-A and made his major league debut at age 19 in 1991, thus making him the youngest catcher in MLB that year; overall, he played in 88 games, hitting a respectable .264 and playing excellent defense to finish fourth for Rookie of the Year.
Career Comparison
Throughout the mid and late 1990s and well into the 2000s, Piazza and Rodriguez were consistently not only the best catchers in baseball, but also among the best players period in the game, with each putting up a number of MVP-type seasons in his prime.
Building upon his outstanding rookie season, Piazza quickly became one of the elite catchers in baseball. In each of his five full seasons with the Dodgers, he hit .300+ with 20+ home runs and 90+ runs batted in, and was an All-Star, Silver Slugger winner, and top-10 in the MVP race. Notably, this included two straight second-place finishes for MVP in 1996 (behind Ken Caminiti) and 1997 (to Larry Walker):
- 1996: .336 batting average, 36 home runs, 105 runs batted in, 87 runs scored, a .422 on-base percentage, and a .563 slugging percentage (166 OPS+)
- 1997: .362 batting average, 40 home runs, 124 runs batted in, 104 runs scored, a .431 on-base percentage, and a .638 slugging percentage (185 OPS+); this was arguably Piazza’s finest season, as he set career-highs in nearly every offensive category and joined a select group of catchers to drive in 100+ runs and score 100+ runs in the same season (others include Buck Ewing, Mickey Cochrane, Yogi Berra, Johnny Bench, and Ivan Rodriguez)
1998 would be a tumultuous year for Piazza – disgruntled with his contract and set to become a free agent at season’s end, the Dodgers traded Piazza and Todd Zeile on May 15 in a blockbuster deal for Gary Sheffield, Charles Johnson, Bobby Bonilla, Jim Eisenreich, and Manuel Barrios. Just a week later, on May 22, the Marlins would then flip Piazza to the New York Mets for Preston Wilson, Ed Yarnall, and Geoff Goetz; overall, between the Dodgers, Marlins, and Mets, Piazza had another All-Star and Silver Slugger season, batting .328 with 32 home runs, 111 runs batted in, 88 runs scored, a .390 on-base percentage, and a .570 slugging percentage (152 OPS+).
During the second half of his career, Piazza spent seven seasons in New York with the Mets and was a 6x All-Star (the only exception being 2003, when he was limited by injury to only 68 games played). In particular, he won a Silver Slugger in each of his first four years as a Met, hitting 30+ home runs and driving in 90+ runs every season. Most notably, in 1999, he matched career-highs with 40 home runs and 124 runs batted in and once again reached the 100-100 milestone; then, in 2000, Piazza had arguably his finest season with the Mets – a .324 batting average, 38 home runs, 113 runs batted in, 90 runs scored, a .398 on-base percentage, and a .614 slugging percentage (155 OPS+), good for a third-place finish in the NL MVP voting. One of Piazza’s most iconic moments came on September 21, 2001, when he hit a game-winning home run in the eighth inning in the first baseball game in New York post-9/11.
While 2001 was his last season hitting above .300, Piazza would remain an above-average offensive player for essentially another half-decade. After the 2005 season, during which he only batted .251, but still had 19 home runs and 62 runs batted in for the Mets, Piazza became a free agent and joined the San Diego Padres; during his lone season in San Diego, he had a strong year at the plate, hitting .283 with 22 home runs and 68 runs batted in, before spending a final season with the Oakland Athletics in 2007 at age 38.
Likewise, starting in 1992, Rodriguez began an incredible streak of 10 consecutive All-Star selections and 10 straight Gold Gloves with the Rangers. Always a strong defensive presence, his bat would catch up to his glove with the first of six straight Silver Sluggers in 1994 on the back of a .298 batting average with 16 home runs, 57 runs batted in, 56 runs scored, a .360 on-base percentage, and a .488 slugging percentage (118 OPS+). Rodriguez would hit .300 for the first time in 1995 and a further evolution would begin in 1996, when he finished 10th for AL MVP (.300 batting average, 19 home runs, 86 runs batted in, 116 runs scored, a .342 on-base percentage, and a .473 slugging percentage, good for a 100 OPS+). This offensive progression finally culminated with the AL MVP in 1999 – that year, Rodriguez hit .332 with 35 home runs, 113 runs batted in, 116 runs scored (thus joining the 100-100 catcher club that Piazza is also a part of), a .356 on-base percentage, and a .558 slugging percentage (125 OPS+), setting career-highs in most offensive categories. Moreover, in addition to being the first catcher to win MVP since Thurman Munson of the New York Yankees in 1976, he set an AL record for most home runs in a season by a catcher, was the first AL catcher with a 30-100-100 season, and the first catcher with 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in a season; overall, in 1999, Rodriguez was MVP, an All-Star, and winner of both the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger.
As an encore to his MVP season, Rodriguez was perhaps on-pace to best those numbers in 2000, but a thumb injury ended his season prematurely – in just 91 games played, he hit a career-high .347 with 27 home runs, 83 runs batted in, 66 runs scored, a .375 on-base percentage, and a .667 slugging percentage (156 OPS+) to once again earn All-Star and Gold Glove honors. He would remain in Texas until 2002, including another All-Star and Gold Glove season in 2001, before becoming a free agent in 2003 and signing a one-year deal with the Florida Marlins. In his lone season with Florida, Rodriguez was strong both at the plate (a .297 batting average with 16 home runs, 85 runs batted in, 90 runs scored, a .369 on-base percentage, and a .474 slugging percentage, good for a 120 OPS+) and behind the plate in catching for a young Marlins pitching staff.
In 2004, Rodriguez returned to the AL on a free agent deal with the Detroit Tigers, thus beginning a streak of four more All-Star selections and three additional Gold Gloves; this included his 10th All-Star starter selection in 2004, which made him one of only three catchers in baseball history (the others being Bench and Piazza) to to achieve 10+ starts. Overall, his first season in Detroit would be his best, as he hit .334 with 19 home runs, 86 runs batted in, 72 runs scored, a .383 on-base percentage, and a .510 slugging percentage (137 OPS+), resulting in a final Silver Slugger and a 10th-place finish for MVP (his highest finish since his 1999 MVP season). After a final All-Star and Gold Glove season in 2007, Rodriguez was traded to the New York Yankees midway through the 2008 season; he would then spend 2009 in Texas, splitting time between the Houston Astros and a second go-around with the Rangers, and two final seasons with the Washington Nationals as a veteran presence before retiring at age 39 after the 2011 season.
All in all, Rodriguez had the longer career, playing 21 seasons to Piazza’s 16, which resulted in roughly 500 additional games played and 2,500 additional at-bats. Based on that, it should come as no surprise that Rodriguez accumulated more career hits (2,844 vs. 2,127) and runs scored (1,354 vs. 1,048) however, being the offensive dynamo that he was, Piazza still holds the edge in home runs (427 vs. 311), runs batted in (1,335 vs. 1,332), and all of the average/percentage categories (i.e. batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS+). Between the two of them, Rodriguez holds catcher records for games played, plate appearances, hits, doubles, total bases, and runs batted in (Piazza has more career runs batted in, but some of those came as a first basemen), while Piazza is the all-time leader in home runs (bolstered by 9x 30+ home run seasons vs. 1x for Rodriguez). Defensively, there is a mammoth gap – Rodriguez was a 13x Gold Glover and contributed significantly in defensive Wins Above Replacement (WAR), while Piazza was at-best an average defensive catcher. In terms of other awards and accolades, Rodriguez won the sole MVP between the two (though Piazza finished second in consecutive seasons) and had more career All-Star selections (14x vs. 12x), while Piazza won more Silver Sluggers (10x vs. 7x). Translating all of this into WAR, Rodriguez comes out ahead (68.7 vs 59.6), aided significantly by his defensive prowess. As the two best catchers of their generation, both Piazza (2016) and Rodriguez (2017) were recent Hall of Fame inductees despite a lingering shadow of steroids suspicion during their careers; in his autobiography, Piazza admitted to using androstenedione, which was added to baseball’s banned substance list in 2004, while Rodriguez was accused in Jose Canseco’s tell-all book as a PED user, an allegation that was later implicitly backed up by fellow Hall of Famer Frank Thomas.
Regular Season Statistics
| Mike Piazza | Player | Ivan Rodriguez |
| 16 (1992-2007) | Seasons | 21 (1991-2011) |
| 1,912 | Games Played | 2,543 |
| 6,911 | At-Bats | 9,592 |
| 2,127 | Hits | 2,844 |
| 1,048 | Runs | 1,354 |
| 427 | Home Runs | 311 |
| 1,335 | Runs Batted In | 1,332 |
| 759 | Walks | 513 |
| 17 | Stolen Bases | 127 |
| .308 | Batting Average | .296 |
| .377 | On-Base Percentage | .334 |
| .545 | Slugging Percentage | .464 |
| 142 | OPS+ | 106 |
| 59.6 | Wins Above Replacement | 68.7 |
| 12x | All-Star Games | 14x |
| – | MVP | 1x |
| – | World Series Titles | 1x |
| 10x Silver Slugger, ROY | Other Awards | 7x Silver Slugger, 13x Gold Glove |
| 2016 | Hall of Fame Induction | 2017 |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
Despite all of their regular season accomplishments and accolades, neither Piazza nor Rodriguez were frequent postseason participants, though both did make it to the World Series at least once, with Pudge coming away with a ring.
Of his five playoff appearances, Piazza’s first two trips to the postseason with the Dodgers in 1995 and 1996 both resulted in sweeps in the NLDS. Later on, as a Met, he would help lead the team to the NLCS in 1999, but batted only .167 in a six-game loss to NL MVP Chipper Jones and the Atlanta Braves. The next season, on the strength of Piazza’s .412 batting average and 2 home runs in the NLCS, they would beat the St. Louis Cardinals in five games to advance to the World Series against the cross-town New York Yankees. Though he hit a respectable .273 and blasted a pair of home runs in the five-game Subway Series defeat, perhaps Piazza’s enduring moment was when Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens threw a splintered bat back at him in Game 2.
Likewise, Rodriguez made five playoff appearances in his career, with each of his three trips with the Rangers (1996, 1998, and 1999) resulting in ALDS defeats, as Texas could only muster one win during that span. In his lone season with the Marlins in 2003, Rodriguez batted .353 in the NLDS and then hit .321 with 2 home runs and 10 runs batted in as the Marlins defeated the Chicago Cubs in a seven-game NLCS to earn NLCS MVP honors; this resulted in a World Series matchup with the Yankees, where the upstart Marlins would upset the favored Yankees in six games behind Rodriguez’s solid hitting (.273 batting average) and steady hand behind the plate guiding Florida’s dominant young pitchers. Three years later, as a member of the Tigers, he would help lead Detroit to the 2006 World Series vs. the Cardinals, but they would lose in five games and Rodriguez would hit sub-.200 in two of the three postseason rounds.
Playoff Statistics
| Mike Piazza | Player | Ivan Rodriguez |
| 32 | Games Played | 40 |
| 120 | At-Bats | 153 |
| 29 | Hits | 39 |
| 14 | Runs | 17 |
| 6 | Home Runs | 4 |
| 15 | Runs Batted In | 25 |
| 11 | Walks | 14 |
| – | Stolen Bases | 1 |
| .242 | Batting Average | .255 |
| .301 | On-Base Percentage | .314 |
| .458 | Slugging Percentage | .392 |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; as great as they were in Los Angeles/New York and Texas, respectively, both Piazza and Rodriguez felt the effects of time and spent their last few seasons as nomads, with Piazza making the switch to first base to lengthen his playing days. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete (this idea is embodied in a sense by the NFL’s All-Decade teams), though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Mike Piazza | Player | Ivan Rodriguez |
| 1993-2002 | Decade of Dominance | 1995-2004 |
| 1,372 | Games Played | 1,311 |
| 5,047 | At-Bats | 5,158 |
| 1,625 | Hits | 1,631 |
| 846 | Runs | 839 |
| 346 | Home Runs | 213 |
| 1,066 | Runs Batted In | 813 |
| 559 | Walks | 311 |
| 17 | Stolen Bases | 83 |
| .322 | Batting Average | .316 |
| .392 | On-Base Percentage | .357 |
| .579 | Slugging Percentage | .515 |
| 54.0 | Wins Above Replacement | 50.7 |
Source: Baseball-Reference.com
Across their decades of dominance, Piazza has the edge in essentially every offensive category, sometimes by a very healthy margin, and holds the overall lead in WAR as well; in the context of their entire careers, this also speaks to Rodriguez’s greater staying power and ability to continue contributing both offensively and defensively even as he approached the age of 40.
My Thoughts
In a nutshell, the debate between Mike Piazza vs. Ivan Rodriguez comes down to whether you favor elite offensive production or all-around greatness as a catcher. Without a doubt, Piazza was the superior offensive player whose numbers in his prime often matched or exceeded the best players at any position. However, whereas Piazza was nothing special to write home about behind the plate (one could say he was a catcher in spite of his catching ability, rather than because of it), Rodriguez was arguably the best defensive catcher of his generation as evidenced by his 13 career Gold Gloves. Couple this with his all-around offensive prowess, both at his peak (1999 MVP) and the longevity/consistency, together I think all of this makes Rodriguez the better all-around player.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Ivan Rodriguez
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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