Texas Rangers top five catchers of all time
Texas Rangers catcher number five — Geno Petralli
Born Eugene James Petralli in Sacramento, California, he became known to baseball fans as Geno Petralli. The Toronto Blue Jays selected him in the 1978 amateur player draft and he made his MLB debut on September 4, 1982 as a September call-up.
After a couple of cups of coffee with the Blue Jays, the Cleveland Indians purchased his contract. But, they released him at the beginning of the 1985 season and the Rangers grabbed him within a month. He’d spend the rest of his career in Texas, playing nine seasons for the team.
Petralli was never much of a power threat, but he played a solid and consistent defensive game. During his career, he threw out 167 of the 353 baserunners that attempted to steal against him and was a regular member of the late-80’s Rangers teams.
Petralli was never much of a power threat, but he played a solid and consistent defensive game.
In 1988, Geno started a career-high 72 games at catcher for the Rangers and he went on to have his most productive offensive season with seven home runs, 36 RBI and a .282 batting average while throwing out 30 of 98 attempted base stealers.
But, his best defensive season came in 1990 when he started a career-high 98 games at the dish. That season, Texas pitchers had an earned run average of just 3.77 when he caught them.
Some critics will point at his high number of passed balls. But before doing so, just remember that he caught the great knuckleballer Charlie Hough on a regular basis. Anyone that’s ever caught or attempted to catch a knuckler should realize how difficult that is. To quote the great Bob Uecker, “The way to catch a knuckleball is to wait until it stops rolling and then pick it up.”
He finished his Rangers career with a .266 average, 24 home runs and 91 RBI. His .703 career OPS ranks him second all-time among Texas catchers and he’s third all-time in games played at the position. He modeled consistency, work ethic and reliability when the Rangers badly needed it.