Where does Ivan Rodriguez rank all-time?

As CBSSports.com Insider Jon Heyman has reported, Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez will soon retire. Now it's time to ponder where he ranks among the greatest catchers of all-time.

Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez, all 21 seasons of him, is poised to retire. That leaves many of us wondering where Pudge should rank among the greatest ever to put on the "tools of ignorance," chasten a would-be basestealer and have countless foul tips clang off his mask. That is, where should we place Rodriguez among positional luminaries like Johnny Bench and Yogi Berra and Mickey Cochrane?

You can frame this question in two ways: peak value and career value. Peak value is how good a player was when he was at his very best. Career value is how good a player was once early-career ascent and late-career decline are also thrown into the gumbo.

In terms of offensive peak, Rodriguez's runs from 1997-2004, when his worst seasonal OPS+ was a still-nifty 114. Still, as good and as sustained as Rodriguez's peak was, it doesn't stack up well against, for instance, Mike Piazza, who was easily the greatest-hitting catcher of all-time. When peak thumpers like Bench, Berra, Cochrane, Roy Campanella, Ted Simmons, Bill Dickey, Gary Carter, Carlton Fisk, Gabby Hartnett, and a few others are considered, Rodriguez doesn't the top 10 in terms of peak hitting.

Career value? Again, Rodriguez isn't in the absolute top tier. While he racked up the counting stats thanks to the breadth of his playing career, his decline was lengthy and substantial (Pudge was a liability at the plate over the last four seasons of his career and average-ish for years before that). As well, all those seasons in hitter-friendly Arlington during what was an offensive era hurt his numbers once some ruthless context is applied. He had a very good career at the plate by catcher standards, but it's not among the best of the best at the position.

More on Pudge

• Heyman: Wanted to play forever
• Knobler: Pudge achieved greatness
• Player page

Defensively, of course, is another matter. While we don't have a perfect grasp of a catcher's defense from a quantitative standpoint, we do know that Rodriguez was peerless in terms of cutting down aspiring basestealers. In fact, as the research of Max Marchi of Baseball Prospectus has shown, Rodriguez was still among the elite at controlling the running game even at the end of this career. For his entire career, Pudge, when his arm was cocked, was a force of nature ...


As for the other elements of the catching game -- handling a staff, framing pitches and blocking and fielding balls -- Pudge has earned praise for his skills in those regards ever since he established himself as a star catcher. While we don't yet have the tools to say so definitively, he may have been the greatest defensive catcher in the history of the game.

In the final analysis, Rodriguez's good-but-not-great offensive profile in tandem with his legendary defense and rare longevity make him one of the 10 greatest catchers of all-time.

A quick-and-dirty countdown? As you wish: 1. Berra, 2. Bench, 3. Cochrane, 4. Piazza, 5. Campanella, 6. Carter, 7. Fisk, 8. Rodriguez, 9. Dickey, 10. Simmons.

Quibble with the precise ordering, of course, but by any standard Rodriguez is one of the best ever at the position, and voters shouldn't hesitate to make him a first-ballot Hall of Famer.