Colorado Rockies: 3 Battles to Watch Heading into 2017

Battle No. 1 – Tony Wolters vs. Tom Murphy

This is a battle where, if the Rockies could somehow fuse these two players together, they’d have the perfect catcher. However, sources tell us that Bud Black won’t be doing any cloning experiments before spring training.

Wolters came out of nowhere last season to grab a roster spot and become one of the best framing catchers in Major League Baseball. He also added versatility to the Rockies roster, using his past experience as a middle infielder to even log games at second base and shortstop last season.

He finished the season hitting .259 with three homers and 30 RBI. He got better at the plate as the season went along. After hitting just .200 in June, Wolters put together months of .360, .289, .286 and .333 to end the season. However, his home-road split is a bit scary as he posted a .346 average at Coors while hitting just .168 on the road.

Defensively, Wolters had more chances behind the plate (and gained more experience) in 2016 than Murphy. Last season, Wolters threw out 12 of 39 runners (31 percent) while Murphy threw out four of 10 runners (40 percent) while Hundley nabbed just nine of 66 runners (14 percent).

Murphy, meanwhile, proved he had some pop in his bat in limited at-bats after being called up in September. He batted .273 (12-for-44) with five homers and 13 RBI. As we projected in yesterday’s article, that would translate over to 41 homers in a 162-game schedule.

Murphy is 25. Wolters is 24. There’s no question that the Rockies have plenty of potential at the position … but is it enough for the team? There have been rumors that the Rockies were looking at Matt Wieters in recent days, but Colorado has also invested a lot in Murphy’s future, grooming him as the franchise’s catcher of the future.

It looks like it will be a time split behind the plate, but we’ll guess that Murphy gets the Opening Day nod in Milwaukee.