Bryan Lavastida, our No. 14 prospect for 2022, is a bit of an anomaly in the Guardians organization. Unlike most catchers the Guards have targeted and employed throughout the last several years, Lavastida is a bat-first catcher; a former third baseman and shortstop turned catcher that the team took a flyer on in the 15th round.
Although he hardly played catcher prior to 2018 and he missed a year of development in 2020, here he is, the highest-ranked catching prospect in our voting.
The fact that Lavastida made it out of the missed pandemic season and emerged as one of the org’s best catching prospects in a minor miracle itself.