When he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the ninth round of the 2018 MLB draft, it wasn’t quite clear what the future held for University of Washington product Willie MacIver. A catcher in high school, Willie played mostly third base in college before the Rockies drafted and started developing him exclusively as a catcher. In his first full season of professional ball, MacIver slashed .252/.319/.421 with 43 extra base hits and 13 home runs, along with a wRC+ of 115.
That’s a pretty decent stat line for your first season, but predictions seemed to place him solidly as a “backup catcher” for the future.