New Arrival: Charlie Silvera, C, New York Yankees

Status: Retired

Position: C

Years Active: 1948-1957

MLB Teams Played for: New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs

Career WAR/OPS+: 1.2 WAR/86 OPS+

Charlie Silvera was a very good catcher. But being a very good baseball player could not overcome the biggest issue with his career: he played for the Yankees of the 1950's, who already had Yogi Berra and Elston Howard to handle the catching.

Sivera was a good hitter with plus defense, and would have most likely started on most clubs. With the Yankees he was stuck as a seldom used backup who languished on the bench. In 10 years in the big leagues he only got 482 at bats. He only cracked 100 at-bats once in his career, in 1949, and hit .315/.403/.331.

He would retire with a line of .282/.356/.328.

He was on the roster for seven American League Pennants, so the extra shares in his pay probably made the sitting on the bench a little softer.

As Brendan Boyd said about Silvera in his book "The Great American Baseball Card Book": "...it isnt enough just to be good at what you do. You also got to know how to pick your spots."

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