Lowest OPS by a C in a Season Since 1920

I want to start to looking at some of the worst seasons by position since 1920. The reason I choose that year is because it's considered the start of the "live ball" era, a time in which home runs and hitting for power became an integral part of baseball and offense took off. Since baseball before 1920 was less focused on hitting for power and more on moving runners over, there's not much point in making a list of poor hitting position players from the early 1900's to compare to players today.

With that in mind, here's the lowest seasons by catchers with 350+ plate appearances in a season since 1920. I chose 350 because it's roughly the 3.1 PA/G necessary to qualify for the current league batting title scaled down to roughly 113 games, a number that accommodates the numerous days off full-time catchers require:

Name	Year	Team	PA	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
Jerry Grote	1967	NYM	367	.195	.226	.253	.479
Bob Boone	1984	CAL	468	.201	.242	.262	.504
Mickey Grasso	1952	WSH	394	.216	.276	.241	.517
Barry Foote	1975	MON	410	.194	.229	.295	.524
Jim Sundberg	1983	TEX	423	.201	.272	.254	.526
Matt Walbeck	1994	MIN	359	.204	.246	.284	.530
Paul Casanova	1969	WSA	408	.216	.254	.282	.536
Buck Rodgers	1965	CAL	461	.209	.271	.265	.536
Mickey O'Neil	1924	BSN	382	.246	.276	.262	.538
Alan Ashby	1979	HOU	370	.202	.262	.277	.539
Jim Sundberg	1975	TEX	540	.199	.283	.256	.539
Einar Diaz	2002	CLE	351	.206	.258	.284	.542
Sammy White	1957	BOS	370	.215	.267	.276	.543
Jake Gibbs	1968	NYY	460	.213	.270	.277	.547
Al Lopez	1937	BSN	378	.204	.281	.269	.550
Randy Hundley	1972	CHC	387	.218	.261	.294	.555
Ed Herrmann	1976	CAL/HOU	352	.199	.274	.283	.557
Mike Ryan	1966	BOS	400	.214	.271	.287	.558
Joe Azcue	1965	CLE	371	.230	.290	.269	.559
Jake Early	1942	WSH	394	.204	.281	.280	.561

That's the twenty lowest OPS seasons for catchers with 350+ PA. There are seventy-four such seasons with an OPS below .600, nine of which have occurred since 2000:

• Einar Diaz, 2002, .542
• Mike Matheny, 2001, .580
• Brad Ausmus, 2006, .593
• Brad Ausmus, 2003, .594
• Yadier Molina, 2006, .595
• Bengie Molina, 2000, .596
• Chris Snyder, 2005, .598
• Brandon Inge, 2002, .599