Earlier this week, Zack Meisel of The Athletic wrote an interesting article about catchers and their getting hit in the groin by foul balls more often in the era of the one-knee-down catcher stance.

Zack noted that according to MLB 23% of pitches were caught with one knee down in 2020, and that rate increased to 50% the next year and has risen to 95% last year and 96% this year..

Zack said that he didn’t have data regarding how often catchers were getting hit in the groin, though the catchers he spoke to instinctively knew that they were on the rise since the change in catching stance happened.

We do have some data on this. Not a lot, but some.

Sports Info Solutions tracks injury events. These are moments in a game in which a player suffers some type of injury. This could be anything from a pitcher being hit by a line drive to a batter fouling a ball off his foot or yes, off the catcher’s groin. This is noted alongside a severity rating based on how the player responded to the injury. (Did he leave the game? Need a breather? Minimally react?) That information is within the data we sell to teams and media.

We have information on injury events regarding foul balls hitting off a catcher’s pelvis or hips and have our current level of charting back to 2023. There was only a small increase from 2023 to 2024 but a much larger one (a 22% jump) from 2024 to 2025 as the percentage of catchers using the one-knee-down stance increased from 90 to 95%.

Foul Balls Hit Off Catcher’s Pelvis Or Hips – MLB Totals

>> 2026 current pace is for 347 injury events (stats through Monday’s games)

Since 2023 the catcher who has had the most such injury events is Nick Fortes of the Rays with 39. He ranks 17th in innings caught in that span, so he’s getting hit at a high rate. Fortes also has 10 such injury events in 2026, twice as many as the players with the next-most.

Here are two examples of moments in which you can hear and see Fortes react as the ball hits him in a bad spot. We’re impressed with anyone with the courage to play the position.

It takes a lot of guts to be a catcher in 2026. That’s for sure.

 Most Injury Events For Foul Balls Off Catcher’s Pelvis or Hips – Since 2023

Be sure to check out the latest SIS Baseball Podcast featuring former MLB manager Dusty Baker and writer Ed Wheatley. Dusty is promoting his autobiography. Ed is promoting a book he wrote with Rawlings about the history of baseball gloves.