Red Sox catchers gather during spring training. From left are Mark Wagner, George Kottaras, the now-departed Josh Bard, Jason Varitek and Dusty Brown.

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach

BOSTON –– When Double-A standout catcher Mark Wagner looks above himself in the organization’s catching ranks, he sees players he wants to emulate. When he looks below, he sees quality players, chasing him.

Tim Federowicz is tearing up low A-Ball with a .345 average and 10 home runs, and Luis Exposito is showing good potential in high-A.

At the major league level, where Wagner aspires to be, he sees Dusty Brown getting his first major-league callup, and George Kottaras establishing himself catching Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball. At every point, he sees a group of catchers he thinks could stand with any other in the minor leagues, and who are pushing one another to get better.

“We’re all driving one another to work harder,” Wagner said. “Federowicz is driving Exposito, Exposito puts pressure on me, hopefully I’m driving Dusty Brown and George Kottaras to get better.”

All through the Boston system, the organization’s minor-league catching depth is proving to be better than advertised, and the catchers think it’s time for outsiders to take another look at what the Red Sox have waiting in the wings.

“I would be more than willing to match up the talent in this organization against any other,” Wagner said.

 Brown agreed.

“From top to bottom, I think we’re a little underrated. The grass always seems to be greener on the other side. A lot of fans think the best option is to go out and get somebody. It’s not, necessarily,” Brown said.

This winter, it was unclear whether catcher Jason Varitek would return to Boston after 12 years in the organization. In early 2008, general manager Theo Epstein had gone so far as to say that the future Boston catcher was likely not in the organization.

Without an obvious heir apparent in the minors, the calls for the Red Sox to go outside the system and bring in a young catcher came from every corner, and many advocated shipping out Clay Buchholz in the hope of bringing in one of Texas’ trio of Gerald Laird, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, or Taylor Teagarden. In the end, Varitek came back, Laird was shipped to Detroit instead of Boston, and Buchholz has torn up the minor leagues.

Meanwhile, Boston brought in veteran Josh Bard to back up Varitek, but he ended up being less impressive than expected, and was cut during spring training.

The Red Sox filled the hole behind Varitek by promoting from within, bringing up George Kottaras to catch the knuckleballing Tim Wakefield. After a rough start, the 26-year-old rookie Kottaras is swinging the bat well, with a .246 average and more doubles than singles, by a count of 9 to 6.

“We’ve got a lot of good players in this organization, and everyone’s playing well. People sometimes overlook that. But there are a lot of good players, and people need to take that into consideration,” said Kottaras, who came to Boston in a trade for David Wells in 2006.

Kottaras won the backup’s job over Brown, 27, a solid defensive catcher with a decent bat, who earned his first major-league callup this week as a third catcher for the major league team.

The young catchers are now working to prove that one of them can take over the mantle of starter from the veteran Varitek.

Farm system director Mike Hazen is pleased with what he’s seen from his catchers so far this year, “The group as a whole we’ve been pretty happy with,” Hazen said.

But as to whether this group will blossom from promising minor-leaguers to contributing big league catchers, well, that’s a tougher question.

“It’s hard to say. The hardest thing with the catching position is time, and experience, lends so much to the confidence of the pitching staff and the catchers,” Hazen said. Catchers are hard to judge early in their minor league careers. Generally, they reach the majors later than other position players, and they often need significant seasoning at the minor league level to learn the finer points of game and pitching staff management. So judging a catcher early is tough.

 “I do think there’s a credibility that comes along with the experience that these guys get after hundreds of innings in the minor leagues,” he said.

Wagner is working on getting those hundreds of innings in right now.

Coming off a disappointing year when he hit .219 with 10 home runs, Wagner has broken out at the plate for Double-A Portland. The 25-year-old ranks in the league’s top 10 in many statistical categories, and his .412 on-base percentage from the second spot in the batting order has helped power Portland’s offense. A 2005 9th-rounder, Wagner is hitting .309 with 17 doubles, three home runs, and 23 RBI, despite spending several weeks on the disabled list. He credits some of his improvement to the time he spent in the Arizona Fall League, and then the experience he got watching big leaguers during spring training this year.

Hazen said that Wagner has shown some improvement at the plate in 2009, but stressed that the organization largely felt that Wagner possessed similar batting skills in 2008, and his poor average last year was largely the result of hard-hit balls flying right to opposing defenders.

“We saw last year, he went through a lot of stretches where he was swinging the bat well, hitting the ball well, and having bad luck,” Hazen said.

Wagner already owns a reputation as an excellent defensive catcher when it comes to blocking the ball and throwing out runners, and he attributes some of his down year in 2008 to all the mental energy he expended working on the third major element of catching: managing a pitching staff.

“I want to say I took last year to learning how to catch, almost,” Wagner said. “In order to be one of the great catchers, you have to learn how to do it. That takes time and commitment…. You almost have to take that as your focus.”

Hazen said Wagner has impressed with his blocking, throwing, and hitting, but the part of his game that still needs work is the staff management.

“He’s always thrown the ball very well, he’s always blocked the ball very well. He’s basically shut down the running game throwing. He just needs to show the consistency running the pitching staff,” Hazen said.

Assuming that continues to improve, a promotion to the next level could be coming.

“He’ll hopefully have an opportunity at some point to make that move if things continue to progress,” Hazen said.

Below Wagner, Federowicz has been tearing up the Low-A South Atlantic League, sporting a .345 average and 10 home runs in only 55 games. Following the league’s all-star game this week, the 2008 7th-round pick will debut with High-A Salem.

“He just basically dominated the first half of the season,” Hazen said. “He definitely showed the tools to compete –– We’ll see how he does at the next level.”

Salem’s current catcher, Luis Exposito, is well-regarded as a prospect, and is putting up decent numbers, with a .276 average and four home runs. He has good power potential, but like Wagner, must continue to work on managing the pitchers. Federowicz and Exposito should team up together to give Salem a promising tandem, splitting time to ensure that the wear and tear on their bodies is minimized.

“He and Fed will be a good match there, having the both of them together will allow both of them to get a blow every once in a while,” Hazen said.

dbarbari@projo.com