A real catch(er) 22

It’s really difficult to see the word ‘catcher’ and ’22’ in the same sentence and not think of Maxwell with a gun….. But this isn’t another ode to Maxwell, this is about the catcher conundrum the A’s face heading into the off season. And we need a primary number one catcher and Murphy is at least a year away minimum. Assuming he doesn’t need anything more than a year in AAA to develop.

So, from what I can tell we have 4 real options. Apart from running with Phegley as our opening day catcher (so not a real option there at all really – or it better not be….).

Option 1: Bring back Lucroy who couldn’t bat, was bad defensively, and wants at least the same money as he got last year. However he did reportedly have good repour with his teammates and seemed to help get the best out of what was a patchy rotation.

Option 2: We sign a free agent, and outside of Grandal who would cost a fortune (comparatively for us anyway) and the rest even the upper end of the market, hold little or no interest for me anyway.

Even at the upper end of the FA market, Maldonado can’t bat, Ramos has had injury issues especially knee issues the last couple of years and defensively is average. Mesoraco is ok I suppose as a possibility, but his bat isn’t great.

Willians Astudillo is interesting, who in his first year hit 355/371/516 in 97 plate appearances with only 3 strikeout and had a 0.2dWAR. Who was on a minor league contract with the twins last year. Despite this I would imagine he will attract a bit of attention, and do we really want a guy with only 97 plate appearances being our primary catcher?

Or we just wait out the Market and hope that someone falls into our lap like Lucroy did last year….. A very risky strategy and we could very well end up with someone like Wieters, McCann or Saltalamacchia…. Probably what will happen, but personally not for me, I’m not a big fan of this option…..

Option 3: Trade for a catcher. We could go for a shorter-term primary catcher who would be a relatively expensive option.

Like trading for Yan Gomes. Who hit .266/.313/.449 with 16 home runs and a 101 wRC+ in 435 plate appearances in 2018, all of which is ok, but was pretty bad for the previous 3 years prior to that. And is worth about 0.5-1WAR defensively and is set to earn $7 million in 2019, and he has team options for $9 million in 2020 and $11 million in 2021, and in each instance, the option would have a $1 million buyout.

Cervelli is another option he had a 2.6 WAR season last year in 104 games. He has long been considered one of the best two-way catchers in baseball. Renowned for being one of the best pitch framers in baseball and had a 259/378/431 batting line. But is owed a substantial 11mil next year.

Those are the 2 main options I can think of, however a decent primary catcher would cost a lot in prospects and or contract cost, so an unlikely option for mind….. But you might have someone else that you have been contemplating we go after.

Option 4: We could look to trade for a back-up catcher (my preferred option).

Alex Avila a lefty which is good but has gone from being a career 237/347/394 hitter to being 165/299/304 guy in 2018. With an incredibly bad strikeout rate and only had 32 hits in 194 at bats. Potentially a bounce back guy but could have easily (and for mind quite likely) has just fallen off the cliff and is done….

However, given his poor year last year, how disliked he is in Arizona with the fans, he would essentially cost us nothing in a trade…. And is only owed 4.25 next year…

Andrew Knapp, is a former top catching prospect, he’s a switch hitter and is struggling to find his feet at the big league level. He hit 198/294/316 last year. But in 2017 hit 257/368/368.

He was a relatively productive hitter through the minors without massive amounts of power but demonstrates good pitch recognition and isn’t afraid to take a walk. He is also able hit from both sides of the plate. Which is demonstrated with his high OBP. Defensively he apparently has a good arm and calls a good game but needs work with his framing. However, Knapp has only been up in the majors for 2 seasons, and it normally takes about 3 for catchers to develop/adjust……

Chance Sisco, Chance has had a terrible time of it this year hitting only 181/288/269, and is now behind both Wynns, Joseph and even Susac in the pecking order with the Orioles (bird pun). Chance is a high ceiling guy who batted 333/455/778 last year (so he can hit at the major league level). He was once the Orioles number one prospect, the number 45 overall and the number 3 catching prospect in the league in 2017….And is still 2 years pre-arb.

Luke Maile, the Jays will be carrying 4 catchers into 2019 at this stage and I think they will struggle to move Martin’s $20mil contract. Due to the roster crunch which will hit the Jays, and because he has been surpassed by Jansen and McGuire, I think Maile will struggle to stay on their 40.

As a result, I think Maile is very tradeable. Maile is a righty, only 27, he’s not glamours player but does everything decently, and has been good solid performer over the last 4 years which will give you 1WAR worth of production and his final pre-arb year is 2019.

Tom Murphy is a righty, who was amazing in 2015 and 2016 hitting 257/333/543 and 273/347/659 respectively. However, he only hit 042/115/083 in 24 at bats in 2017, post a forearm fracture. He did look to rebound a bit last year with a 226/250/387 line and his final pre-arb year is also 2019. With Chris Iannetta providing the right handed side heavy of the platoon, he’s may be considered tradeable.

Omar Narvaez is a 275/360 consistent type of hitter but last year his power numbers increased from the 330’s to a 429 slg %. And was worth about 1.9WAR and is in his final pre-arb year 2019.

Curt Casali is a righty who hit 293/355/450 last year and an otherworldly 333/462/667 in 2017, after struggling in his first 3 seasons, and is going into his first arb year in 2019.

Carson Kelly a former top prospect who has really struggled to find his feet in the majors with a 157/227/188 batting line. But who hit 283/375/457 when he was last in AAA in 2016. However, with Molina under contract for the next 2 years and Kizner on the way up, Kelly might be on the way out, while he still holds some trade value. But 3 poor seasons have diminished greatly what the cost would have been even last year.

My personal picks to go for would be Andrew Knapp and Tom Murphy.

The Phillies are going to really push this year, they have money to spend and I could see them going hard after Grandal. At the very least catcher is one of the areas they will look to upgrade which will force Knapp out/make him tradeable.

As I previously mentioned it normally takes 3 years for catchers to adjust to the big’s, and Knapp is coming up on that next year.

But it’s his high OBP which makes me think he’s a good target, and in this post Jed era we will heading into either this year or in the not too distant having a guy who can get on base with our swing happy line up might not be such a bad thing.

I went with Tom Murphy because he for me out of all the options stood out as someone who could fill the number 1 role for us with having 4 years of experience behind the plate. The forearm issue obviously really shook him, but he appears to be getting back on track and could see him really making an impact next year.

I decided to go with cheap controllable options as there are no guarantees that Murphy will dominate in AAA and be a Molina figure when he comes up in 2020.

As there have been way to many examples especially with catchers who dominate in the lower leagues and never live up to the expectations when they get up into the majors. He may well end up being the new Molina and that would be great, but he could just as easily be Carson Kelly….

Anyway I’m a bit of an old prude, I like having a plan B (which we don’t have by having a one year stop gap option) and these guys offer us that, in addition to allowing Murphy to take as much time as he needs to truly be developed in AAA without the pressure of having to rush him up to soon/quickly.

But that’s just my take, you might have some different names, a different view, and for that comments below as per normal…….