If Curt Casali Weren't a Catcher...

I was quite excited last night when I saw that the Nationals had waived catcher Derek Norris. In fact, I wrote a FanPost around this time last year making an early case for the Rays to trade for Norris.

For all the reasons I detailed last year, Norris would still be a good fit in Tampa Bay, even in spite of the Wilson Ramos signing. Norris is still just 28. He has a little bit of pop. He a plus throw and catch guy. Seems like he calls a good enough game. And while I think it's concerning that he allegedly wasn't popular with Padres' pitchers, he still seems like enough of an offensive upgrade over Curt Casali to make it worth the Rays' while. In any event, he'd be a pretty low-risk signing.

If Curt Casali weren't a catcher, I think I would have given up on him by now. Much of our community has, and I don't blame them for doing so. But there's something about Casali (or maybe there's something about him being a catcher) that's kept me holding on longer than I normally would.

I suppose I have something of a history of developing attachments to below-average players. I remember searching for a team to support when the Expos fled Montreal. It took a while before I landed on the Rays. I followed the Cardinals for a while and distinctly remember watching current Rays outfielder Colby Rasmus displace Rick Ankiel in center field. You could feel it coming throughout 2009. Ankiel struggled. Rasmus was a top prospect. There was a degree of inevitability that it was always going to turn out the way that it did.

But I still hated it.

It's this human element of baseball that I really enjoy. God knows I resisted the stats movement for long enough, and as much as I've tried to make myself into an "stats-first" guy, whatever that means, I still can't resist following certain players for reasons I can't quantify.

It's silly, really. I'm an adult human being with plenty of responsibilities of my own. To think that I enjoy following other grown human beings, who I know very little about, because they do things I like to watch for seven months a year between the chalk lines of a baseball diamond explains the irrationality of fandom pretty well.

Curt Casali has become like Rick Ankiel for me. He doesn't have Ankiel's comeback story that everyone can find appealing. He wasn't even drafted by the Rays. But he has certain other strengths that appeal to me as a baseball fan.

In fact, there have been a lot of guys like Casali and Ankiel for me over the years. I loved watching Brian Schneider catch. And while I felt wrong doing it, I still followed him even after the Expos became the Nationals. I always looked for Eli Marrero's box score numbers. I still really enjoy watching Adeiny Hechavarria play defense, even if he's worthless with a bat in his hands. Reid Brignac has always been one of these guys, who I know a lot of people in this community will always pull for.

Regarding Casali, I really like watching him catch. I remember watching Francisco Cervelli burst onto the scene with the Italian World Baseball Classic team in 2009, and set what I still continue to believe to be the bar for catcher enthusiasm. Casali is one of the only guys I've seen since that can match Cervelli's energy level on behind the plate. Casali works so hard for his pitchers. He has soft hands. He throws well. He blocks well. And when he's hot at the plate, he's one of the best hitters in the Rays' lineup.

This time last year I was cautiously optimistic about Casali. But even in his torrid 2015 season, his peripherals were never great, and they predictably caught up to him over a full campaign. There was this adage around the turn of the millennium that if a backup catcher sticks around long enough, he'll hit .300 at least once in his career. That's what Casali's 2015 season was - a scorching few weeks that can happen to anyone over a small enough sample size.

Yet he's good enough defensively that he's going to stick around the major leagues for a while. I firmly believe this. But I don't know if it's going to be with the Rays. The Rays are really good at developing other teams' catchers, and I think sooner or later Casali is going to be one of the Robinson Chirinos/Jose Lobaton/Stephen Vogt types that catches on with another club.

If Derek Norris becomes available, I hope the Rays sign him. Casali still has an option remaining. Wilson Ramos won't be healthy until early summer. Anything can happen, and maybe the Rays will end up holding onto Casali over the long term. But if they don't, I'll follow his stats and watch him catch on MLB.TV wherever he ends up. And when I do, I'll celebrate these types of stories and players that keep baseball worth watching.