The Nationals are loaded with quality catchers and most likely will trade one of them for pitching, writes Bill Ladson of MLB.com. With Ivan Rodriguez, Jesus Flores, Wilson Ramos, and Derek Norris in the fold, Ladson writes that one of the backstops could be moved prior to Opening Day.
Now fully recovered from right shoulder surgery, the leading candidate to be traded could be Flores, who has been seen throwing the ball hard to second and third base. The injury cost the 26-year-old most of the 2010 season as he appeared in just 26 games.
The veteran Rodriguez will be the club's starting catcher to start the year while Ramos is being groomed as his heir apparent. Norris, 22, will probably start the season in the minors and is said to already possess a big league bat.
Got it all figured out. Pudge will be traded later in the season once Ramos can step in full time. Flores will be brought up to back up. Norris will move to first and Marrero will also be gone.
they should move rodriguez now to anyone who will take him
Norris will not be moved to first in the forseeable future IMHO. He has more value as a tradable asset as a catcher than as a first basemen internally. Catchers with OBP > .400 don’t really grow on trees.
would teames even be willing to give up pitching for flores
Maybe a C+ prospect or two. He’s basically just filler on any club….
Until he shows otherwise, Flores is basically a replacement level catcher to people outside of the Nats system. As a Nats fan, I’m rooting for him to succeed. I’d like to see him mash AAA and make it hard for the organization to justify keeping Pudge.
I like Norris’s bat a lot more than Ramos’s. Not sure about defense, but I have serious doubts that Ramos will be an above-average offensive catcher at the big-league level.
agree norris definetly is more major league rdy as far as hitting goes
i to dont know much about his defense
Norris defense needs work and that’s the primary reason that he is unlikely to see time beyond AA. From what I’ve heard (people who’ve seen him in Potomac at high A last year), he has to work on receiving the ball. He had a bunch of problems with passed balls in 2009 at low A Hagerstown.
I think Norris has the greatest upside of all of the four guys, and I strongly doubt that they would move him to first base.
i will say this about ramos…i was impressed with his defense and how he called the games last season filling in for pudge when he was on the disabled list
there rly wasnt much i could gripe on him about
Flores is coming off major surgery and hasn’t played in a year plus so I cant imagine his trade value being off the the charts. But when he is healthy, he has a lot of talent. I think a healthy Flores has more upside than will ramos. While Derrick Norris can hit, but he cant play d. And Pudge is 70 years old.
But It would be nice to have a quality starter thats a bit a step above the stack of 4’s and 5’s we have in our rotation now. (Though Jordan Z. has the potential to be a solid number 2).
Flores would have been a perennial all-star if he didnt get injured. I dont see the same in Ramos.
Yeah, his .740 OPS in 270 minor-league games really indicates that…..
I agree, when flores was healthy when he first came up he showed some flashes of what he can really do. Hope he can go back to that form
It would be nice to see Detroit inquire about Norris. Avila’s defense is decent but he leaves a lot to be desired at the plate.
Austin Jackson for David Ross?
Are you serious?
^doing it wrong
Uh, I don’t even know what to say to this trade proposal.
i hope they keep flores over all of the rest, i think he can shine and he would have shined if it wasnt for the injuries
Personally, I’m a Norris guy first and foremost and I’d like to see an entirely homegrown prospect become a long term cornerstone for the franchise. Norris needs another year. Right now, we’re paying the price for giving Pudge the extra year that nobody else was willing to give him last year. Signing Pudge last year still made sense, but I don’t know all of the possible options for one year catchers last year who would have been able to give reasonable production.
Flores is believe it when I see it for me. Ramos gets this year to answer some of the questions that the Twins and others must have had about him.
Maybe the Twins could send Matt Capps to the Nationals for Wilson Ramos…
Now that’s some funny junk.
Angels should dangle Kazmir if he is having another bad start to the season. They need catchers
Yes, because nothing is more attractive to teams looking to trade catchers than a struggling and oft-injured starting pitcher with a $14.5mill price tag…
I’m not sure what the Nationals could get for Pudge besides a bag of balls… I’d like to see Flores moved if he proves to be healthy and then see Norris moved to 1B…then again the Nationals could just sign Pujols and then keep Norris and Ramos at C
I don’t think Flores has any value until he shows that he is currently healthy, can hold up physically behind the plate for 20-50 games, and that his bat still plays. I know he had decent success in Winter Ball, but I think that he’s targeted for AAA unless Pudge is miraculously moved quickly..
You’re underestimating the value of bags of of balls.
Flores is tough to get a handle on, just from the stats. He just hasn’t had enough time above A ball without being hurt to get a good read. His first stint in the bigs was at age 23, so it’s easy to think he’s better than the .698 OPS he put up over those 324 PA’s. But how much better? If he’s a plus defensive catcher, those numbers suggest he could be a decent regular.
I think trading him now is essentially selling low. He needs a few months more in AAA or with the big club to prove he’s healthy and performing well.