Here are a few reactions to the Phillies and Dodgers’ recent catcher swap, in which Carlos Ruiz headed to Los Angeles while A.J. Ellis, pitcher Tommy Bergjans and a player to be named or cash went to Philadelphia.
- The Phillies have two good catching prospects in Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knapp, but GM Matt Klentak says it was still important that they receive the veteran Ellis in the deal, as Philly.com’s Matt Gelb writes. (Alfaro was recently promoted to the Majors, but is expected to return to the minors once Ellis arrives.) “It was important as this team parts ways with Carlos, who has been such an important leader for so long, that we add a player with a tremendous reputation as a leader and worker,” says Klentak. “We were adamant A.J. be in it.” Ellis is expected to back up Cameron Rupp in Philadelphia.
- Ruiz could have used his no-trade clause to block the deal, and he didn’t want to leave the Phillies, the team that signed him all the way back in 1998. But he says the possibility of competing for a championship was too tempting to pass up, as MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes. “My heart and everything was in Philly,” says Ruiz. “It was tough to make that decision. It’s sad to leave, but another part of me is happy, because I’ve got an opportunity to go to the postseason and the playoffs and have a chance to go back to the World Series.”
- From the Dodgers’ perspective, Ellis’ inclusion in the deal is confusing, writes Dave Cameron of Fangraphs. With September callups approaching, one would think the Dodgers could have kept Ellis and still traded for Ruiz, assembling some other package that would have worked for the Phillies (Klentak’s protestation above notwithstanding). Instead, they traded Ellis, who doesn’t hit well but has a terrific clubhouse reputation, in a deal that appears to be a marginal upgrade — Ruiz, after all, will be a backup who will only get so many plate appearances down the stretch. If the Dodgers don’t succeed this year, it will be easy to blame their failures on Ellis’ departure, whether or not that’s fair.
Choooooooooooch.
If you end up blaming your failures on a backup catcher, it’s safe to say that you really weren’t that good to begin with.
It’s still mind boggling that people value leadership over production. Baseball is a pretty black and white game, if you produce, nothing else matters. Teams with violent, volatile personalities have won plenty of titles – see every single team from the 70’s.
AJ Ellis is a 35 year old catcher with a .538 OPS and -0.3 fWAR player this year, he’s worthless and costs the teams wins by playing him. As a big leaguer, his career is pretty much over. Being BFFs with Kershaw is literally the only thing people are latching onto with this dumb narrative of “now he’s gone the team will fall to pieces”. Chooch is a better hitter and receiver to the tune of being a 1.3 fWAR player this year. He still has a future in this game, Ellis does not. No idea why the Phillies got him other than to coach Rupp, Alfaro and Knapp through September. No idea if that actually works or not.
Regardless of what happens this year, I see AJ coming back to the Dodgers next year as a bench coach which will make for a happy Kershaw.
Really don’t think it’s “mind-boggling” to value leadership over production when we’re looking at probably, what, 1/4 of a win difference in the next month?
Leadership helps others perform look at Wilmer Flores. He wasn’t great until Bartolo Colon was signed. He used his leadership and is now VERY productive
Maybe the Phillies were looking for the best leader/mentor/clubhouse guy to help their young pitching staff. Everyone knows AJ isn’t known for his bat skills, the stats indicate that. Having met the guy, he is class all the way. He has integrity, which is lacking all over right now, not just baseball.
Dave Cameron’s take on the trade is the most absurd comment I’ve ever read. How can he say that if the Dodgers don’t succeed it can be blamed on the Ellis trade. As if their success so far had anything to do with Ellis being on the team. Also, this trade was all about October. Not to improve the team down the stretch. I rather have Ruiz as insurance if Grandal gets hurt than Ellis.
By calling up Alfaro, did that use up one of his minor league options? I’m unfamiliar with how that works
Nonetheless, it seems really odd to call him up for a day, not use him, then send him back
It’s just to fill up the roster spot for the time being. You can’t have one catcher on your roster for a second because if he gets hurt or an emergency happens during a game, you are screwed. Not everybody knows how to catch so you can’t have any guy on the bench or the field catch.
I’m pretty sure it does use one of his options . Unless there’s some loophole that lets him come up so he can fill aj’s spot .
Yeah, not positive, but pretty sure it’ll use an option.
But I guess if you look at it, the move isn’t that bad.
It’s just the first of Alfaro’s option years, and he’s 23. So he won’t run out of options until at least the 2019 season, when he’s 26. It could even be the 2020 season or later,. Andrew Knapp has three options left, too. If they need a catcher next season or the year after and don’t want to use another option for Alfaro, they could always just use one of Knapp’s.
Here’s how I see it: The Phillies figure Alfaro will be starting for the big league club by the time 2019 or 2020 comes around, so they don’t think he’ll run out of options. And if he’s still not major league ready by the time he’s 26 or 27 – he’s probably a flop.
Another guess is that the move could also be an attempt to help Alfaro get out of the slump he’s been in (he’s slashing .212/.278/.288 in August).
It had to be done – Ellis just simply isn’t worth a roster spot anymore. He will make a great coach, maybe even manager, but that doesn’t justify a spot on a play-off team. Would anyone feel confident with him as an everyday guy if Grandal got hurt?
I respect the sentiment – but that shouldn’t be enough at the crunch end of the season.
Ellis is a poor hitter and leadership does help howbeit production is important. With that being said we do not know the effect of him not “Catching” Kershaw. Being on the same page with the way you attack a hitter is very important. If Kershaw is not comfortable then his performance could suffer.
Maddux strongly preferred Perez over Lopez although Perez was more productive than Ellis. To me if the front office did not think Ellis would produce enough ( taking his age and history of hitting) then they should have replaced him in the offseason. That way Kershaw could have bonded and worked with his new battery mate.
Remember Kershaw was pitching Historically well before the injury. Why change at the last minute so to speak, and possibly cause Kershaw to be off of his game? Just my thoughts on the matter.
Agreed. Doesn’t make much sense to me to make this trade in August – should have been a preseason trade, if anything.
But based on the numbers, Kershaw hasn’t had much trouble when Ellis isn’t catching him. His line with Grandal is nearly identical (although admittedly a much smaller sample size):
AJ Ellis – 118 games, 1.97 ERA, .195/.243/.286 opponent triple slash
Grandal – 18 games, 1.98 ERA, 1.91/.224/.286 opponent triple slash
Ellis wasn’t just helping Kershaw during games; he prepared every single pitcher before a series. He was better prepared than all of them. This move makes Honeycutt’s job more difficult. The Dodgers already lost a game because Ruiz was put in a position to fail on Friday night. He caught Jansen in game for the first time and had two pitches get away from him because he wasn’t anticipating the movement of his fastball.
Grandal will get the majority of playing time down the stretch and probably all of the playing time in the playoffs. Ruiz will probably get very few at bats. This trade makes very little sense from the Dodgers perspective. This is the type of trade you make in spring training; not during the playoff stretch