A few notes from behind the plate…
- When Giants stalwart Buster Posey underwent season-ending hip surgery last August, there was some question as to whether he’d be ready in time for Opening Day this year. While Posey’s recovery has seemingly gone well enough for him to return at the outset of the season, the Giants are going to take a “smart” and “careful” approach as they break the six-time All-Star back into action, according to president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi (via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). “Even if he’s ready to carry a full catching load to start the season, I’m not sure that would be the prudent course for us,” noted Zaidi, who added that the Giants are still in the market for depth at catcher. They did sign the seasoned Rene Rivera on Friday, but he only secured a minor league deal, which still leaves the Giants with Posey and Aramis Garcia as the only catchers on their 40-man roster. Of course, they also have experienced veteran Cameron Rupp joining Rivera as credible depth heading into camp.
- The Yankees’ Gary Sanchez is also coming off surgery, having undergone an offseason procedure on his left (non-throwing) shoulder. Sanchez is now “healthy,” per general manager Brian Cashman (via George A. King III of the New York Post), but the Yanks will mimic the Giants in being cautious with their prized backstop this spring. The 26-year-old Sanchez joined Posey among the majors’ elite catchers from 2017-18, though the former’s now looking to bounce back from a shockingly rough season. Sanchez bombed at the plate, hitting .186/.291/.406 (89 wRC+) in 374 trips, and also drew the ire of fans and media for leading the American League in passed balls (18).
- It’s “unlikely” the Athletics will enter the season with their current catcher tandem of Josh Phegley and Chris Herrmann, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Ultimately, the A’s may take a similar route to the one they went down last spring, when they signed a veteran (Jonathan Lucroy) in March, but the team could have a greater sense of urgency this time around because it’s leaving for Japan on March 14, Slusser notes. Free-agent backstop options are dwindling, moreover, though at least one of the available players – Matt Wieters – has piqued the Athletics’ interest.
Looking for G. Sanchez’s bounce back season. Cant wait for him to shut everyone up. Hope he stays healthy.
*looking forward to
I think the bigger question with Sanchez is if he can clean up his defense behind the plate then if his bat will bounce back. If he shows little to no defensive improvement I don’t think he can stick at catcher long term.
I believe he can. He’s still young and he actually was better defensively at the end of the season
He’s a future first baseman
Yankees have a lot of future first basemen in Sanchez and Andujar.
Future DH
Actually, Sanchez’ defense overall is positive, despite the passed balls.
Sanchez is a great defender other than the passed balls, great framer/receiver, and has a cannon for an arm.
But as a catcher, you need to catch the call and not let it make the backstop, no? What’s wrong with Gary isn’t a skill set issue, it’s a thing between his ears issue.
He caught much better games later in the season when he came back from injury. I think you can assume some of his defensive woes were due to injury and being rusty when having nothing but breaking ball pitchers to catch.
He still had a positive DRS. It was like a DRS of 6 if im not mistaken.
Are you nuts? Yeah, he has other attributes, like an arm, but at his age, EVERYONE should have an arm by now unless you’re a 1B.
His passed balls, his inability to hold runners with most of the bullpen, and his inability to work with the pitching staff are huge concerns, even if he his 40 HRs. Catcher is one of the most important positions, and Sanchez shouldn’t be trusted back there.
That being said, who the hell else is going to start back there?
I read somewhere that you cannot be a great framer and also not be prone to passed balls. Thought process is that the catcher is so focused on HOW he is receiving the ball that he sacrifices his defensive position in case the pitch gets away.
I think that combined with the Yankees having one of the more filthy bullpens has attributed to his passed balls. I would love data on how Romine is on framing pitches.
I think Gary needs to forget about framing and focus more on blocking. I am not saying all of his inability to block balls is attributed to his framing, because other catchers can find a good balance and are simply better defensively, but this is effecting him somewhat.
He’s a loser.
agreed. sucker punched miggy – face down and defenseless. coward.
I guess you can do better. I would love to see that….
Sanchez will have another bad season. He’s just not that good. Yankee fans are tough on all their players, except this guy for some reason. I don’t get it.
LOL.. You and 8 people who liked your post know ZERO about baseball.. It’s amazing how Sanchez has a bad year and people just throw out the prior 2 years where he was the best offensive catcher in the game.
Yanks- Sanchez has been good for about 60% of his career and trash for 40%. Nobody really knows what he is yet. Pitchers figured him out, not the big question is if he can adjust back to them.
JD, though I’ve disagreed with you in the past on a few of your Yankee players assessments, I’ve got to wholeheartedly agree with you on this post.
He had it coming.
His offense is meaningless if he can’t do his job behind the plate. Give me a .200 hitter who can actually catch. He couldn’t even hit that last season.
He’s not a catcher. He’s a hitter, maybe, if he can bounce back. But one more sub .200 season and he’s trade bait
You are right\
!
Descripion: “shocking rough” doesn’t even start to explain how horrible he was on both sides. He was treated like a star (which is understandable based on his career start) but that will fade quickly if 2019 begins like 2018 ended. Other than his immaturity, I’ve been a big fan of his, having compared him to a young Johnny Bench but 2019 is important for him. While I expect his bat to be back, this could be his last year as a Yankee catcher if he can’t do the little things needed to help his pitching staff. He might just be too big to block all those balls. Like hockey, there are a few but not many big goalies. Love that arm but you have to grip the ball to throw it.
“having compared him to a young Johnny Bench” Dewey, there’s just so much wrong with this.
I made the comparison prior to last year based on his early power numbers and canon of an arm. I stand by the comment when I first said it. His immaturity stems from his inability to accept criticism and the cheap shots he gave in that 2017 fight against the Tigers.
i think youll find you will have very little people to tell “i told you so” to. most believe that gary will bouce back at least to some degree. I wouldnt be surpised if he wasnt a top-5 catcher this year, and perhaps more surprised if he wasnt.
I dunno man, just look at these comments. It seems split. Though, it does seem reasonable for people to have their doubts, they are just disregarding the talent the kid has because he went through one injury riddled season and had passed balls.
Take off the homer glasses and see what everyone else sees.
You mean all the Yankee haters and people who think catcher defense is entirely measured by passed balls? Nah.
You obviously haven’t read this guys posts about Greg Bird. Google to see what I’m saying…
+Bern
Chinwood is a fool, do not listen to him. He relies too much on his recency bias and nothing more. His understanding of the sport is shallow.
+Chinwood
I saw a player who went through an injury riddled season do bad. When he was healthy he was good. I wouldnt call having reasonable suspicion of a bounce back season being a homer. Go back to misinterpreting statements and attacking strawmans you pathetic fool.
Keep giving them fodder so others can laugh, and make fun of Yankees fans…dolt
Its no surprise you have nothing of value to say.
(Bonus fun!
“DURRR I SAW PLAYER DO BAD RECENTLY THEREFORE HE MUST DO BAD FOREVER!! NO I DONT CARE IF HE WAS INJURED AND HIT INTO BAD LUCK”
-your reasoning summed up into one post)
I’m not sure how Sanchez was worth 1.2 WAR last year.
6 DRS paired with a .400 SLG in a shallow position will get you 1.2 Wins Above Replacement
FODDER!!!
Absolutely embarrassing display, m8.
He’s a 1B/DH. The sooner the Yankees realize this the better off they will be.
Believe you can count on Gary to come back to true form for sure
I hope he does come back true to his form.
He’s too fat to be good defensively and too stupid to adjust at the plate. Pitchers already figured him out. Hitting homers is the only thing keeping him in the big leagues and with surgery, waive goodbye to that. Catching is the Yankees biggest weakness.
I look forward to Anthony Siegler in three years or so. Switch-hitting catcher with speed and good defense is a plus. His ceiling is probably someone like JT Realmuto or Yasmani Grandal. Gary is going to be a first baseman or a DH by the time he’s 30 unless he improves that D
A’s need to sign Maldonado!
Definitely; Weiters is a terrible idea
I completely agree.
Maldonado is so obviously the best choice in that he’s defensively superb and won’t block Murphy. Weiters is such a bad idea and he’s a prima donna. Phegley is just plain terrible too, he’s AAAA.
Maldonado/Hermann –> Murphy/Maldonado by All-Star Break is a plan I’m sure all A’s fans would love to have come to fruition.
Phegley hasn’t been bad when he’s been given steady PT. Remember, Matt Olsen didn’t do much at all above AAA before he was flat out handed the starting job at 1B. I said it for two years that the A’s need to just hand it over to him and see what he can do. Now, by no means am I saying that Phegley will produce like Olsen. But, he has played well enough (league average) when he isn’t relegated to spot starts.
Matt Olson was always tracked as the future 1B from the day he was drafted, and his elite defense (seriously, he might be the best 1B in history) got him the job, he wasn’t even “handed it” either, he deserved it even with a low-ish than expected OPS of .826 in 210 AAA games.
There’s no might be about it… the A’s have the two best corner defenders in the game right now
At least Malonado offers above average defense….I have no clue what Weiters offers at this point…..
Does Wieters offer less than lucroy? For some reason lucroy found no issue finding a ML deal.
Good point actually; neither is exactly much of anything.
Malonado must be still asking for a high amount of money. Why is the question. He is a below average hitter but plays good defense. That sums up most catcher in today’s game. A’s just need to get through this year because next year Murphy should be ready to be one of the best catchers in baseball.
Barring injury, Murphy will be up by summer ’19 and be the full time C.
Murphy’s bat is also amazing. Calling it: he’s the next Realmuto .
I think he is the next Molina. His defense behind the plate and strong arm is the best in the minors. His bat is the only thing that is not ready right now.
I think Realmuto might be the next Lucroy.
Realmuto’s probably hitting 40 homers next year, nope
Posey, great career but on the downward trend fast. time to take the twins approach
He’s fine. Still a 3.0+ WAR player. I’d rather see Posey catch, even if limited, than to see him play 1B at $22mm/yr. Only has to play behind the plate for three more years. He can do it.
Player salary should not make you want to see a guy play less or worse. Posey mashing at 1B for 150 games is much better than Posey declining defensively behind the plate and his bat and playing time suffering from it.
Comparatively speaking, as a catcher Posey has mashed. But at 1B he is not a masher. He’s only an average hitter there. Posey’s best value is when he plays catcher. Plus if you put him at 1B you lose his superior catching skills. There’s a lot more to baseball than just hitting.
You don’t think there’s a correlation between being a catcher and having to hit with a permanently injured body vs playing 1B fully healthy? I’m betting his numbers would be significantly better than you think. His hips are gone, he needs to be 1B asap.
Posey has played hurt for a couple years now, and still has averaged high .280 average. With that hip fixed, I totally can see him back around the .310+ BA driving in 80+. Best catcher in baseball still.
Hip never total fix. Posey could be excellent 1B option in the bay. Most man can’t crouch for 10 minutes, let alone 100+ games a year. No shame. I like him for a better, fresher hitter too, if he moves.
a 30+ yo catcher coming off hip surgery. that’s not good and not realistic to think anything is “fixed”
Didn’t he have to be the best catcher in baseball at some point in order to still be the the best catcher in baseball?
And you think there was a better catcher than Buster 2010-2016?
He averaged 127 games in that time frame (and not all behind the plate). Y
Tough to be the best when you are only a part time catcher.
You think playing 127/162 at catcher is part time???!?!!??
Lunacy. Stop it.
In that time from he only broke 120 games twice. 3 times under 110, 2 of those under 100. He was a part time catcher.
Giants have all aging players with no young guys coming up. No one can afford to buy all free agents. Farhan has his work. I don’t see them being a threat for many years…
Every team has aging players. None of them are getting younger. Joey Bart is pretty much on the fast track. No reason to make a move.
True, except most teams plan for it and also have young players coming up.
no, some teams had a long term plan like the Astros that had multiple tankng years but id you look at the teams that have better systems a number of them built those systems quickly, they didn’t slowly build gajillions of prospects over years and a years. the dumbest thing that the giants did was sign Samardzija- mainly because under the old cba it lost them a first round pick. the thing people need to realize about the giants is that they get no comp picks and consistently had a winning team for a number of years so there aren’t a lot of options in building a system up in that scenario outside of tearing down a winning team for no reason
When did the Red Sox, Yankees or Cardinals tank? They seem to be doing all right for themselves in finding and developing talent all while also winning.
There’s a big difference between players in their mid-20’s aging compared to players already in their 30’s.
I’m confused as to which team you’re referring to that is in their mid-30’s. It can’t be the Giants. The 3 oldest guys on the roster are Longoria, who will be 33, and Tony Watson, Melancon, and Samardzija who will be 34.
Last season their average batting age was 29.8, but that was with Pence, who was 35, and Blanco and Hundley who were 34, and they’re gone. The pitching age last season 28.6, which was younger than 9 of the 10 playoff teams.
They did add Rivera, who’s 35, making him the oldest guy on the roster, but that’s hardly enough to make the Giants in their mid-30’s overall. Maybe you should look at stats next time to avoid looking like you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Joey Bart will not be ready tell 2021 more like 2022. Also he is a catcher only one position they do not need lol Will they trade Posey? Can they even get anything besides salary dump for Crawford? Longoria? Belt? Anyone else? Madison trade deadline return leaving him out. They have nothing to look forward too.
Zaidi might want to spend money but Larry Baer does not…Larry runs the show there.
I’d rather have Vogt than Wieters, it’d be cheaper and Vogt is an excellent clubhouse guy
There’s the old “excellent clubhouse guy” like you could actually know.
Exactly, Vogt was in that clubhouse with Butler and Valencia punching each other, if he was an “excellent clubhouse guy” stuff like that would never have happened. Such a ridiculous concept. Vogt’s shoulders are screwed, he’s not even worth a flyer on a contender like Oakland. Let the Tigers have him.
So now Vogt is responsible for the actions of two other people? He’s not a police officer. He’s not their parents. Sometimes men need to just fight to get it out of their system. It’s a dumb approach in my opinion but if you’ve ever played on a team you’d know that not everyone gets along and when you’re making millions you don’t really feel the need to listen to other people all of the time. Vogt isn’t Gandhi but he has always been widely considered to be a great clubhouse guy.
And look at the records of the those teams vs 2018 when Vogt was gone.
Are you saying Ghandi was a great clubhouse guy?
Case closed. The concept of “great clubhouse guy” is entirely fake.
Well, throughout his entire career it has been reported that he is a great clubhouse guy. Personally, I’ve never seen an article or heard an interview where a single player has ever had anything bad to say about the guy. So, we can only assume that he is a great clubhouse guy because that is the only thing that has been reported about him.
Okay fine, being a “great clubhouse guy” only goes so far… that just means you’re not a cancer, not that you can quell a clubhouse full of cancers and malcontents… the A’s seemingly have put a lot of thought in putting guys that have a solid clubhouse vibe together, but those guys still have to be able to play… Vogt’s more likely to struggle doing the wave at this point than he is to being able to help a contender and be worthy of a 25 man roster spot (on a team that’s already tight on those)
Dont the Red Sox have catchers available? Seems like an excellent fit. Sox need a relif arm. Lets do it.
G-men are gonna hope Belt starts strong so they can trade him for low level prospects so Posey will make the move to 1st so he can extend his career and Bart will be the starting backstop. 2020 can’t come soon enough
Belt has proven to be very fragile during his career.
not fragile, horribly unlucky. most of his injuries have been concussions, most notably at one point getting hit in the back of the head during practice when someone threw a ball at him
he was also out last year to have his appendix removed….
that’s called fragile…
The Giants have to many low level prospects. Why do they need to trade for more.
high upside guys in AA could be beneficial actually. you kind of want to look at timelines right now for guys in the system and most are on track for 2020-2021.
He’s right though, Giants need to trade Belt for blocked mid-20’s OF prospects, not low level ones. They need ones who will hit the team the same time Bart does.
Posey 16 Home Runs. 60 RBIs. . .
im curious if the Giants will try to move posey at some point. they probably cant get the value for a elite hitting C because he isnt one at this point, but he’s probably better then a lot of other clubs’ options at 1B.
It’s going to happen, but not for another two years when Bart is ready. I don’t get why everyone wants to move him so fast. He’s a Gold Glove catcher with the best framing in the bigs. He makes $20+ million a year for that. Let him move when he can no longer squat. If he starts getting weak in the knees toss him at first as usual. This team has too much to worry about than sliding some backup catcher behind the plate for 150 games a year.
He makes $20m a year partly due to his pitch framing?
lol
You know – if Miguel Sano loses 5 pounds and gets his uni custom tailored, then learns to lead-off 1st better to draw throws from the pitcher, for sure his agent can get him another $5-7m a year.
He makes $20 million a year being a top hitting, gold glove catcher. Not an average hitting, mediocre fielding first baseman.
lol
Its not hard to NOT punch someone in the BACK of the head. It takes zero skill in anything to not do it. In fact I’m presented with an oppurtunity daily that I see the back of someones head and I refrain from punching it. Even when my wife turns around. Still dont do it.
Hahahaha not only is that hilarious, but also a solid point. Well said sir
I’m a Yankee fan and this comment made me crack up
Can’t tolerate cheap shots — especially in baseball. Politics? Now that’s another matter.
Voit will be this year’s Sanchez. Discuss.
Voit’s going to be a catcher? What year of Sanchez? My god this is a terrible discussion!
I knew soon as I saw this article had something about Gary sanchez in it that the comments would be filled with haters who have no clue about baseball. Because you people love WAR so much, Sanchez is still a top 5 catcher since 2016
I love how you disrespected WAR, then said “Sanchez is still a top 5 catcher since 2016” which is exactly what WAR says he is.
When are you people going to learn WAR is a counting stat made up of all the other stats? There’s no magic involved, it’s just adding hitting, baserunning and defense stats together into one all-encompassing one. None of the top 100 players in WAR were bad at baseball, but there are some players who were never really good but maybe had one good year on a title winner who ride that reputation for decades who get exposed.