I suppose there is always a chance that Austin Wynns will re-sign with Giants on a minors deal but right now the only major-leaguer on the roster is Joey Bart. The backups are all minor-leaguers. Here's a quick run-down of the key remaining free agent backstops:
Jorge Alfaro, 29-year old RH from Colombia, 478 G (409 C), 1658 PA, .256/.305/.383;
Robinson Chirinos, 38-year old RH from Venezuela, 714 G (668 C), 2457 PA, .226/.319/.419;
Sandy León, 33-year old SH from Venezuela, 533 G (497 C), 1685 PA, .210/.278/.314;
Roberto Pérez, 34-year old RH from Puerto Rico, 511 G (501 C), 1752 PA, .207/.298/.360;
Kevin Plawecki, 32-year old RH from Illinois, 447 G (406 C), 1426 PA, .235/.313/.341;
Gary Sánchez, 30 year old RH from the Dominican Rep., 666 G (548 C), 2665 PA, .225/.311/.467;
Luis Torrens, 27-year old RH from Venezuela, 251 G (156 C), 777 PA, .226/.288/.354.
There's also Rob Brantly, Zack Collins, Aramis Garcia, Jose Lobaton, Brian O'Keefe, and Kurt Suzuki.
Here's David Laurila talking to Blake Sabol who the Giants picked up in a trade with the Reds (he was originally a Pirates prospect). Sabol is described as "versatile defensively" with a "plus bat." He's listed as the backup catcher on the Giants 40-man. Here's his B-R site.
--M.C.
11 comments:
Sabol is a lefty hitter. I wonder if the Giants are bold (or crazy!) enough to go with a 2nd-year player starting and a rookie as his backup. There's lots of upside!
Bart has a .215/.296/.364 slash line in 132 G (408 PA). That's not yet a full season of opportunities. And his arb-clock doesn't start until 2025. Unless he does a complete face-plant I figure the team is committed to him. And there's certainly reason to believe he will improve. His 2020 wRC+ was 90 which is just a little south of league-average (100). You can see from the list of veteran catchers that some guys make a career hitting not much more than that!
Sabol's scouting report is big power to all fields but strikeout-prone.
Should be an interesting spring.
MLBTR has their take on the best FA catcher:
Catcher: Gary Sanchez: 471 plate appearances, .205/.282/.377, 16 home runs. The Yankees flipped Sanchez to Twins last winter after growing frustrated with his performance over the previous few seasons. Sanchez undoubtedly has talent, as evidenced by the 53 home runs and 143 wRC+ he compiled between 2016-17. He’s not come close to replicating that in the years since, slashing .202/.295/.427 for a below-average wRC+ of 96 between 2018-22. Sanchez has never been regarded as one of the top defensive catchers, but did post his best framing numbers per Fangraphs’ metric since 2018, and gave up the fewest wild pitches of his career (excluding the shortened 2020 season and 2016, when he didn’t play a full year). While a number of teams have filled their vacancy at catcher, the likes of the Red Sox, Tigers and Marlins could be among the teams interested.
link:https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/01/the-best-remaining-free-agent-at-each-position.html
I think when Bart initially came up, his defense was not ready. It was much better last year. Having another catcher, that is shaky on defense will only lose games. We have seen over the last decade that good defense at catcher, is very helpful in winning games.
I see we picked up Luke Jackson. I know he had one good season, and we all know that relievers have up and down years, and may need time to get back to their best after TJ surgery. He does tend to walk quite a few batters although not at extreme rates, but a little higher than what we often like to see. Getting players with decent upside coming off of injuries seems to be the giants M.O. lately. I hope this works out, but having so many formerly injured players, means they need to stack up the depth, and it is no wonder the giants had so many days of I.L. time spent last season.
seems as if the Luke Jackson deal ended up with the giants trading Yunior Marte, to give room on the roster for Jackson, Marte was traded for soon to be 25 year old, former Stanford pitcher, Erik Miller. A big lefty. Probably a reasonable trade. Yunior Marte's peripherals seem to be much better than his actual results so far and he is 28. Wonder what the thoughts of some of you folks that are semi-connected think about these deals.
Here's Jackson's BB-ref page.
He's an interesting pick-up. They must like what they see. He's had his ups-and-downs as you say and he is coming off TJS. But he's a veteran arm and the Giants 'pen needs shoring up. He will likely start the season on the IL. They did something similar with John Brebbia and that guy has turned out to be a good acquisition.
I like the Yunior Marte trade for lefty Erik Miller. You can never have enough lefties and the Giants love local guys.
Brandon Belt signs with Toronto. 1 year, $9.3M. I will do a post about BB. I wish him well! BCraw is the only one left from 2014.
I was hoping that if Belt was physically improved that the giants would sign him.
Me, too. But he's limited to 1B and DH. At this point the Giants have lots of those. Both Wade (OF) and Davis (3B) can play other spots.
I hope he has a good year. Toronto has a good team.
Johnny Cueto goes to Miami.
And Carlos Correa is a Twinkie, but for much less than 13 years.
Boras gave the giants 8-12 hours to make a decision. I suspect he may have gotten a better deal from the giants than 7 years 200 million if he reworked it. Then he gave the super rich Mets almost 3 weeks, and now the guy he said had no health problems is going from a 13 year 350 million dollar deal to a 7 year 200 million dollar deal. Not that Boras needs the money, but I wonder how much less he will make on this deal. We do not know what MLB and the players union roles were in these restructured contracts that the Mets and Boras put together.
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