Reese Kaplan -- Without a Catcher You're Gonna Have a Lot of Passed Balls

Word has come out again that the Mets are exploring the possibility of adding catcher Martin Maldonado to help their already impressive pitching staff.  While Maldonado’s defensive prowess is certainly well regarded, offensively he’s not going to help the team score runs.  He’s a career .220 hitter who has eclipsed the 10 HR mark one with the Angels during his age 30 season. 

For this level of performance last year split between the Angels and Astros, Maldonado was paid rather handsomely at $3.9 million.  For his career Maldonado has been a 5.2 WAR player based primarily on his Gold Glove defense.  For the folks who don’t want Juan Lagares in CF due to his offensive and health question marks, defense pays.  (In Lagares’ case, it’s paying $9 million in 2019). 

Bringing in this type of catcher can have its merits but remember the dark days of Rene Rivera (career .220 hitter) and Anthony Recker (.199).  Rivera was paid $2.8 million by the Angels last year and Recker last played for the Braves in 2017 at $800K.  My point here is if you’re going to advocate a defense-first choice at catcher, the price tag for Maldonado might be a bit excessive.  MLB Trade Rumors has him predicted to get 2 years and $8 million.  While that’s not horrible, it does seem that you’re giving away two spots in the batting order for merely an incremental advantage in catching defense.

While I’ve long advocated going after Padres’ new catcher Francisco Mejia, Austin Hedges is actually defensively superior to Maldonado.  He finished number one in pitch framing and other defensive catching stats according to FanGraphs and is currently pre-arbitration eligible.  Hedges is marginally better with the bat -- .231/14/37 last season – but has a minor league track record of hitting about .273/15/85 over the equivalent of three major league seasons.  Granted, he played in the offensively-inflated environment in AAA here in El Paso, but he did manage to hit 18 HRs in just 387 ABs for the big club as a rookie in 2017.  Just as the Mets have soured on Travis d’Arnaud’s inability to stay on the field, it appears the Padres are ready to move on from Hedges after the big acquisition of Mejia.

Given his age, his greater offensive potential and his price tag, it would seem to me if you’re going defense-first then trading for 25-year-old Hedges is a better bet than signing Maldonado.  Many will say, “Hey, it’s only money to get Maldonado and you don’t have to give up anything to get him.”  That’s 100% true.  However, as he enters his age 32 season, he’s a band-aid solution.  For all of the gnashing of teeth about Robinson Cano’s age, in Edwin Diaz the Mets set themselves up for a long-term solution.  Perhaps they should try to do the same at the catcher position. 

If you want to go the same way in the free agent market without committing a lot of money to a guy who is playing arguably the most difficult position on the diamond and about to hit his waning years, then the Baltimore Orioles’ recently released Caleb Joseph.  He has provided 4.2 WAR over his career and owns a lifetime .224 batting average to go along with double digit home run power.  FanGraphs ranks him nearly as high as Hedges and he earned just $1.25 million last year.  He has no age advantage over Maldonado but should cost less than half as much.

Like everyone else, I’d rather see the Mets go after Yasmani Grandal or Wilson Ramos or shock the world with a trade for J.T. Realmuto.  I don’t expect any of that to happen.  What I hope they don’t do is spend previously scarce money on a one-dimensional player whose already dubious offensive performance is likely to decline further during the term of his contract.