Reese Kaplan -- Swapping Offense for Defense?

If anyone was asked who the best defensive catcher in baseball was, names like Salvador Perez, Austin Hedges or Austin Barnes might be volunteered as answers.  They are all good guesses but they would be wrong.  Yasmani Grandal was the object of many Mets fans’ desires, but he has forsaken the Brewers in his second free agent season and landed a four year deal worth $18.25 million per with the Chicago White Sox. 

Surprisingly, the answer to the posed question was little-known Roberto Perez of the Cleveland Indians who was an understudy to Yan Gomes for several seasons.  This good glove/no-hit catcher did nothing really to distinguish himself on the offensive side of the ledger.  Consequently no one could have predicted what would happen in 2019 when he was handed the job full time. 

First, let’s look at the defense – 29 runs saved – a whopping 18 more than the next name on the list.  That’s a defense-first catcher if ever there was one.  With that kind of performance, anything you got with the bat would be a cherry on top.

However, this past season he delivered on the offensive side as well.  The man had never before hit more than 8 home runs in a season all of the sudden connected for 24 while driving in 63 in 389 ABs.  His season ended a bit prematurely with the need for arthroscopic knee surgery, but all signs point to him being ready to go in Spring Training. 

Now the Indians were criticized a bit when in 2017 during his first year of arbitration eligibility they inked the backup catcher to a they signed him to a 4 year deal worth $9 million, including two option years for 2021 and 2022.  After all, Yan Gomes was their catcher and generally you don’t sign backups to multi-year deals.

Now looking crazy like a fox, the Indians got 3.9 WAR out of Perez last year and will pay him a modest $3.5 million for the upcoming season.  Options after that are $5.5 million and $7.5 million for 2021 and 2022.  That’s a bargain and a half for that kind of defensive production and power output. 

So here’s a consideration doing something the Mets almost never do – pay down a contract.  How about offering Wilson Ramos and $6.75 million to offset the salary differential to get Perez here for 2020 with the option of two years beyond that?  The money is dead even for the Mets as they would have to pay Ramos !0.25 million anyway.

Now Cleveland would rightly say, yes, Ramos is a better hitter, but what happens after 2020?  The Mets have an option on Ramos for 2021 at $10 million.  The Mets then could do one of two things.  They could up the buyout money given to Cleveland or sweeten the pot with someone else in addition to Ramos.

For a club that’s theoretically built on pitching, getting a Roberto Perez here would most certainly address the up-the-middle need behind the plate.