Reese Kaplan -- Building a Surplus to Prepare for a Trade

It is sometimes amazing to read fans' assessments of team actions which reveal that they know nothing about business, baseball or probably life in general. That ignorance was clearly on display on Thursday late in the day when the Mets announced that they had acquired as a free agent catcher Omar Narvaez on a two-year deal worth either $15 or $16 million depending on which media account your choose to believe. 

(The truth is the contract is for $8 million for 2023 and there's an option for $7 million for 2024 which would indeed total $15 million over two seasons if both parties chose to go that way).

While everyone knows the many catchers in the National League and the ones in the American League who make the post season, the All Star Team or receive end-of-year awards like Silver Sluggers or MVP, chances are most casual fans were not aware of who exactly Omar Narvaez is and why he was brought on board. That's reaction is really not fair to the newest Mets catcher as he has been an All Star and had some solid seasons with the bat.

Starting his career with the White Sox, Narvaez served primarily as part of a catching platoon or backup role. During his first three seasons in the big leagues he aggregated 634 ABs while slugging 12 HRs and driving in 54 with a batting average in the low .270s. It appeared he had some offensive ability, though he was known more for his ability to frame pitches and throw out runners.

From there he moved onto the Seattle Mariners where he was more-or-less the starting catcher with 428 ABs during which he hit 22 HRs, drove in 55 and batted .278. The offensive numbers in Chicago were not a mirage, apparently. Still he remained fairly unknown throughout the NL fan base.

After that one successful season sipping native Starbucks, he moved onto Milwaukee where he again reverted to the backup role as a catcher. His three seasons saw his batting average plummet to the .233 range in total, but he hit 17 HRs and drove in 82 in 752 ABs. He got an All Star nod in 2021 when he had over 400 ABs, but it didn't appear as if Cooperstown would be lining up for his image to appear on their walls.

For the Mets fans it seemed a little puzzling to see them add a catcher when right now the team is struggling to figure out what to do with James McCann, Tomas Nido and rookie Francisco Alvarez. 

 Many were wondering if they would start the season with Alvarez in AAA where he could play every day and others thought he would be the right handed half of the DH position (rendering Mark Vientos positionless).

Now you hear the Mets have brought in another catcher to the mix which right away evidenced the average fan's gross misunderstanding of how business is done. I read comments on articles saying things like, "Wow, they owe him $15 million and McCann $20 million, so that's only a $5 million loss to swallow by cutting McCann loose."

Ummm....no. They owe McCann $24 million so bringing on an additional $15 million potentially for Narvaez means a $39 million debt between these two players. Cutting McCann (not likely to happen) means a $24 million loss on top of what you pay the new guy.

Don't get me wrong. This move pretty much is setting the framework for a transaction taking place in which one or the Mets previous trio of catchers is destined to collect his paychecks elsewhere. The Mets may indeed want to lose McCann whose offensive output has been embarrassing and to do so may mean paying down half of that remaining salary obligation (bringing the loss to $12 million instead of $24 million).

The positives in bringing in Narvaez are both in terms of runs being scored as he is a lefty to complement all of the other catchers who are righties. However, the bigger benefit Narvaez brings is that he is from Venezuela and made his baseball life a relative success here in the U.S., something 21 year old Francisco Alvarez would also like to do. 

 Having someone whose background parallels his own and who achieves a high level of defensive skill might make for a good partnership to help with Alvarez's adjustment to the majors as both a hitter and as a ball handler.

The move did come as somewhat of a surprise as no leaks had reached the ears about the Mets seeking a catcher and loading up on one position this way makes it a little less stressful finding that third catcher after dispensing with one of them had the free agent acquisition never taken place. 

 It also seems as if there are intelligent people running the front office these days. That's becoming a more frequent and hopefully less shocking revelation.