Catcher

I am going to begin a series of posts regarding a position by position breakdown for the Mariners and the 2011 season. You will be able to view all of the player breakdown posts along the right hand side under blog lists.

Let’s start with the Mariners catching issues. Just like nearly every other position, the Mariners saw very little offensive production out of their catchers. Then again, catcher typically is a position that does not put up “sexy” offensive numbers.

The Mariners saw a total of five different catchers play last year. The majority of the play time was with Adam Moore (on the right) followed by Rob Johnson, and Josh Bard. Eliezer Alfonzo and Guillermo Quiroz also saw very limited playing time. Going into the 2011 season Josh Bard is a free Agent and Moore and Johnson are the only catchers on the 40 man roster.

The Seattle catchers combined for a total of only 10 homeruns and 32 RBI. Although the offense was not there for the catchers, the defense was. The main three (Moore, Johnson and Bard) put up good fielding percentage numbers. Moore and Johnson had a percentage of 99.0% and Bard was just slightly better with a fielding percentage of 99.1%.

Going into the 2011 season Josh Bard is a free Agent and Moore and Johnson are the only catchers on the 40 man roster.

There aren’t really any appealing catchers on the market this offseason. Majority of them are veteran catchers past their prime. There are a few other options. They could stick with Moore and Johnson at catcher which would give them very little offense. But then there is the idea of trading for a young major league ready catcher or one that is near ready. Although a player like this would not be a proven player they have a higher cieling thatn Moore and Johnson.

There are some guys out there that I really like that I think the Mariners have the pieces to acquire. Taking a look at last years trade deadline the Nationals were able to acquire one of the games top catching prospects in Wilson Ramos and they gave up reliever Matt Capps. The Marines could possibly work out a deal similar to this.

One name that comes to mind is Colorado Rockies Wilin Rosario. He is a very good fielder with an excellent arm and he was really starting to hit the ball before he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee which ended his season. This injury will not have any long term affect for the talented young backstop. The Rockies have shown interest in Jose Lopez who could potentially be involved in a trade.

Another appealing guy is Alex Avila of the Detroit Tigers. The recent signing of Victor Martinez could greatly hurt Avila’s playing time. Despite getting off to a very slow start he turned it around in the later half of the year showing promising things to come. He isn’t going to be a huge offensive threat or an amazing fielder but I do believe he would be an upgrade over Moore and Johnson.

The Nationals have two talented young catchers in Derek Norris and Wilson Ramos. Since they recently acquired Ramos and he appears to be major league ready maybe the Mariners would be able to acquire Norris. I am sure the Nats might show interest in a veteran reliever like Aardsma to go along with Storen and Clippard.

A few more guys that come to mind are Devin Mesoraco of the Reds and Travis D’arnaud of the Blue Jays.

I am not sure if the chances of a scenario like one of these is very good but there is nothing wrong with some ideas. I really like young talented prospects as opposed to maybe a safer veteran player. It would be great to add another talenter piece to the future to go along with Smoak, Ackley, Franklin, and Pineda. It would be taking more of a gamble to trade for one of these young guys but what would sports be without taking chances?

Next I will be bringing you the Mariners first base outlook for the 2011 season.