Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Huntington does not want Ronny Paulino to start
Neil Huntington has somehow made catcher a position of priority this offseason, ignoring more pressing matters like, well, one of the most mediocre group of baseball players ever put together and called a team. There have been reports for a few weeks that Huntington has been discussing Michael Barrett with the Padres (despite his reputation as a bad clubhouse guy), but the PG reported today that the Pirates are seriously pursuing free agent catcher Johnny Estrada and have spoken with Miguel Olivo and Damian Miller.
As Dejan notes, Paulino has performed best throughout his career when he has been in some sort of a competition for his job, but bringing in Estrada would not signify competition. It would signify that the Pirates are bringing in guys to try to win now even if they would only be upgrading the catcher position and leaving the other eight mediocre (and that’s not saying that Estrada is Mike Piazza).
Estrada is interesting because he is a switch hitter who is known as an offensive catcher, boasting a .280 career average and 21 home runs over the last two seasons. The main worries about Estrada are that he had arthroscopic surgery on his knee and had a bone spur removed from his elbow this past off-season. Those injuries could both be devastating for a catcher due to the demands of the position on the legs and the importance of throwing out baserunners, which was one of Paulino’s major issues this past season.
Whatever Huntington does about Estrada, who would be interesting simply because he is something of a name, he should consider the potential effect any move would have on Ronny Paulino. Huntington is considering replacing a player who flashed signs that he was the team’s catcher of the future two years ago only to regress greatly last year. Anyone that the Pirates sign should be willing to be relegated into a backup role at an instant’s notice if Paulino appears to be returning to his 2006 form.
Remember, the goal for the Pirates is not to win (even though that would be nice), but to allow the current talent to develop. And bringing in a mediocre, 31 year-old catcher to compete with a 27 year-old is potentially blocking the younger player, which could be a mistake.
1 Comment
December 18th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
This is a bad move, looking at older catchers. What’s one more losing season? If Huntington values his job, he can make himself look good while helping the team - by making a blockbuster deal for proven younger players, because we’ve been rebuilding for how many seasons now? i’ve lost count. What’s one more season if we can get something productive out of it? Huntington needs to realize that the Pirates cannot possibly be good next year, and looking to the future ensures job security
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