I know the team is very RH heavy and has looked at adding a LH bat, but realistically how many games are available for that player? Any catcher will not positively impact hitting and all 4 infield spots and RF have everyday starters. Yordan also plays every day between LF and DH. That leaves CF and about a full season of starts at LF/DH. If the organization still does not believe Chas is the everyday CF, or significant starter there but more if a 4th OF and corner OF then he should likely get many of the remaining starts in LF. Nimmo is the only impact CF and he would fit in well. He is an OB over SLG guy and that skill ages a little better. The problem is he will likely transition to LF away from CF soon, he has been injury prone, and he reportedly wants a longer deal. Because of this, I really think CF should be filled from within unless it can be traded for. Meyers and Leon should compete for it in the spring. Others like Dirden, Adolph, Julkes, etc may be more corner OF or not enough experience but who knows.
I'm also a little bit skeptical of this hidden value that Maldy provides. If he is producing all of this additional value, shouldn't it show up in cERA or the Fielding Bible's Adjusted ER Saved? If he is providing such a hidden benefit, he's providing it in a way that somehow spreads the benefit out to the other catchers rostered by the Astros so that Maldy does not appear to handle pitchers better than the other catchers.
This is a weird take. Historically, Vasquez has been a superior offensive catcher and was FAR superior in 2022 unless you think an OPS+ of 69 is somehow a lot better than 99. He was also a better bat in the playoffs. In addition, he was good enough behind the plate to catch a WS no hitter. Comparing Vasquez's regular season production after he got traded is the definition of cherry-picking - the dude played just a hair more than I did. No one is worth a damn without regular playing time. With regular playing time I bet Vasquez starts on above Maldy 99 times out of 100. Just FYI even with his "pathetic performance at the plate" last year Vasquez ended w a 2.1 war, slashing .274/.315/.399. You mean to tell us you think that isn't lightyears better than 0.3 and a .186/.248/.352 slash?? Why is this even a conversation?? Just re-sign Vasquez and give him the bulk of starts. The more I think of it the more of a no-brainer this is. Then go out and get Nimmo and bring back Brantley. This shouldn't be that difficult.
We could see a flurry of moves after the rule V draft this evening- between tonight and tomorrow evening, especially trades.
Sorry, I got wordy there My point is that since all the good options look to be gone, why not just start the season with who is already here? Unless an unexpected 1-2 yr value falls into Crane's lap. Brantley? Conforto? J D. Martinez? Let Meyers and Leon compete for CF and make Chas the platoon LF and 4th OF for other 2 positions. With Hensley and Dubon all back up positions are covered. Try out a LH bat from the guys in the system. Open competition. Dirden, Matijevic, Adolph, Wagner, Salazar. Dirden and Wagner may need to play everyday so stay in AAA but you get my point. Matijevic may be the default winner because he has pretty much moved beyond prospect but he looked pretty over matched last year.
I've played both positions, an awesome catcher is an amazing luxury... but you are giving the catcher WAY too much credit for the pitcher's performance. A garbage pitcher with the greatest catcher ever is still a trash pitcher. When you have a catcher with an OPS in the .500's, it doesn't matter how good of a catcher they are, that awful batting makes them an overall detriment to the team. If Vazquez manages to bounce back and get his OPS into the high .600's again, awesome, but his performance last year for the Astros was unacceptable. If he's super cheap, go ahead and gamble on that, if not, it's not a significant loss.
contact hitter , very good defense , career ops of .782 - 28 years old and in theory not as injury prone. He’s basically a young uncle Mike
I'm not sure how you get enough sample size to know how the pitching does without him relative to with him. Not sure those figures are that reliable. I can see his zone rating and fielding % are both above average. He has had issues with passed balls this year. Maldy was at 948.2 innings caught. The others combined were 496.2. With the way certain pitchers favor catchers its hard to follow how the data is reliable.
He's also declining fast from defensive metrics point, has little power ( even less the first year after Hamate surgery) and doesn't really impress me more than McCormick in LF.
His performance for the Astros is relevant. What he did once upon a time, is not. I think it's great he produced elsewhere on occasion, but his career OPS+ is 85, for the Astros it was 68 You say he was a better bat in the playoffs....but his playoff OPS was in the mid .500's....and he's going to be 33 next season. You giving him credit for his pitchers throwing a combined no-hitter is strange. I guess that's just a thing now, we credit the catchers for what their pitchers do.
It Maldy's skill is game preparation, it would likely translate to other catchers as they would essentially be copying his notes. If Maldy wants to play, to get this skill (if it exists) likely requires playing him as he may not be ready/willing to provide it as a coach/backup. Also, pitchers are prima donnas, and have a lot of control who they pitch to regardless of whether or not said player actually helps them.
Since he ended the season at .700 OPS, I think he has a good chance to get "back there". Can he get back to .800 OPS like he hit in '19 & '20? Not a guarantee he won't get "back there" either. I think you are seriously underrating Christian Vázquez as a mlb Catcher. He handled the staff extremely well, fit in with the clubhouse, played good defense.
A lot of the value of Maldonado is what he does off the field working with the pitchers and Miller. Of course, my response to that has always been to make him a coach and let someone else do the catching.
https://theathletic.com/3980046/2022/12/07/mlb-free-agency-rumors-correa/ • And finally, the Astros continue to look at free agents Andrew Benintendi, Michael Brantley and Michael Conforto as options for their outfield. After losing out on Contreras, they might even explore signing two of the three.
He is still a good defender, and likely will be for the next 3-4 years as a LF. The problem is that he doesn't really excite me with the bat. Last year he had a good batting average and OBP, but what he does well seems to change from year to year. IMO he is an average overall LF, but he isn't anything special.
And Maldy's playoff OPS was worse, so why does he get the benefit of the doubt? Oh ya, Maldy is 36! So you're not ok w a 33 yr old catcher but somehow a 36 yr old catcher w offensive numbers, both historically, last year, and last postseason, demonstrably worse is perfectly fine? By no metric is Maldy even close to the same caliber of offensive producer as Vasquez. Period. And if you can prove that he's somehow such a superior defensive catcher I think we'd be all ears. If you want to look at Vasquez's production over the last 40 or so games of the season playing every 5 games as some barometer of future production, fine. But even then he's worse than Maldy. Again, what a weird take.
No Nimmo ??? Why not swing for the fences. Lost out on Contreras , use that money to get Nimmo who is better than all three of those mentioned
