To add to this, it was reported that he went to Boston and allowed them to match the Twins offer but they passed. If he wanted to stay in Houston for the right price, he would have allowed Houston to match the Twins offer.
Is Vazquez is Perez (offensively)? No. You don't understand the "attraction" of Vazquez?? You know what he has? RINGS!! Had big hits in the playoffs and caught a no-hitter. I'm not talking about him at DH but the starting catcher. Anyway just brought this up in regards to the possibility of trading for Perez.
If we gave up any significant assets for him, this would be an all-in move. We are going to try to win 3 more titles, and press the reset button unless there are some sleepers in the farm. I'm not against it at all.
Narvaez was worse than Maldy last year. If you're going to upgrade catcher and you know your guy is loved by the pitchers, it better be a damn solid upgrade. Perez's down season is the basically Narvaez or Vazquez's upside. Perez's upside is 48 HRs (unlikely and ridiculous, obviously) and he can be a credible DH should (when?) Brantley get injured or not ready to start the season, along with being a legit PH off the bench.
In what world was Narvaez worse than Maldy? He’s much better defensively and hits lefty so you could run an honest platoon between he and Maldy so both their bats play up.
Narvaez 2022: 0.597 OPS Maldy: 2022; 0.600 OPS The Astros aren't upgrading catcher for defense - they love Maldy behind the plate. If the goal is backup catcher or part-time catcher, they might as well let give their rookies a shot. If they are upgrading from Maldy, it's going to be because the bat justifies it.
Hunter Brown Is Framber Valdez in a Justin Verlander-Shaped Container Didn't see this posted. Pretty interesting Fangraphs article.
For everyone saying we could have just signed Vazquez instead if trading for Perez if we are good with Maldy not being the starter True, but Dana Brown wasn’t around then. It’s very possible he has a more win now aggressive outlook and isn’t good with risking such low numbers from the catcher spot on offense With Murphy in Atlanta, wonder if he has called his old boss about d’Arnaud
The Astros were hard after Contreras… who was going to spend a fair amount of time behind the plate. Perez would likely play about 100 games behind the plate, which would leave like 60 games for Maldy. Vazquez isn’t in the same class as Contreras or Perez…. So that’s why there wasn’t a harder push to resign Vazquez.
There are costs associated with trading for Perez but a lot of benefits as well. Perez is a massive improvement at the plate, stretches the line up and he and Maldy can keep each other fresh. Perez also solves the issue behind the plate for at least three years. The Astros really were not impressed with Lee when they called him up last year. Never seen a player they soured on that quick. No one could really give me a strong definitive answer. As for Diaz, the truth that no one is really willing to accept is that he isn’t a catcher. He doesn’t really have the passion to catch, he doesn’t have the knowledge or seem to have the type of devotion needed to catch for a team like the Astros. If the Astros felt Lee or Diaz were the likely future at the position, they wouldn’t have dealt for Vazquez last year and gone hard after Contreras. So the likely opportunity cost for the Astros as far as Lee and Diaz go isn’t much. Perez’ contract seems reasonable based on what we saw Contreras get, what Murphy cost in trade and the Astros need for someone that is a catcher first and a hitter second. I don’t even know if the Astros and Royals are speaking. All I know is Brown has a premium on catchers that can hit and the Royals front office isn’t Moore anymore, and are more open to making trades. Perez has warts. He has been injured, he is in his 30’s and he isn’t the best contact hitter. However he is a genuine catcher with a glove, an arm and a willingness to work with a pitching staff. He also has extreme power… so if the prospect cost is reasonable, I wouldn’t dislike it. Perez is very well rounded.
I get what you are saying, but the gulf between Vazquez and Perez is pretty large. I would gladly pay Perez $10,000,000 a year more than Vasquez. Having said that, it also depends on what the prospect cost would be. As for Vasquez, he was respectful when he left, but he wasn’t happy with the playing time with the Astros. He felt he should start and he believes it screwed him as a free agent. Maldy wasn’t going to be happy backing up Vasquez… it all just got overly complicated. Having Perez potentially catch 80 times and DH 40 times while having Maldy catch 80 times is easier to sell to Maldy than Vazquez starting 120 times behind the plate.
In a vacuum Narvaez may be better than Maldy, but not on the Astros… they value him differently. Replacing someone like Maldy with Perez is different than replacing him with Narvaez. I say that as someone that likes Narvaez and shrug at the chance of adding Perez.
This is something I have wrestled with. In a lot of cases it’s not a big difference…. However it can depend on where you play half your games (Astros left field is A LOT easier than right field… I’ve shagged balls out there in the past and it’s a different world). However, there are some players that don’t go as well going to one side of their body or don’t see the ball as well either. Castellanos is like that. The Phillies actually charted it and adjusted his shading and found he was a far better fielder going to his right.
Of all the catchers being discussed, Perez is the only one you could put in the top half of the order and he would fit in reasonably fine, whether he's catching or DHing. If healthy, he's one of the best and most consistent offensive catchers in baseball. And FWIW, just 2 years ago, he played in 161 games, with the vast majority of that at catcher. As to whether he's declining, 2021 was the best full year of his career, only surpassed by the Covid 2020 season. He's 3 years younger than Abreu, who people seem to be thrilled with and not worried about a decline. I'm a big fan of leaving Maldy alone since the pitching staff works so well and a 9 hitter is not particularly crucial. But Perez is one of the few people that would be a huge bonus for the team.
I don’t know if the Astros final offer was the best, but they made a strong offer to him. He didn’t particularly want to play for the Astros. He wanted to play for the Red Sox. He didn’t like his playing time with the Astros, he knew Baker’s preference and the players preference. He wanted to be be the clear cut starter where he wasn’t going to have someone like Maldy looking over his shoulder. Sometimes things look like a great fit but really aren’t.
People forget how good Perez has become with his bat. His batting average isn’t great because of the strikeouts, but the power is legitimately extreme. He is projected for an .800 OPS next season. That is good enough to catch and DH. If you are going to make a change at catcher, you make an extreme change… someone that is such a clear upgrade that there are no issues… someone like Contreras or Perez… and not an incremental hitting improvement like Narvaez or Vazquez.
I Agree completely that Diaz is not a catcher, but Lee certainly is. His bat will never be as good as Diaz's but that is a low priority for a catcher. In the end he will be average for a catcher with a bat but well above average in the areas that count. Additionally he will be on the roster at least twice as long as Perez for a fraction of the cost. Freeing up money to extend more important players to this team than Perez could possibly be. I also do not know what makes anyone think that Maldy would have any interest in backing up Perez. I believe he would retire under that circumstance and we would lose the smartest catcher I have ever seen.
We will see maybe you will be right, but based on what I have been told I am skeptical of Lee. Having Lee for 6 years doesn’t mean much if he doesn’t play or play well. So I suppose a lot of it depends on how one sees Lee as a player. As for Maldonado, he would likely still catcher nearly 80 games with Perez catching the other 80 and DHing another 40. The advantage of Perez’ bat is that it is legitimately good enough to DH and be an asset… especially with Brantley and Alvarez both saying they don’t really want to DH.
