There is a former silver slugger finalist that is 12 years older that can let Diaz rest 80+% of the games like he did his rookie year to keep his mileage at a sustainable level. I hear the pitching staff would love him.
Here is another thing to consider. We often put the defense of poor or average offensive players on a pedestal. We call them “defense first”, “blue collar” etc. This happens in the NBA too. Maldy is a classic example but you see it starting with Caratini and Salazar now. Neither of those guys were impressive at all defensively last year, especially Salazar.
Just need to make up excuses why they are on the roster. Someone that is a good athlete period, would be good on offense and defense (see Tucker, Kyle)
He has come back once before... he can come back again. Heck, I am waiting for Aaron Brooks to return to the Rockets again at this point.
As a strawman, let's say 3/5 days Diaz is a C, 1/5 days Diaz is a DH and 1/5 days Diaz is a 1B. First of all I am unsure how common the above arrangement is for a MLB C (since I only follow the Astros ). Second, I am making a hard assumption that if Diaz only catches 3/5 days that he would be fresh with the bat in August and September. (Come playoffs, Diaz will only catch and his bat will stay fresh with all of the off days). This looks good on paper. The Astros have never had this type of arrangement for their C, so I am not familiar if this would actually work. FWIW, I do not like Diaz at DH 1/5 days, which would push Fragile Wheels Yordan in to LF.
I don't want any part of Caratini in the lineup 75% of the time. He is coming off his best season as a hitter by far, but in his long career he has an OPS+ below 100 ..... I would far rather keep Diaz at catcher and target O'Hearn, Moutcastle, Kjerstad, Walker or Burger, Y. Diaz or Wade.
I think this is lost on many Astros fans. Caratini had a great year based on expectations, need, and compared to those around him. But it most likely is a career year, which is not unheard of. What usually happens is that the follow up season is even more disappointing because of expectations. I think this is why Brown is (and should be) shopping him.
Yes, if a team spends a lot in money and/or prospects, they should be better. The Astros had 8 average or better MLB position players last season. Caratini was one of them and he's cheap. I don't care if a catcher doesn't have a career OPS+ over 100. The vast majority of players can't catch, and the ones that can, typically either are much worse than Caratini either defensively or offensively over the past 3 years. For $6M, it is hard to find better performance than Caratini in free agency.
He was a very good signing by Brown - an excellent reserve catcher that is capable of starting with a stacked line up around him. He however is a luxury on the Astros, who can use his $6,000,000 in salary elsewhere - and that is why he, and Pressly both will be gone if everything works out like the Astros want. That frees up a good amount of money to target a bat for the line up.
There is nothing wrong with this unless there is a MUCH better option - like, say. . . Diaz? If you are playing Caratini somewhere other than catcher, or playing Diaz somewhere other than catcher to get Caratini in the lineup then your offense is weak or broken.
Perhaps in a vacuum - but I don't know anyone that really believes that the Astros have 8 average or better hitters in the line up, and that does not take into account the real possibility that Bregman will be gone as well. The Astros line up was not deep enough last season. I agree with you that Caratini is worth his contract, and I applauded the signing and still think it was a strong signing by Brown. However - I can also understand why the Astros have interest in moving Caratini and Pressly to use that money to improve the line up (and possibly the defense).
I think Salazar being underrated is a significant factor as well. $20M/yr can buy a really good player, or 2 decent players. I think if you look at it like trading Pressly, Singleton, and Caratini for Christian Walker, Forrest Whitley, and Cesar Salazar (and maybe a lotto prospect or two) most people would agree that’s a net upgrade of Houston’s roster.
Does Pressly have a no trade clause? Whether it's in his contract or not, I think he may have "10 and 5" rights.
Caratini feels like a Texans-Caserio move... sign with the intention to flip once he can show something on the field. Cesar Salazar has shown enough to be a functional backup catcher. As for Janek, he isn't rated even as a top 10 catcher prospect in baseball. That being said, I had high hopes for Korey Lee and thought we could keep him due to his positional flexibility even if we opted for a more veteran non-Maldy catcher.
