I’m not that worried about it. Add 10 more games to 2B and 10 more games to LF. Get him some pinch hit appearances late in games. My overarching point was that they can deploy Altuve in a “full time” role without having him DH full time and without his defensive shortcomings having a major impact on the team by hiding him based on who is pitching.
It's not a huge issue this year but there will be some point in the future where his bat will get worse and his defense will get worse and it will be challenging keeping him on the field. If Alvarez wasn't a walking injury about to happen, we could put him in the field.
I almost posted Dana just did this to shut you up. Like the Astros bringing in Walker and Paredes for me. If they would just bring in Winker and fire Espada and hire a non moron I could probably die happy.
No. I assume they like what Salazar brings as the 13th man and want to keep him up, and they don’t really like what they’ve seen from Hudson (or just want to relegate him to backup), so they’re adding another guy to the AAA roster. I will be very surprised if Salazar is traded. Caratini was an under the radar trade candidate for awhile but with the current state of things I would be surprised if he was being made available.
I actually think if Melton ends up playing at Cam Smith's level and Yordan heals soon, it woukd be very smart to trade Caratini. He is a great backup catcher, an acceptable starting catcher, and a weak DH.
I wouldn’t, but anybody should be available for the right price. If it took Caratini to get Lowe for example, so long to Caratini. With what Caratini is likely to bring back, hell no.
If Yordan comes back healthy and Caratini could be used in a trade that brought back help for this year, I could see Dana taking advantage of the kind of start to the year he has had. Unlikely, but far more likely than the Framber/Yordan laughable trade talk
It's crazy to me how over valued Caratini is to this fanbase. He is a below average hitter (91 wRC+) for his career and negative defender for his career (-1 DRS) and this year (-2 DRS). The more he plays, the worse he is but he has been playing nearly every day since Yordan got hurt. 112 wRC+ since Yordan got hurt, but 92 the past 3 weeks and 49 the past 2 weeks - with a lower BB% than Yainer. He is good insurance in case Diaz gets hurt, but sit him on the bench 75% and never let him DH. Or trade him and use Salazar.
I think the numbers you show here are outstanding for a backup C Of course he shouldn't be a DH, but with the roster we currently have there aren't any other obvious options Will be interesting to see what they do vs the LHP tonight I would put Shay in LF with Doobie at 2B and Altuve DH, but we shall see
You are correct about the offensive numbers (not defensive numbers) for a backup catcher. All I'm saying is keep him a backup catcher and not DH or starter at catcher so Diaz can DH.
