08-04-2022, 11:55 AM
(08-04-2022, 11:18 AM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: Honestly, that's probably for the best. A catcher who is good with the pitchers who can also hit well is one of the rarest things in baseball (Buster Posey style player) and Stephenson would lose a bit of that "specialness" if we reverted him to 1B, but we can't have him breaking bones from foul tips all season. First, it was a concussion on a play at the plate (with him as catcher, not runner), then it was his thumb on a foul tip, and now it is his collarbone on another foul tip. Either this guy is too fragile to be back there or is one of the most unlucky dudes ever. Either way, maybe taking him out of the line of fire is a good idea.
With that said, if we do that, we'll have a gaping hole at Catcher that we'd need to fill in some way if we want to compete. Papierski and Kolozsvary are not major league quality players, especially not if we hope to be a contender in the next few years.
I think Stephenson should be protected and moved to first, but the organization seems extremely reluctant. A catcher with his offensive skills is extremely rare. It's an apples and oranges comparison, but it's sort of like having a freak TE like Gronk or Gates in an offense. It's such an unusual advantage that the WAR gains in metrics get skewed heavily in your favor. That's how I think they view it. That's a dumb way to go if you want to keep your best offensive player on the field, but it's what it is. Plus, what's the use of keeping him behind the plate to skew the WAR metric if you don't have anyone else in the offense to help you capitalize? Soto, Biggio, Schwarber, etc, were all cathers until it could no longer be justified. I think eventually the same happens for Stephenson.
By 2024, Votto and Moose are gone and so are their contracts. The team will have between 80-90 mil in payroll obligations in 2023. Subtract those two albatross deals, and you're looking at 40 mil plus coming off the books. They will have a practically non-existent payroll of 50 mil or so. They can go out and buy a serviceable (thinking Barnhart caliber) to good catcher with that kind of payroll structure.
