Freshmaker (11-26-2019)
D'Arnaud really hits LHP. He's got that going for him.
Darn has the "room for more upside" narrative going for him that none of the other catchers below Grandal do, which is why he was considered the best of the rest. I think the thought process is something along the lines of:
1. He could be great (3+ fWAR) if he stayed healthy.
2. The Mets are probably the worst organization in the league at keeping players healthy.
3. He stayed healthy the moment he left the Mets.
4. He is more likely to stay healthy with the Braves than with the Mets.
I think I would have preferred Castro as a clean platoon partner with Flowers, but it's hard to criticize AA making the upside play with such an affordable contract. If Flownaud posts 4+ fWAR for $12M of the 2020 payroll, folks are going to be tripping over themselves to talk about how smart AA is.
I like the deal. Grandal was the only guy to move the needle at catcher.
We paid a two million premium to get this done now. I LOVE that. Gets the need met so we can focus on other things. Shows we are trying to make the team better and not focusing on value only.
My mind is full of indians trade options. They have all the pieces we need. Those multi piece deals almost never happen though.
I'm not to fond of the d'Arnaud signing (because of the contract amount), but I do agree it has the potential to be great move. The Braves system of splitting playing time between catchers has worked well over the past few years. Hopefully d'Arnaud will work the system as well as AJ, Kurt and BMac did.
I do like d'Arnaud better than paying Grandel 75 million. See Posey, BMac, Martin, etc, for examples of how those long term high value catchers deals work out.
So often catchers are mistakenly judged only by hitting stats. Well the fact that D'Arnaud is above average at pitch framing should tell enough about why he was a top Target for is to pair with Flowers, another top pitch framer. Then there is the potential for upside with the bat, and extra rest from splitting time with Flowers.
jpx7 (11-26-2019)
jpx7 (11-26-2019)
Zunino got 4.5 M and can’t hit his way out of a wet paper sack
Ivermectin Man
jpx7 (11-26-2019), UNCBlue012 (11-26-2019), zbhargrove (11-26-2019)
jpx7 (11-26-2019), The Chosen One (11-26-2019), UNCBlue012 (11-26-2019), zbhargrove (11-26-2019)
jpx7 (11-26-2019)
Get off my lawn!