 |
| Chuck Crow/Plain Dealer |
Sometimes it’s tough to acknowledge harsh realities. There’s
one that I’m trying to come to terms with right now and it has been difficult.
One of the hallmarks of the Chris Antonetti era is his ability to turn spare
parts into valuable assets. He’s done it several times over, but one that
stands out the most is when he sent Esmil Rogers to the Toronto Blue Jays for
Yan Gomes and Mike Aviles.
Gomes became an instant fan favorite and a personal favorite
of mine. His excitement seemed to be infectious for the pitching staff and it
had been a long time since the Indians had a catcher that cared so much
defensively. It was a great change from the days of Carlos Santana behind the
plate. The Indians had a catcher willing to sacrifice his body to block pitches
in the dirt. He possessed excellent throwing mechanics and really worked hard
at his craft to become the starting backstop that most evaluators said wasn’t
possible. Santana worked to become a catcher after coming up through the Los
Angeles Dodgers system as an infielder, but this just felt different.
It also helped matters that Gomes came up and hit. In his
first full-time cup of coffee in the bigs, Gomes posted a .294/.345/.481 slash
in 322 plate appearances in 2013. To fend off any suggestion that it was a
flash in the pan, Gomes hit .278/.313/.472 in 518 plate appearances in 2014.
Then Rajai Davis happened. The current Indians left fielder
slid late and took Yan Gomes’s knee with him on April 10, 2015. Gomes returned
to the lineup on May 24, 2015. Since then, our beloved backstop has batted
.232/.267/.392 with a .283 wOBA, a 77 wRC+, and an obscene 27.2 percent K% with
a 3.4 percent BB%.
I wrote about Yan Gomes over the winter and got some
thoughts from a buddy of mine, a licensed athletic trainer, who discussed the
impact that Gomes’s knee injury would have had on his offensive production. It
got better throughout the season, but something still appears to be off. We’re
talking about a sample size of 416 plate appearances and many bad conclusions
have come out of similar sample sizes, but it’s time for this discussion.
Entering play on Saturday afternoon, Gomes owned a
.200/.213/.311 slash line with 14 strikeouts and one walk in 47 plate
appearances. Again, this isn’t a sample size significant enough to make any
earth-shattering conclusions. The thing about it, however, is that the Indians
have a player on the depth chart behind Gomes that deserves a fair shake and a
bigger shot.
That player is Roberto Perez. I’ve become a big fan of
Roberto Perez and have been quietly, and sometimes publicly, talking about how
he needs to get more playing time. Perez is an ideal backup catcher. He has a
reasonable amount of power and his plate appearances are fantastic. He’s also
not much of a defensive downgrade, if at all. It’s hard to compare the two
because Gomes had a serious knee injury that cost him a sizable portion of the
2015 season. It wasn’t just about the games that Gomes missed, but a knee
injury for a catcher is not your run-of-the-mill hiccup.
As of Saturday, the Indians had played 14 games. Roberto
Perez played two of them. That puts him on pace to play 23 games. This is
egregious misuse of an asset. I don’t know if the 27-year-old can be a
full-time starter, but I would imagine that other teams have called the Indians
to ask about his availability to do exactly that for their ballclubs. Gomes’s
appearance in the April 23 starting lineup was also the second time that he has
played a day game after a traditional night game.
Traditionalists will scoff at Perez’s .237 career batting
average and .383 career slugging percentage in his 329 plate appearances. For
me, the .339 on-base percentage is what stands out, along with a 12.5 percent
BB%. Some can argue that Perez failed to take advantage of his opportunity with
Gomes out of the lineup because he posted a .160/.330/.293 slash with a .286
wOBA in those 100 plate appearances.
I’m not here to promote a starting catcher change. What I do
think should be considered is more of a tandem situation. These two guys are
not separated by that much. Since the start of 2014, here are the offensive
numbers:
|
Player
|
PA
|
AVG
|
OBP
|
SLG
|
wOBA
|
wRC+
|
K%
|
BB%
|
|
Gomes
|
954
|
.255
|
.289
|
.431
|
.311
|
98
|
24.9
|
4.0
|
|
Perez
|
329
|
.237
|
.339
|
.383
|
.321
|
104
|
28.0
|
12.5
|
Is it unreasonable to suggest that you match up on a daily
basis to a guy’s strengths? Could Perez face more of the erratic starters,
while Gomes faces the strike-throwers that are prone to giving up more dingers?
Could Perez, who has a .324 wOBA and a 107 wRC+ against righties (236 PA), get
more of those plate appearances than Gomes, who has a .306 wOBA and a 94 wRC+
against righties (667 PA)?
How about the defensive differences since 2014?
|
Player
|
|
K
|
BB
|
K/BB
|
WP
|
PB
|
SB
|
CS
|
CS%
|
FRAA
|
|
Gomes
|
1999
|
1910
|
581
|
3.29
|
68
|
13
|
108
|
52
|
32.5
|
9.2
|
|
Perez
|
787.2
|
824
|
243
|
3.39
|
29
|
5
|
39
|
26
|
40
|
7.5
|
These seem pretty comparable overall, don’t they? FRAA
stands for framing runs above average. To be fair, Gomes was excellent with
framing in 2014, but the knee injury affected his balance in 2015 and that
dragged down his performance. Either way, it’s still not a significant
difference, and the sample size could come into play as well.
I had a conversation with TJ Zuppe, the 92.3 Indians beat writer, on Twitter on Friday
night about Carlos Santana leading off and he talked about Terry Francona’s
unwillingness to put players in uncomfortable situations. Would a same-handed
platoon of Gomes and Perez rub the players the wrong way? Would it affect the
pitching staff too much to be a viable option? We’ve long heard about pitchers
having “personal catchers”. Would that be an option? Is there a starter (or are
there starters) that wouldn’t mind throwing to Perez on a regular basis?
Teams in the payroll situation that the Indians are in need
to maximize every opportunity and every asset. It seems like they are mismanaging an asset in
Roberto Perez. This is coming from as big of a Yan Gomes fan as you will find.
The better play for the team, both in the short-term and the long-term, is to
balance playing time between these two catchers in a way that makes sense for
the team. If that means making Danny Salazar’s personal catcher Roberto Perez
and then finding another day every week to use him, so be it.
The overall point is that Roberto Perez needs to play more.
The gap between Gomes and Perez is smaller than we’d like to admit, even if the
knee injury that Yan suffered is to blame. It’s an admission that the Indians
should probably make sooner rather than later.
0 comments :
Post a Comment