Early Thoughts on the Catching Situation

The biggest question the Pirates have coming into the offseason is who will be playing catcher for the 2013 Pittsburgh Pirates? Rod Barajas will not be brought back, and the free agent market is thin at best. It really does not seem like the Pirates would get value for the money they would have to spend on a free agent backstop, which is unfortunate considering how little they got out of the position last year.

Some rumors have come up about a possible trade for the Red Sox Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Salty hit .222/.288/.454 last year with 25 home runs while playing respectable defense. The offense is inexistent; the Pirates would be lucky to see him outperform Barajas at the dish. The defense would probably be an upgrade, but then again we thought more of Barajas before this year started. Throwing out baserunners may be something that no catcher in the league could have been too successful at last year just because of how poor our pitchers were at stopping the running game. That said, there needs to be improved defense behind the plate.

I don't think it would take much to get Saltalamacchia, but I'm not even sure Bob Nutting wants to fork the cash for the extra letters to stitch his jersey with, so I'm thinking that's not going to happen.

Here's the way I look at it. There's really no way for the Pirates to bring somebody in that can hit as a catcher. They already have two pretty decent defensive options in Michael McKenry and Tony Sanchez that aren't going to cost them much money at all, so why even think about bringing someone else in? Chances are you'll get the same crappy offense from McKenry/Sanchez as you would from bringing someone else in, and Sanchez gives you some offensive upside.

We'll talk about this more later, but for right now I'm thinking the Pirates best bet is to stay with what they have right now and spend their money elsewhere. Just be ready for another disappointing offensive season from Pirates catchers in 2013.