ESPN AM 1000: Cubs resign Blanco for 2 years/5M

[Monco]

Molina was pretty good until last year

[Illini Iceman]

If Barrett is going to be a major part of the offense he needs to get enough days off to keep from wearing out down the stretch. That makes it important to have a quality back-up. Maybe $1M more a year than necessary, but we can take it out of the extra $3-4M a year a lot of people on this board were imploring Hendry to throw at ARam to beg him to stay before his deal was announced.

 

Soto seems OK but .272 BA and .739 OPS at AAA last year don't convince me he is ready to step in and contribute anything. If Hendry really is trying to build a contender he needs to have a back-up in place for Barrett that can hold his own if necessary in case Barrett is out for 7-10 games (which is not uncommon for a starting catcher at some point during the course of a season).

[Andy]

I don't even understand why anyone would want to trade Michael Barrett. We have one of the best catchers in the league offensively, and defensively he's made great improvements. That's one position we actually have a good player at. Trading him for a star at another position doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, you may get a power hitting outfielder, but you weaken the team in another area, which is a great hitting catcher. Just my opinion though.

 

Hes made great improvements defensively? Hes a green light for all baserunners.

He also had a nearly .900 OPS last year. Fair trade. But I'm with Raisin - signing him when he hits FA next year is probably not the best investment knowing catchers.

[sethuel1]

If Barrett is going to be a major part of the offense he needs to get enough days off to keep from wearing out down the stretch. That makes it important to have a quality back-up. Maybe $1M more a year than necessary, but we can take it out of the extra $3-4M a year a lot of people on this board were imploring Hendry to throw at ARam to beg him to stay before his deal was announced.

 

Soto seems OK but .272 BA and .739 OPS at AAA last year don't convince me he is ready to step in and contribute anything. If Hendry really is trying to build a contender he needs to have a back-up in place for Barrett that can hold his own if necessary in case Barrett is out for 7-10 games (which is not uncommon for a starting catcher at some point during the course of a season).

 

Hank White can't hold his own.

[erik316wttn]

I've never been a fan of creating one hole to fill another, especially when you're creating that hole at a hard-to-fill position like catcher.

[hawkcub]

If Hendry really is trying to build a contender he needs to have a back-up in place for Barrett that can hold his own if necessary in case Barrett is out for 7-10 games (which is not uncommon for a starting catcher at some point during the course of a season).

 

Especially if said catcher jacks an opposing players jaw. :D

[Jon]

If Barrett is going to be a major part of the offense he needs to get enough days off to keep from wearing out down the stretch. That makes it important to have a quality back-up. Maybe $1M more a year than necessary, but we can take it out of the extra $3-4M a year a lot of people on this board were imploring Hendry to throw at ARam to beg him to stay before his deal was announced.

 

Soto seems OK but .272 BA and .739 OPS at AAA last year don't convince me he is ready to step in and contribute anything. If Hendry really is trying to build a contender he needs to have a back-up in place for Barrett that can hold his own if necessary in case Barrett is out for 7-10 games (which is not uncommon for a starting catcher at some point during the course of a season).

 

Hank White can't hold his own.

You're just saying that because he's a terrible hitter.

[Omar]

I think Soto would do a better job at back-up, and would be cheaper.

[CubColtPacer]

I think Soto would do a better job at back-up, and would be cheaper.

 

You think Soto would do better than Blanco regardless of the cost? How is that? Soto is very likely to hit less than Blanco does-even if Blanco regresses signficantly from his career year last year, Soto still only had a 739 OPS in Triple A, and looked lost at the plate in his very limited major league at-bats. If he played for the Cubs next year, I bet he wouldn't get above a .600 OPS. Do you think he's defensively better than Blanco? I doubt that as well.

 

I can see why it can be argued that Soto for cheap is better than Blanco value wise, but I see no way that he's simply the better player.

[WrigleyField 22]

I think Soto would do a better job at back-up, and would be cheaper.

 

You think Soto would do better than Blanco regardless of the cost? How is that? Soto is very likely to hit less than Blanco does-even if Blanco regresses signficantly from his career year last year, Soto still only had a 739 OPS in Triple A, and looked lost at the plate in his very limited major league at-bats. If he played for the Cubs next year, I bet he wouldn't get above a .600 OPS. Do you think he's defensively better than Blanco? I doubt that as well.

 

I can see why it can be argued that Soto for cheap is better than Blanco value wise, but I see no way that he's simply the better player.

 

Well I think its a guarantee that Blanco will hit for more power than Soto, whch is where a lot of the OPS difference would come. Soto has a reasonable chance to put up a better OBP, but thats not guaranteed.

 

But I'm mostly looking at the defense, and Soto will provide good D for cheap.

[Jon]

I think Soto would do a better job at back-up, and would be cheaper.

 

You think Soto would do better than Blanco regardless of the cost? How is that? Soto is very likely to hit less than Blanco does-even if Blanco regresses signficantly from his career year last year, Soto still only had a 739 OPS in Triple A, and looked lost at the plate in his very limited major league at-bats. If he played for the Cubs next year, I bet he wouldn't get above a .600 OPS. Do you think he's defensively better than Blanco? I doubt that as well.

 

I can see why it can be argued that Soto for cheap is better than Blanco value wise, but I see no way that he's simply the better player.

Blanco's career line is .225/.290/.367/.657. He also had a minor league line of .247/.325/.375/.700.

 

Not too hard to top that.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Soto is very likely to hit less than Blanco does

 

That's quite a difficult feat to accomplish. One I would take my chances with to save over 2M per season.

[Mephistopheles]

One thing Soto has done in the minors is walk enough to not have a deadweight obp like blanco does.

[sethuel1]

If Barrett is going to be a major part of the offense he needs to get enough days off to keep from wearing out down the stretch. That makes it important to have a quality back-up. Maybe $1M more a year than necessary, but we can take it out of the extra $3-4M a year a lot of people on this board were imploring Hendry to throw at ARam to beg him to stay before his deal was announced.

 

Soto seems OK but .272 BA and .739 OPS at AAA last year don't convince me he is ready to step in and contribute anything. If Hendry really is trying to build a contender he needs to have a back-up in place for Barrett that can hold his own if necessary in case Barrett is out for 7-10 games (which is not uncommon for a starting catcher at some point during the course of a season).

 

Hank White can't hold his own.

You're just saying that because he's a terrible hitter.

 

Ya got me.

[RyCubsFan]

So apparently the Yanks wanted Blanco, and were disappointed when the Cubs resigned him. Gotta like that.

[Tedward]

So apparently the Yanks wanted Blanco, and were disappointed when the Cubs resigned him. Gotta like that.

 

Correct. From today's NY Daily News

 

The Yanks lost out on one of their top targets to take over the role of backup catcher yesterday when Henry Blanco agreed to a two-year, $5.25 million deal to return to the Cubs

[mg420]

the signing of blanco has caused another team to inquire about barrett's availablility:

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/columnists/cs-061115whispers,1,4549903.story?coll=cs-cubs-headlines

[dalgreen]

I don't even understand why anyone would want to trade Michael Barrett. We have one of the best catchers in the league offensively, and defensively he's made great improvements. That's one position we actually have a good player at. Trading him for a star at another position doesn't make sense to me. Yeah, you may get a power hitting outfielder, but you weaken the team in another area, which is a great hitting catcher. Just my opinion though.

 

I'm certainly not rallying to have Barrett sent away, but I can see where the idea comes from. There are real concerns about his performance going forward which will most likely keep us from signing him to an extension. With that in mind, trading him away if he's not going to be part of a championship team this season makes sense.

 

The only issue I really have comes with availability. The people advocating a Barrett for Wells trade are being ridiculous. That's essentially a lateral move in any event, and that's compounded by the fact that there is a perfect option availabe for CF in JD Drew, while the market for catchers is extremely weak.

 

For me to be willing to trade Barrett away, I better be getting a very young player that will be under club control for a few years, or an older but excellent player signed to a contract for a few more years. Otherwise, I have trouble accepting the massive downgrade from Barrett to whatever crap is available on the FA market. (Bengie Molina? Washed-up versions of Mike Piazza, Javy Lopez, and Mike Lieberthal? Puh-lease...)

 

I have no problem trading Barrett as long as we get someone of tremendous value in return. Barrett has never been on my untouchable list, anyway. We have to remember, the Astros and Cardinals have dominated the NL Central for ten years now without having a good offensive catcher. If you can get a solid#2-#3 starting pitcher or a very productive outfielder in return, I don't know how you can be against that kind of trade.