https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/2021/01/12/catcher-as-catch-can/
CATCHER AS CATCH CAN.
Totally Tigers
?Currently, the Detroit Tigers catching situation is a mystery and they do not seem to mind.?
? Jules Posner, Forbes Magazine
He said it. And he?s not the only one to notice. Other national media are asking questions. But the two major Detroit dailies? Crickets.
Jules Posner is the latest to remark that the catching situation in Detroit is abysmal. Yet despite this, Al Avila said earlier this month that finding a catcher on the free agent market was ?not a priority.? Not a priority despite the fact that Tiger catchers last year combined for records that ranked either #29 or #30.
Austin Romine started strong but finished the year significantly below average in both offense and defense. Grayson Greiner and Eric Haase were also called up and they hit .118 and .176 respectively. Haase was recently put on waivers where no team claimed him and he returned to the Tigers.
That says it all, folks.
So who?s missing?
You know who. Jake Rogers.
Part of that stellar trade with Houston where the Tigers sent Justin Verlander and $16 million (and even another player) to the Astros in exchange for Rogers, Daz Cameron and Franklin Perez. MLB Radio ranked this trade as the best trade of the past decade. For Houston, not for Detroit.
So where was Rogers last season? He did not make a single appearance in Detroit. Not a single appearance despite performing better in spring training than the other three catchers. Despite having hired an independent hitting coach who helped him immensely. The stats and analytics indicated that he was on the cusp of becoming a productive hitter.
How bad does everyone else have to be in order for Rogers to be called up?
The question everyone is asking (except for Detroit?s 2 major dailies, that is) is why is he being ignored? Why didn?t they test him out in last year?s shortened season which was a great opportunity that offered less pressure? Did he ruffle feathers by hiring his own coach?
If we go back to 2019, Rogers was rushed up to Detroit despite the pleas by his AAA manager, Doug Mientkiewicz. More than one journalist suggested that it was done out of desperation in order to stop the widespread criticism of the JV trade.
Doug, considered to be one of Detroit?s better Toledo managers in years, had just had his contract extended. But after the season ended, the Tigers fired Mientkiewicz. Many reported that he wasn?t enough of a ?yes-man? to the Tigers brass. Doug said that he told the Tigers what they didn?t want to hear. That promoting Rogers too soon would cause damage and set back his development.
Posner, in his most recent article, questioned whether the Tigers were actually preparing their prospects to face MLB-level talent or whether they were simply getting them time playing.
And today, the latest analytic reports seem to support his concerns.
The initial reports of the draft classes from the 2015-2018 years have just rolled out, ranking teams on how well they spent their draft money, the return on investment and the WAR value of their prospects from those years. In the first 4 reports available, the Tigers rank #26 on 2 reports, slightly below average on one and slight above average on the other.
So much for all that tanking, the #1 draft picks and the highly-ranked farm system, all due to the tanking and not development.
Top draft picks are not guaranteed success. In fact, only 60% of all #1 draft picks make it to the majors. Prospects are pieces of carbon when they enter the minor leagues. It?s up to the teams to make them into diamonds.
Look no further than former Tiger, James McCann. Released from the team (in exchange for nothing other than salary relief) where he went on to Chicago and got proper coaching both behind and at the plate. He put up great numbers, earned an All-Star nod and won a variety of awards. Oh, and a Gold Glove nomination which ranks him as an elite catcher.
But the Tigers said he was horrible at pitch framing! Tell that to the baseball world now.
Proper coaching makes a difference. Just ask McCann, JaCoby Jones and Jeimer Candelario. And leaving Detroit was the best decision, ironically, for McCann. A 4-year $60+ million contract with the Mets and one of this year?s biggest contracts so far. Such a big miss that many in the media said that ?the Tigers really blew it.?
So what does this mean for the next of many Detroit catchers, Dillon Dingler? The Tigers have blown through so many catchers who couldn?t make the cut ? until one of them left for greener pastures and the others went unclaimed on waivers. Dingler is in the purgatory known as the Tigers minor league system and unfortunately, we?ve heard of no managerial or coaching changes coming out of there.
If you had an entire collection of diamonds-in-the rough, wouldn?t you hire an experienced diamond cutter to ensure they maintained, even enhanced, their value?
The Tigers may have hired a promising new manager and highly-regarded coaches, but these men won?t be able to help any of the prospects in the minor league system.
Yet despite all of this, Detroit doesn?t feel that filling the catcher position is a priority for them. However, as the other free agent catchers find homes, there is still one available, if you don?t count J.T. Realmuto.
A guy about to turn 34. A guy who hit .184 last year.
Alex Avila.
Place your bets now.
