Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Offseason Happenings: Could Indians Be Targetting Aybar?
Posted by Tony (Lastoria) Sat 1:18 AM
The Indians yesterday completed a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays sending catcher Kelly Shoppach to them for a player to be named later. In the wake of the trade, here is some additional information Indians GM Mark Shapiro shared in a conference call with the media as well as some of my thoughts on the deal and other things:
- Shapiro said there were three reasons they traded Shoppach. First and foremost, he feels very strongly about the young catchers in the system who are ready to play at the big league level and considers it an area of strength in the organization. Secondly, financial considerations were certainly involved since Shoppach was heading for arbitration and a salary increase. Last, he likes the player they will get back in the trade with Tampa.
- Shapiro said numerous teams were interested in Shoppach as he was engaged in trade talks with several other teams besides just Tampa.
- Shapiro did not say this was the case, but rumblings of late have suggested that the Indians were indeed considering non-tendering Shoppach by the December 12th deadline. Shoppach is in line to make around $3 million next year, and considering they wanted to go with their young catching trio of Lou Marson, Wyatt Toregas, and Carlos Santana to fill the starting and backup roles in 2010, Shoppach at $3 million would have been a waste of what Shapiro considers “finite resources”. Bottom line, they want to get a head start playing those guys every game, and it will start with game one next year.
- As for the player to be named later, Shapiro did not provide any details on what kind of player it would be other than that they have the potential to be on the 25-man roster next season. Shapiro said they have a list of a “couple players” they are choosing from, though it reportedly is a list of just two players.
- While the player to be named is unknown, it is very likely that the two players they are deciding on are currently playing winter ball for the Rays and they will use the next three weeks before the December 20th deadline to do some additional scouting on the players. Looking at the Rays list of players that are currently playing in the winter leagues combined with the Indians needs for next season, infielder Willy Aybar immediately stands out. He is a switch-hitter with the versatility to play anywhere in the infield, mainly at third base and second base. Aybar looks to be a good fit as far at the player to be named later goes.
- With Victor Martinez traded in July and now Shoppach gone, there is no doubt the Indians are gearing up and getting ready to hand over the keys to the everyday catching position to elite catching prospect Carlos Santana. But Santana is set to open in Triple-A Columbus pretty much no matter what. If things go as planned, Santana will likely come up sometime midseason around the All Star break. In the meantime he will continue to work on his game at Columbus, more specifically developing his leadership skills, game calling, and improving his defense.
- With Shoppach gone and Santana not yet in the picture, this means that barring something unfortunate happening that Lou Marson will be the regular catcher next year at the outset of the season. The Indians like Marson and feel in his limited major league debut last year that “to draw any conclusions on that would be foolish”. Shapiro said that Marson gives a quality at bat every time up and has done that throughout his minor league career and also calls a good game, has a quick release, handles a staff effectively, and exhibits good plate discipline.
- With Marson the everyday catcher, Wyatt Toregas is in line to be the backup catcher. Chris Gimenez is not considered for the backup role as the Indians are supposedly moving him away from catching and instead focusing on him more as a utility player and as an emergency catcher only.
- The setup with Marson and Toregas as the catching tandem on the big league roster to open the 2010 season is very similar to how they handled things back in 2003. Back then they also had a big time catching prospect in Victor Martinez coming up, and started him off in Triple-A to finish off his development before promoting him in late June or early July that year for good. Marson and Toregas will serve as the short term options until Santana is ready, sort of like Josh Bard and Tim Laker did in 2003.
- Shapiro said that there is really not much of a need to go out and sign a veteran catcher to help assist in the development of the young catchers because of the presence of Sandy Alomar Jr. on the coaching staff. They feel Sandy can provide anything a veteran backup would, and even more. They still may explore bringing in a veteran catcher as a non-roster player for a potential backup role.
