It’s another year and another former New York Yankee catcher is having success with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Almost feels like clockwork at this point.
First it was signing Russell Martin in 2013, and then last year it was acquiring Chris Stewart for cash. This year, it was trading for Francisco Cervelli. The 29-year-old has been a quality backstop for the Pirates and is only costing the team $987,500 this year.
But so far this year, how does Cervelli stack up against Martin, who signed a 5-year $82-million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays this past off-season?
Offensively it’s hard to complain too much about Cervelli’s contributions this year. He has the top batting average out of every starting catcher in the majors this year at .314, and is third in on base percentage with a .385 OBP.
Martin does have the edge of Cervelli when it comes to power numbers, though. Martin’s .473 slugging percentage is 80 points higher than Cervelli’s, and has the edge in doubles, home runs, RBIs, OPS and walks drawn.
Cervelli’s overall offensive numbers are not anything to write home about, but those are numbers you would still gladly take from a guy typically batting in the lower third of the batting order.
In a vacuum, most people will take Martin’s edge in power numbers over Cervelli’s edge in average. However, considering Martin is making over $6 million more than Cervelli this year, it can be argued that the Pirates are getting the overall better value offensively with Cervelli.
But the true value of a catcher does not come from their bat, it comes from the work they do behind the plate.
As a pitch framer, Cervelli has been good this year. Really good, as in Baseball Prospectus’s second-best in the majors at pitch framing good. For those keeping score at home, Martin is ranked as 11th.
But when it comes to throwing out runners, well that’s a different story, as Martin is once again one of baseball’s best in preventing stolen bases. Martin is throwing out half the runners that try to steal on him, while Cervelli has only thrown out 28 percent of runners that have ran on him. As a result, teams know that Cervelli is easier to run on, and opponents have tried to steal on him 46 times, compared to 36 times against Martin.
In short, Martin is having a better year between the two. Cervelli is not Russell Martin, and it would be unfair to expect him to be Russell Martin since Martin is one of the best catchers in baseball right now.
But as a replacement for Martin, Cervelli has done a more than an adequate job for the Pirates this year. And they have gotten great value from Cervelli considering what they are paying him this year, and the fact that relief pitcher Justin Wilson, who was used to acquire the catcher, is struggling mightily with the Yankees.
Then when you consider that the Pirates are set at catcher for both the immediate and long-term future with Elias Diaz waiting in the wings at AAA Indianapolis and top catching prospect Reese McGuire in High-A Bradenton set to come up in a few years, it was not as necessary to shell out for Martin. Cervelli is in his last year of being arbitration eligible, and with Diaz right behind him, the team has the flexibility to either not tender Cervelli over the off-season or bring him back for one more year then let him walk as a free agent.
With Martin around, it would have given them security at the position short term. But if the Pirates had matched the Blue Jays contract, they would owe him $15 million next year and $20 million each year for the following three years.
Sixty-million dollars for a catcher’s age 34, 35 and 36 seasons? No thank you.
So no, Francisco Cervelli is not Russell Martin. He just needs to be Francisco Cervelli, and as long as he stays healthy that is a good thing for the Pirates.
