THE YANKEES' CATCHER PROBLEM

Going into the season it looked as though Russell Martin and Francisco Cervelli would be the Yankees’ two catchers, and that’s fine; both were productive last year. But, with the sudden trade of Chris Stewart and the demotion of Cervelli once spring training concluded, to go along with the awful play of Russell Martin, the catching situation looks pretty ugly.

Let’s start with the primary catcher, Russell Martin. This was a pretty important year for Martin as 2012 is a contract year for him. He has disappointed this year, to say the least as he’s batting .195/.299/.362 in 105 games and 379 plate appearances. He does have 14 home runs and plays solid defense, however, but that really doesn’t make up for the rest of his porous performance on offense thus far.

I’m really not sure what the Yankees will do with Martin. As I said, this is a contract year for him and he would have to go on a pretty big tear for teams, including the Yankees, to get wowed by him. But, I do think Martin struggling at the plate is good for two reasons:

One: The Yankees could, if they wanted to, sign him to real cheap contract in the off-season. He had a chance to sign a three-year, $20 million extension (read HERE), but he passed. There’s no way in hell he’s getting that offer again after this nightmare of a season.

Two: The Yankees will realize that Martin is struggling mightily and they’ll look for a replacement. I may not be speaking for every Yankee fan, but I’m really hoping the Yanks choose the latter scenario in this case.

Now, onto our second struggling catcher: Chris Stewart. Stewart was traded from the Giants to the Yankees in exchange for reliever George Kontos. I did not understand this trade at the time and I still don’t understand it to this day. Stewart, who is batting .256/.281/.339 in 131 plate appearances this year, is a downgrade from Cervelli while they gave up a potential useful bullpen piece in Kontos.

Speaking of Kontos, he has succeeded in San Fran thus far. He’s pitching to a shiny 2.25 ERA with a strong 3.8 K/BB ratio in 32 innings. With the leaky bullpen the Yanks currently have, it would be pretty nice to have a guy like Kontos help shore it up, eh?

Anyway, with Stewart; I see the Yankees looking elsewhere in the off-season. As noted, Stewart is not a good hitter. On defense, he’s slightly above average in throwing runners out (22% whereas league average is 18%), but has trouble with passed balls. He has seven overall which is tied for 7th most in MLB. The six catchers that have more passed balls than Stewart are all regular catchers, not backups.

What could be a solution to this catching problem? Well, it’s unlikely that they acquire someone off waivers. I doubt anyone worthwhile will make it through waivers anyway, so it’s hard to count on that.

Maybe Francisco Cervelli could provide a spark? September call-ups are just around the corner and Cervelli could be the key. (Read YOU WANT YANKEE ENERGY? CERVELLI TIME!) Hell, maybe he could impress enough to force Girardi’s hand and take over at least the backup spot from Chris Stewart.

I don’t know. The Yankees are in first place, but they’ve been sliding for the last few weeks, and although most point to the lackluster-ish offense (not necessarily the catchers in general) and the struggling pitching staff, the catching situation is something to worry about. Maybe it’ll work itself out, but for now, the catching situation is a problem.
  


--Jesse Schindler, BYB Lead Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse


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