Matt Wallner, Trevor Larnach: Meet Your New Platoon Partner, Harrison Bader

[sweetmusicviola16]

My own prediction is that Willi Castro will soon be traded. I hope I'm wrong that we aren't trading Castro for Bader but the numbers do line up. 

[rdehring]

Not clear how much he is making or the terms.  Can't believe it if $6.5M for one year, is it?

The only comment in the post that I don't agree with is that he would platoon with ERod, if/when he arrives.  ERod shouldn't be here until he is ready and when he arrives he should play every day....period.

[sweetmusicviola16]

17 minutes ago, jmlease1 said:

I think there's a huge advantage to not having it be a black hole offensively, but it wasn't the end of the world in 2024 to be sure. CLE had worse offense from their regular CF than Bader (and their backups weren't any better) and they did just fine, PHI was even worse getting production at CF and they were one of the best teams in baseball. NYM went to the NLCS and their primary CF was...Bader.

Right now, if you're getting close to league average hitting and good defense from your CF, you're doing pretty well. It's why Christian Vazquez still has value even though he's been a pretty bad hitter lately: so few catchers are hitting much these days that a good defender who doesn't embarrass themselves at the plate still gets work. Same principles are applying in CF now.

If Bader shows a little improvement at the plate, or simply hits LHP well consistently, then he can be a useful player that keeps Castro from having to play in CF, gives Larnach/Wallner breaks against LHP, improves the OF defense in late & close games.

My concern is that he's about to turn 31, hasn't had an OBP over .300 or a SLG over .400 since 2021. He didn't hit LHP particularly well last season, but he also only had 137 ABs against them; he crushed them the season before but it was an even smaller sample. I think it's a fair bet to look to career splits, but you never know.

This move raises the floor a bit and provides useful insurance against a significant Buxton injury. But I think that's about it, which is why I'm a little unimpressed with the deployment of very limited resources here.

Appreciate your thoughts jm. If Buxton was your typical CF that was playing 120-130 games a year in CF I'd have no issue if his backup is a high defense guy that is a subpar hitter. That however has rarely, if ever, been the case. But for 30-40 games a cheap option is a far better option. But the potential platoon partner with Larnach and Wallner should not be a light hitting backup CF. If Wallner is sitting I want someone who can hit. This is not Bader. Sure he could bounce back but his history shows he is regressing rather fast at the plate.

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Unfortunately yes. Like Margot no matter how bad Bader is he'll get his playing time roster spot.

Maybe just maybe the FO and Rocco learned something from last year and if Bader is bad that doesn't happen.  

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Like Margot, Bader is progressively getting worse at fielding & their hitting is atrocious. It'll be interesting to see which would be badder, Margot or Bader. (please forgive the pun). Like Margot, he'll get too much playing time, take up a valuable roster spot, from our own players, be too expensive, & be a hindrance to our offense.

Bader also has a double digit pinch hitter futility streak going

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, CRF said:

Hmmn...I must have missed this one in American history class. 

Shadow President.  It's a thing.

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, Twodogs said:

Yeah this one is confusing.  I mean Bader could make 8 mill with a buyout on top of it?  Bader hasn't had an On Base Percentage above .300 since 2021???  I mean but Kepler a home grown product was way way way too expensive at 10 mil?  I get it Kep is a lefty and is probably super stoked to be in Philly, (probably thinks thank God), but by no means is Bader a good replacement for him and at close to the same amount of money?  I mean I was looking forward to a couple of the young guys getting the platoon AB's.  That way the main guys would get most of the work this season.  With Rocco, Bader will probably play almost like a starter 4 - 5 days every week.  What a waste.

Kepler has a real shot at a ring now.

[Doctor Gast]

4 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Maybe just maybe the FO and Rocco learned something from last year and if Bader is bad that doesn't happen.  

I'd hope so. But FO is very slow to learn from their mistakes; Margo hasn't been the 1st to be cemented in the roster long after their being inept.

[mnfireman]

18 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Shadow President.  It's a thing.

We just had one....

[tony&rodney]

The title of the article has to be a trigger for Larnach and Wallner.

I was just wondering if this was the splash to sell tickets and media subscriptions that Dan Hayes talked about over in The Athletic?

[NYCTK]

10 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

We just had one....

Had? Did Trump get rid of Elon? 

[NYCTK]

5 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

I was just wondering if this was the splash to sell tickets and media subscriptions that Dan Hayes talked about over in The Athletic?

It's 100% a baseball move to improve the team on the field. 

[Parfigliano]

20 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

We just had one....

Not even close to what I was referring to as that would be political talk.

[tony&rodney]

34 minutes ago, NYCTK said:

It's 100% a baseball move to improve the team on the field. 

That's the plan.

[Road trip]

I really dislike this signing.  Maybe it's recency bias due to Margot and other aging veteran contracts that didn't work out, but I don't think so.  Bader's upside is very limited.  His floor is good (no longer great) defense with a bad bat.

Bader's value was in his speed, and his speed is declining, as is normal for all players as they age.  Take a look at his Baseball Savant page and the decline is obvious.  He's been a below average hitter since his age 27 season, which is a fairly typical peak age.  You want a Harrison Bader type of player when they are 24 or 25, but not at this point in their career.

As a backup CF, sure, he's fine if the cost is very low.... but it wasn't, at least in terms of opportunity cost for the very limited payroll dollars left to spend.  As a corner outfielder his bat is unplayable.  And yet, due his "veterany goodness" we are going to see him stealing at bats from other corner outfielders all year long.

I fear we've seen this story before.  It doesn't end well.

[rv78]

2 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Don't pinch-hit for superior hitters in the middle innings. 

HA! Ha! ......  With Rocco, that's like asking a fish not to swim. 

[jud6312]

9 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

I'd hope so. But FO is very slow to learn from their mistakes; Margo hasn't been the 1st to be cemented in the roster long after their being inept.

Slow to learn from their mistakes or slow to admit them? I think it's the latter.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

9 hours ago, mnfireman said:

We just had one....

Let's don't go there, please.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

9 hours ago, NYCTK said:

Had? Did Trump get rid of Elon? 

Let's follow Barney Fife's motto and "Nip it. Nip it in the bud." No more presidential smack talk. It's not funny.

[jud6312]

Let's call this neverending parade of aging, midling CFers what they are - the "Buck tax." 

 

It's the price you pay when a focal point of your team (and payroll) is a guy that plays 60% of the games in a good year. 

 

Clearly, the front office either isn't yet sold on the young players they've acquired to do the job when (not if) Buck takes a mid-summer vacay(s), or they know they can't hack it and don't want the rest of the league to see it. 

 

So, you're stuck with drooping floor, blown out ceiling vets that provide the built-in excuse of "how were we supposed to know he would be this crappy this fast?"

[jud6312]

Sorry. Duplicate post.

[Doctor Wu]

22 hours ago, High heat said:

I have a feeling one maybe 2 of our currently outfielder options are going to get moved in a trade (Martin, Larnach, Castro, Kersey)

Yep, could be an outfielder or two that gets traded this month. Just too many bodies and not enough playing time to go around.