Article: Twins Sign Catcher Kurt Suzuki

[drock2190]

I don't get the love for Stephen Drew. He's nothing special, he's likely only a tier above Florimon. The money is best spent elsewhere or not at all.

 

Save it for next season offseason. There are a lot of high upside pitchers that could make it to free agency. Some probably will get extensions but I think we should wait it out and see.

[halfchest]

Nice signing, nothing exciting.

 

I agree with Cmathewson regarding offensive upgrades. I don't think there was anyone out there that really fit our team this year. Salty might have been a nice grab for the price but not concerned about it. That's where the strength lies in our farm system/young guys. I would expect improvements from Plouffe, Hicks, Arcia, Willingham, and Mauer this coming year. I could see Dozier regressing but not too much. He probably wont' hit as good as he did the last few months but won't his as bad as he did the first few months. I figure he should be good for a similar total production to last year. Florimon is florimon, great defense, don't expect anything offensively. Pinto won't be as good as he was last year but should still provide solid offense.

 

Then we have our guys like Sano and Buxton on the way up by the end of the year or early 2015. Given our continued payroll flexibility we will have the money to add pieces come 2015 and our needs will hopefully be more clear with prospects having another year to develop and guys like Arcia, Pinto, Hicks, Dozier all getting an additional year to show if they can handle it in the majors or not.

[cmathewson]

I dont see how he can really bring much more to the table than what Herrmann or Fryer would bring. Seems the money couldve been spent elsewhere. Now who gets removed from 40 man to make room for someone who doesnt bring much more than what we have?

 

First of all, catching depth is a problem in the organization. So this helps them add depth by allowing Fryer to start the year in AAA. Hermann is a decent player, but, as a converted outfielder, he's only caught part time for four years in his entire career. So he isn't even an option as the primary back-up. Maybe as a bench bat/third catcher. No GM in his right mind would try to have two rookies catching on the same team.

 

Secondly, they needed to add a veteran presence for young Mr. Pinto. Suzuki knows the hitters in this league. He can help Pinto run the scouting meetings and handle the pitching staff. A lot goes on in the catching position that we don't see and it's some of the most important stuff to preventing runs from scoring.

 

Bottom line, he was the best catcher left, after they failed to sign Pierzinski, much better than Buck, all things considered.

[ashbury]

Seems the money couldve been spent elsewhere.

 

Suzuki's contract is under $3M. If you had a whole team of Suzukis your ML payroll would be less than $75M, not even close to the ML average payroll. And the Twins indeed aren't anywhere close to ML average payroll at the moment. And that contract is for one year. Basically, although most years money is a constraint for the Twins front office, this off-season at this time it is not. Signing Suzuki has no effect on the money the Twins can offer another FA.

 

Now who gets removed from 40 man to make room

 

Fryer.

[jay]

The last two years, Suzuki has been basically the equivalent of Jose Molina with the bat. (With his modest ability to take a walk, Fryer might be in that range too.) Molina signed for 2 years at a lower AAV (2/4.5). Will be interesting to see how their defense/framing compares.

 

Molina is an elite framer and thrower, Suzuki is good at fielding his position and blocking pitches -- both are well regarded, but in kind of opposite ways. I do think Suzuki has a better chance to put up better offensive numbers than Molina though.

 

Suzuki has been better against his same-handed righties than lefties over his career. I would hope to see Pinto start vs every lefty and Suzuki vs a fair share of righties.

[Alex]

" The signing addresses the last obvious need on the roster,...."

 

So we lose Morneau and Doumit (I nearly forgot Clete), sign Kubel and Suzuki to fill that void.

 

Do these moves really do much to improve our bad offense from last year?

 

I agree that right now the offense isn't looking much better than last season unless we get development from some players Hard to complain about the signing at this point, though, as they needed to address pitching first and this fills a need.

 

I'd still like to see them upgrade an OF position and move the Hammer to DH, but I haven't kept track of what's out there.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Bonus in signing Suzuki: He has proven to be very tradable over the last two years. Not that the Twins should do so, but it's nice to have that option.

Not really. He was traded from OAK-WAS, then back from WAS-OAK. And those two teams have been trading with each other like gangbusters in recent years. They were also both August waiver trade salary dumps for what looks like minor league filler.

[deanlambrecht]

Nice signing, nothing exciting.

 

I agree with Cmathewson regarding offensive upgrades. I don't think there was anyone out there that really fit our team this year. Salty might have been a nice grab for the price but not concerned about it. That's where the strength lies in our farm system/young guys. I would expect improvements from Plouffe, Hicks, Arcia, Willingham, and Mauer this coming year. I could see Dozier regressing but not too much. He probably wont' hit as good as he did the last few months but won't his as bad as he did the first few months. I figure he should be good for a similar total production to last year. Florimon is florimon, great defense, don't expect anything offensively. Pinto won't be as good as he was last year but should still provide solid offense.

 

Then we have our guys like Sano and Buxton on the way up by the end of the year or early 2015. Given our continued payroll flexibility we will have the money to add pieces come 2015 and our needs will hopefully be more clear with prospects having another year to develop and guys like Arcia, Pinto, Hicks, Dozier all getting an additional year to show if they can handle it in the majors or not.

 

Nice summary. I think this is about right. The only bit with which I disagree is that I do not expect any improvement from Plouffe. I hope I'm wrong, but I think we've seen about what we can expect from him. We'll just wait for Sano to make him entirely expendable.

[ashbury]

See you at Rochester Eric Fryer. I would assume he would be taken off the 40 man. Should clear. He hasn't hit for much in minors or his tiny bit oftime in the majors.

 

2011-13, Fryer's OPS in AAA was approximately the same as Suzuki's in the Show. Just a shorthand number for comparison, but it seems to me the talent difference on offense is marked, and I have no way to say Fryer's defense would be better (enough) to outweigh that.

[Mike Sixel]

So, they deal Doumit, sign a guy that fits better, and get a AA / AAA pitcher that was well regarded two years ago. That's a nice couple of days, imo.

[yrocks2001]

Nobody needs to be removed from the 40 Man Roster. Doumit was removed when he was traded and Gilmartin was not added to the Roster and likely won't be unless he proves his worth at AAA.

[drock2190]

Nobody needs to be removed from the 40 Man Roster. Doumit was removed when he was traded and Gilmartin was not added to the Roster and likely won't be unless he proves his worth at AAA.

 

Pelfrey was added when Doumit was traded so a spot needs to be cleared now.

[Brock Beauchamp]

In the past few days, Ryan has turned Ryan Doumit into Sean Gilmartin and Kurt Suzuki, all while saving around $750k (not that any of us should care one bit about the Twins saving a million bucks right now).

 

A pretty good deal all around. Lower payroll, a better defensive catcher, and a marginal LHP prospect added to the farm.

[OldManWinter]

So doesn't Suzuki return us to the point we might as well have kept Butera?

[Kwak]

...and the payroll is back to April 2013. Perfect! Everybody is praising the Twins "for spending money", fixing the rotation, buying a cheap insurance policy for catcher, and clearing roster space to give yet another chance to failed "prospects"--because ya'know some just need more years in the minor leagues.

[Joe A. Preusser]

So doesn't Suzuki return us to the point we might as well have kept Butera?

 

One minute Kurt Suzuki was sitting comfortably on his couch watching some SportsCenter and surfing TwinsDaily for some news about his new team. The next, his face got redder and redder until his head exploded.

 

No one knows why.

[Otto von Ballpark]

2011-13, Fryer's OPS in AAA was approximately the same as Suzuki's in the Show. Just a shorthand number for comparison, but it seems to me the talent difference on offense is marked, and I have no way to say Fryer's defense would be better (enough) to outweigh that.

You're probably right about Fryer, but his 2012 AAA is kind of a crazy outlier. .504 OPS? His other two AAA seasons (admittedly small samples, all) are .647 and .704, which are both better than Suzuki's .615 overall for the last two seasons. Gotta wonder if there was an injury at work in 2012 -- I get that Fryer was an older non-prospect, but every other season he's been good for at least a few walks, a few HR, and some steals. 2012, nothing.

 

FWIW, the 2014 projections at Fangraphs are pretty close between Fryer and Suzuki. Obviously, Suzuki offers a lot more confidence that he can hit those projections, and Fryer has a lot more Butera-esque downside possibility.

 

I had just adopted Fryer as my new favorite Twin, so I should probably recuse myself from this discussion...

[Otto von Ballpark]

So, they deal Doumit, sign a guy that fits better, and get a AA / AAA pitcher that was well regarded two years ago. That's a nice couple of days, imo.

Agreed.

[SweetOne69]

Pelfrey was added when Doumit was traded so a spot needs to be cleared now.

 

Not quite correct. Pelfrey hasn't officially signed his contract yet so he is not on the roster.

 

But when both Suzuki and Pelfrey sign their contracts 1 person will need to be removed from the 40-man roster.

[Mike Frasier Law]

My first thought was that Suzuki's offensive numbers couldn't be much, if any, better than our other alternatives. Then I looked at how atrocious our catchers have been offensively, aside from Mauer, Doumit, and Pinto. Suzuki is below league average, but within spitting distance (89wRC+, where 100 is league average). In comparison, from 2010 through 2013, Jose Morales was 53, Hermann was 58, and Butera was 33. Yikes. Butera's slash line over those three years: .182, .230, .263. That's right, OPS below 500.

[ScrapTheNickname]

So doesn't Suzuki return us to the point we might as well have kept Butera?

 

Excellent point.

[minn55441]

It may be a situation where Suzuki will benefit from only playing on a limited basis. With a full season to heal up and then only take the beating of playing behind the plate a couple of times per week he may improve in both behind the plate and at the plate statistics. I too think we needed to give our pitching staff more than pinto and Herman/Fryer. A pitcher is only going to succeed with a good relationship with his catcher. I think this is often overlooked. I think a veteran presence was needed behind the plate. At under 3 million, we did alright with Suzuki. If he can improve by staying healthy, all the better.

 

I still think we need another outfielder.

[Brock Beauchamp]

So doesn't Suzuki return us to the point we might as well have kept Butera?

 

Methinks you need to take another look at Butera's stat line.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/buterdr01.shtml

[ashbury]

So doesn't Suzuki return us to the point we might as well have kept Butera?

 

Between Butera+$$ and Suzuki+Sulbaran, I choose the latter.

[Heimer]

I still think we need another outfielder.[/quote

 

Why? Willihammer, hicks, parmelee, arcia, pressly, and most likely ploufe will be all given time in the field. I agree there not the greatest, But I think TR is content for the time being with some good prospects coming up in 2015.

[biggentleben]

The last two years, Suzuki has been basically the equivalent of Jose Molina with the bat. (With his modest ability to take a walk, Fryer might be in that range too.) Molina signed for 2 years at a lower AAV (2/4.5). Will be interesting to see how their defense/framing compares.

 

Framing doesn't like Suzuki, but I've certainly never seen anything in his games that suggests he's poor at it, but I also don't trust metrics on framing much at this time based on eye test vs. stats so far, similar to when zone rating and such first came out.

 

Suzuki has been hurt the last few years, so I wouldn't equate his expected offense to the production he's put forth the last two seasons, but I also wouldn't expect .290/.340 from him either.

[Marta Shearing]

They're just signing Suzuki to lure Tanaka!

[minn55441]

Why? Willihammer, hicks, parmelee, arcia, pressly, and most likely ploufe will be all given time in the field. I agree there not the greatest, But I think TR is content for the time being with some good prospects coming up in 2015.

 

I don't think we will see parmelee or Ploufe in the outfield in 2014. Parmelee is a fist baseman and he is now a backup to Joe and will probably start the year in Rochester. That leaves 4 question marks for the remaining 3 spots.

 

Hicks--I like Hicks, I think he will show a lot of improvement over his rookie year. He will need to prove himself and is far from a sure thing.

 

Arcia-- I like Arcia, I think he will show a lot of improvement over his rookie year. I think he will hit in the majors, but not sure he will establish himself as an everyday player this year.

 

Presley is a fourth outfielder. A younger version of Repko. He is a good defensive replacement and spot starter, but we shouldn't put him out there for even 40 starts in 2014.

 

Masty, I feel that same way about Darin Mastroianni. A good 4th outfielder, but he is getting older and we can't carry both hiim and Presley on the roster.

 

Willingham-- I hope he will return to his 2012 form but I'm not counting on it. It really seemed like that was his career year. Even with that fantastic year at the plate, he was a defensive liability. He should get about half his starts as a DH and the other half as a left fielder.

 

Kubel is also in the mix, but again he should rotate DH and outfield responsibilities.

 

I guess the recap of my thoughts is that not all of these guys are going to make it. I think we are set in the infield, but we still have too many questions in the outfield. We need another good all around outfielder that can play center if Hicks and Presley don't blossom into an everyday player.

[daveha]

Don't be concerned by how few base runners he threw out last year. I live in the DC Metropolitan area and saw a number of games, heard many more. Any fan or any announcer will tell you the Nats' pitchers were horrible at holding runners close to the bag.

[minn55441]

They're just signing Suzuki to lure Tanaka!

 

Ok, but Suzuki is from Hawaii. Not sure he will be much good at recruiting.