Find Me a Home: Matt Weiters
Pitchers and cathers have already been in camp for a week now, and one of the bigger names in the catching department is still unemployed. We wrote about Jason Hammel going to the Royals and voila, just days later he signed with the Royals. Let's look at Weiters and see if we can't find him a home before spring games get underway this weekend.
Weiters is 30 years old with a career slash of .256/.318/.421 with averages of 21 homers and 80 RBIs per 162 games. In 2016, working his way back from Tommy John, the Orioles were deliberate in not overworking him the first half of the season, but by the end of the year he proved he could work multiple games in a row with no setbacks. Entering 2017, it seems all systems are go for Weiters' health after slashing .243/.302/.409 with 17 HRs and 66 RBIs last year. Even with the down year, I would argue that he is still a top-10 catcher. Let's look at the projected starters at the position this year and see what team needs Weiters.
These first 8 guys are entrenched as the guys for their team, and I would expect all of the All-Star catchers for 2017 will come from this group.
Marlins: Realmuto
Cardinals: Molina
Giants: Posey
Yankees: Sanchez
Blue Jays: Martin
Royals: Perez
Astros: McCann
Rangers: Lucroy
These teams don't need Weiters. Moving on...
This next list are teams that will use 2017 to cage young backstops this year. Right now Weiters is probably better than all of these guys, but their respective clubs are going to use 2017 to gauge their potential. Weiters would improve most, if not all of these catching situations for 2017, but business and baseball sense tells us to stick with the young guys and pass on Weiters.
Phillies: Alfaro
Brewers: Susac
Padres: Hedges
Rockies: Wolters/Murphy
Red Sox: Vazquez/Swihart
White Sox: Narvarez
Mariners: Zunino
Next are some teams that have invested in veterans over the last few years. Weiters does offer upside over most of these guys as well, but maybe the teams here value defense or simply have invested resources in other areas of their roster and upgrading behind the dish isn't a huge priority.
Mets: d'Arnaud
Pirates: Cervelli
Orioles: Castillo
Indians: Gomes
Tigers: Avila/McCann, J
Twins: Castro
All of these teams are hitting the end of their budget so even though Weiters does present improvement, financially speaking they are passing.
The Reds and Rays will be entering the season with catcher's that have injury concerns. The plan for both team is to wait and see.
Reds: Mesaraco
Rays: Ramos
That leaves us with 5 teams that I think are logical landing spots for Mr. Weiters' services. Two of those are the Braves (Flowers and Suzuki) and the Diamondbacks (Hermann and Ianetta) who have added depth at the position over the offseason but lack a clear go to guy for 2017. In the long run, both teams would love to have Weiters on the cheap, real cheap, but both aren't serious contenders to land him.
The LA Angels have added some nice complemintary pieces all over their roster with catching (Maldanado) being their biggest positional concern. They too are stretched financially, and even though adding Weiters makes their defense and offense complete, I feel saving financial resources for pitching upgrades is a better use of the resources in 2017 and beyond.
The two clubs that should be the biggest contenders in the Weiters' market are the Nationals and A's. For being a clear favorite to win their division, and one of the few teams that might be able to contend with the Cubs in the National League, the Nationals still have two glaring weaknesses: catcher and closer. This offseason has seen the Nationals miss out on some big free agent targets. I am surprised that the Nationals haven't already swooped in and grabbed Weiters. Maybe they know something about Norris that the rest of the world doesn't. But sense they haven't signed him up to this point in the offseason, I'm guessing they just aren't that interested.
As for the A's, they currently stand to platoon Phegley and Vogt behind the dish. Both come with question marks and are inferior overall choices to Matt Weiters. Adding Weiters would allow Vogt to see increased time at DH where he would be a nice platoon bat, with say Healy or Canha, and allow Weiters to be the everyday catcher with Phegley granting him days off. This seems like the perfect Billy Beane and Co. opportunistic signing of a veteran to add to their roster. (Remember Cespedes, or to a lesser extent Butler.) I could see a 2 year deal for roughly an AAV of $10 million plus good incentives getting the job done. If Weiters has a good year alongside Vogt, Davis, Plouffe and the young pitching clicks (and stays healthy), just maybe the A's can sneak in to the AL West playoff picture, and if not, being able to trade Weiters while he is attached to a short term deal would be a great way for Oakland to land some prospects come summer of 2017.
All said I see Weiters signing with Oakland on a 2 year $22 million deal with good incentives attached.