Orioles Agree to Deal With Severino

[MCO'sFan]

40 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Until Rutschman is ready, there is very limited depth at catcher.   At DH there are multiple possibilities from Stewart and rotating the outfielders (Santander, Mountcastle,  Hays), and Mancini, into the spot with Mullins getting more OF time.  Also the potential of Diaz coming up.  That's why Severino gets the 1.8 and Nunez doesn't.  Simple.

I have no issue with the DH being rotated through. My issue is that Severino for 1.8M is not a good decision either from a baseball sense or a $ one. He is inconsistent offensively and defensively. You never know what you are going to get on any given day. This year should be mainly about establishing the young pichers which is primarily how the Os will be successful in the rebuild. You can get a really good defensive catcher for 1.8 and they would actually help the pitchers and not hurt them. While overall Severino's defense may be average but when he's bad... he's extremely bad. That's not a good way to support the young pitchers.  My point regards to Nunez is that the Severino decision seems inconsistent with it. 

[scOtt]

8 hours ago, wildcard said:

MLBTR was projecting 1.4 but the Orioles spent more than that. Guess the O's feel he is the bridge to  AR.

I was checking to post that number. He honestly had a bad year last year, behind the plate and at the plate. But he is the best "veteran" catcher we have at the moment. I mean, do you want Sisco/Wynns all year? Some scrapheap FA/Sisco? Pedro works for now so... meh.

[scOtt]

8 hours ago, owknows said:

Hard to argue with this move.

 

 

8 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

You are new around these parts. 

 

8 hours ago, owknows said:

That got a belly laugh

It's what we do around here in the offseason!

[Number5]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Not trying to beat the Nunez drum too much here.

You just made me spill my coffee.

[HowAboutThat]

2 hours ago, Sports Guy said:

 

What this really tells me is that they have no confidence in Sisco.  They either don’t think he will hit enough, the defense isn’t good enough or both and they aren’t willing to give him a half a season (or however long it takes to get Adley up here) to find out.

Sisco’s problems are obvious.

[Sports Guy]

5 minutes ago, Philip said:

Sisco’s problems are obvious.

Sure but that doesn’t mean you don’t play him everyday to make sure the light bulb doesn’t turn on.  He would hardly be the first player to take some time to get going and given how they have handled him and given him inconsistent at bats, it’s not surprising he has struggled.

They don’t care about winning anyway, so play the young guy and see if he start to hit like he did for his pro career.

[HowAboutThat]

1 minute ago, Sports Guy said:

Sure but that doesn’t mean you don’t play him everyday to make sure the light bulb doesn’t turn on.  He would hardly be the first player to take some time to get going and given how they have handled him and given him inconsistent at bats, it’s not surprising he has struggled.

They don’t care about winning anyway, so play the young guy and see if he start to hit like he did for his pro career.

I don’t disagree with that at all, the reason I don’t understand this decision is because as has been mentioned you could get a better catcher than Severino for less money, but mainly, on defense, which is really what we need from catcher at the moment, neither of our catchers is worthwhile. Neither of them calls a good game neither of them frames very well, neither has what it needs to help the pitching. On offense, they each have major issues. I Personally would’ve gotten rid of Sisco long time ago, but I understand why he’s still here. But then why keep Severino? It doesn’t seem to make sense.

The main thing is to help the pitching and neither of them does that.

[Sports Guy]

16 minutes ago, Philip said:

I don’t disagree with that at all, the reason I don’t understand this decision is because as has been mentioned you could get a better catcher than Severino for less money, but mainly, on defense, which is really what we need from catcher at the moment, neither of our catchers is worthwhile. Neither of them calls a good game neither of them frames very well, neither has what it needs to help the pitching. On offense, they each have major issues. I Personally would’ve gotten rid of Sisco long time ago, but I understand why he’s still here. But then why keep Severino? It doesn’t seem to make sense.

The main thing is to help the pitching and neither of them does that.

Well, the pitching did improve in 2020, albeit in a much smaller sample size than normal.  I think some of that stuff is overblown for the C position and these guys could help the pitchers by hitting better than a lot of C and contributing to scoring runs.

They are all a stop gap for Adley anyway.

[HowAboutThat]

7 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

 

They are all a stop gap for Adley anyway.

Yes but the backup C needs to be outstanding on defense(Catchers who offer good offense are starters.)But neither of our current guys is a qualified backup. If AR were here now, he would still need a better backup then the two we have.

[Sports Guy]

Just now, Philip said:

Yes but the backup C needs to be outstanding on defense(Catchers who offer good offense are starters.)But neither of our current guys is a qualified backup. If AR were here now, he would still need a better backup then the two we have.

I don’t think the backup NEEDS to be anything.  Why does the backup have to be outstanding on defense?  Is that in the rule books or something?

[Tony-OH]

17 hours ago, SteveA said:

Pedro is really bad at blocking pitches

When he gets lazy, yes. The biggest problem with Severino is not that he's doesn't block balls well, it's that he gets lazy at times behind the plate, typically in games that are not close.

He loses focus at times and can look absolutely awful, which sticks in people minds more than the nice blocks or throws he's made to help the team. 

I also believe Severino is a decent game caller. I can remember yelling at the TV over Wieters' ridiculous and easy to follow pattern of calling pitches and locations, but Severino actually calls a decent game in my opinion. 

Now, he does not receive great and his framing has always been negative runs in getting extra strikes but he sets a much better target than Sisco who always drops his glove when the pitcher begins his windup and never fully resets in the location. We all know he throws effectively so that's a plus.

Offensively, he took a step forward this year and his xwOBA (.326) was in the 62 percentile of MLB batters even though his wOBA .307 was below the MLB AVG (.317) suggesting he was a bit unlucky last year.

Overall, I think Severino is a solid bridge option until Rutschman is ready to take over then he settle in nicely as a back up. Once AR arrives though his price tag will need to come down so if Rutschman does take over this year, this is probably Severino's last year as an Oriole unless he can be resigned for a backup catcher rate.

[Sports Guy]

28 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

There is offensive upside with Severino.  He also has the potential to attain some trade value, however little.  Wynns offers very liitle.  You don't like Mullins and Stewart.  We get it.  However, replacing Nunez's AB's with Stewarts or Mullins plus Mullins ripple upgrade on defense means you probably lose very little.  You don't have to agree but this is probably Elias' reasoning and it makes sense.

No, I’m actually fine with Stewart.  I would like to see him get at bats.  That happens whether Nunez is here or not though.
 

And again, his (along with basically everyone else involved in this discussion) injury history is poor.  

[Sports Guy]

3 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Stewart does not get AB's whether Nunez is here or not.  That's ridiculous.  Nunez would be the full time DH.  The outfield would be Mountcastle, Hays, Santander,  with Mancini at 1B.  Stewart would be getting scrub AB's assuming he even made the team which would be less likely with Nunez here.

Stewart can still play 3-4 days a week.

Between injuries, days off, sharing time with Nunez, etc....he gets his at bats.  He won’t get 500+ at bats but somewhere between 300-400?  Sure.

Im guessing that Mancini isn’t going to be an everyday guy right off the bat.  He will get a day or 2 off a week early on.  

[NCRaven]

A good thing about Mancini is that, IIRC, he hits well as a DH.  So, if he does need to be eased into action, which would not surprise me, he can be productive at DH.  As noted by others, many players just don't hit as well at DH.

[Sports Guy]

12 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Mancini will play everyday.  He's either ready to play or he's not.  Why do we assume he needs rest because he would have had chemo 9 months prior?

Unless there is injury,  Stewart would be looking at 1 start per week.  If everyone was healthy he probably wouldn't even make sense as a reserve. He'd be getting everyday AB's in Norfolk as an insurance policy.

Ehh, I could see them easing Mancini in some, again just to start.  They may not but wouldn’t surprise me.

I would also be fine with DJ being in the minors to start the year but I disagree that the at bats wouldn’t be there for him.  It’s pretty simple to figure that out.  And yes, injuries are all but guaranteed to occur with the players we are talking about.