Catcher James McCann Acquired from Mets

[eddie83]

McKenna will not start much. Don’t know who last bench player will be. 
 

Leaves 11/9 starting spots. Adley, Gunnar, Mountcastle, Santander and Mullins all get if healthy 145 plus starts. The rest you have 6/4 spots. Stowers, Hays, Frazier, Mateo, Urias and McCann. So about 650 starts plus some of games not played by the top 5. With McKenna and 26th player getting time as well. If they carry someone who is capable of playing C that can also increase odds of using an Adley as a PH on off nights. 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, eddie83 said:

Who says they aren’t? Trying to rest guys and play matchups. 

McCann had a 55 OPS+ last season.  It is at 83 for his career.

Now I know folks love to crap on Mountcastle but I'm betting a tired Mountcastle (112 career OPS+ 105 last season) would outperform him at first.

You bat your best hitters early in the lineup because you want to maximize how often they have a chance to impact the game.

You don't give a McCann 30 games in the lineup when he isn't catching.

There is no reason a healthy starter on the young side of 30 should only be playing in 110-120 games a season. 

[CaptainRedbeard]

26 minutes ago, Frobby said:

This deal has some positives and negatives for me.

Positives:

- He’s capable of carrying a starter workload of Adley were to get hurt.

- xBA, xSLG, xWOBA suggest strong potential for an offensive bounce back.

- Was in 62nd percentile for framing last year.

- Lots of major league experience and can play the veteran/mentor role

Negatives:

- $2.5 mm/yr is pricey for a backup C

- Offense was terrible last year.  

- May resent being relegated to a backup role.

- Career framing numbers aren’t good.

- Jury still out on who the PTBNL will be.  Even though not someone at the “top of lists,” it still could be someone with some value.  

This could go either way but does have some minor upside.  


 

$2.5m for a backup catcher is only pricey in the sense that it’s a position that is often filled by league minimum players. It’s not pricey for James McCann, who projects do be a cut above that, despite his disaster last year. Zunino and Hedges just signed 1/6m and 1/5m deals and McCann is in the same class with them.

Is it an efficient use of resources to pay a little above league minimum for a backup C who projects to be a little above replacement level? In our case I think so, as we’re going to have Adley DHing often and we don’t have compelling internal options that McCann is bumping out.

It’s not a Frazier situation, where the contract is defensible as reasonable in terms of market value but nonsensical (without any other moves) in terms of blocking other prospects. Because of the depth of the organization right now there are only so many roster spots where we can actually improve the team with cheap FAs and backup C was definitely one of those most apparent instances.

[Sports Guy]

14 minutes ago, eddie83 said:

Ok. All adds up. 
 

Its evident to anyone paying attention outside of Adley, Gunnar, , Santander and Mullins they are trying to play guys 100-120 games a year. Even some of those top guys may have a handful of games shaved off. 

 

Still want to see who last bench guy is. 

It doesn’t add up at all. It’s stupid. 
 

There should be no plan, entering the season, that has him doing anything but catch. I have no issues with him as the back up C but not for 50 starts and certainly not playing elsewhere.

Now, if he bounces back and is hitting well and you steal some at bats for him at DH, that’s fine. But if you are planning on that, that means you aren’t likely signing another bat.

[jamalshw]

I think the best part of this trade is it pushes Nevin off the 40-man. I'm okay with McCann. I hope he can bounce back a bit offensively. He was absolutely terrible against LHP (all pitchers really) last year, but in his career he has a .777 OPS against southpaws and .635 OPS against righties. 

If he can get back even remotely close to those career numbers against LHP, this could be a good add. Adley struggled a bit against LHP so lining up his off days as much as possible against lefties could maximize both players. 

[LTO's]

He's not starting in 80 games next year. 

[LookinUp]

1 hour ago, eddie83 said:

Elias plan is coming into place. Trying to create a platoon type team.

Really, this is the bottom line.  His career OPS is .777 versus LHP and only .635 versus RHP.

Look at Tampa last year. They had 4 players play 120 games or more. (including 1 who played exactly 120) That is the model.

Even still, I worry this will be a "play everyone" type of team instead of a "play the best" type of team, even absent the platoon stuff.

 

[Jamal beat me to the OPS splits point.]

Edited December 22, 2022 by LookinUp

[ChosenOne21]

I'm sure if his hitting doesn't improve we'll barely see him, if at all, at DH and 1B.

I like the move. There's definite upside here as others have stated based on career history, xwOBA, etc. And he only costs us a million and some change over league minimum for the next two years.

The two years thing is pretty key as well. If Handley or whoever is looking good and McCann bounces back and starts hitting like he did in Chicago, we might get a decent prospect offer for him at the deadline.

At a minimum he's better than the Severions and Chirinoses of the world and we got him at below market rate

[Moose Milligan]

The comment about playing time is concerning a little bit. 

Others in this thread have said it, but it’s true. 80 games doesn’t mean 80 starts. 
 

So we’ll see. While Elias has had a terrible offseason so far, I don’t believe he’s stupid enough to keep Adley starting less than 120 games at catcher.

McCann should catch and that’s it unless he comes around with his hitting and can DH when Mountcastle goes into his terrible slump. 

[Jammer7]

13 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

It doesn’t add up at all. It’s stupid. 
 

There should be no plan, entering the season, that has him doing anything but catch. I have no issues with him as the back up C but not for 50 starts and certainly not playing elsewhere.

Now, if he bounces back and is hitting well and you steal some at bats for him at DH, that’s fine. But if you are planning on that, that means you aren’t likely signing another bat.

Well, he has played 9 games in his career, all with the Mets in the past two years, at 1B. So, there’s that. And to say he’ll DH, IDK. That’s a bit of a head scratcher really. Maybe a little to get some at bats to stay fresh somewhat, ok. A nine year career with a .676 OPS, not what I’d want to DH, ideally. If he can get back to around an .800 OPS like he did in Chicago, cool. But to expect him to do that at Camden Yards, yikes.

He looked to have turned some corners offensively in Chicago in 2019-2020, after a fairly unremarkable four years in Detroit. The past two with the Mets were his worst years. He reportedly had a broken hamate bone and an abdominal injury, oblique strain, in 2022. Two injuries that take a while to come back from. I can give a pass on 2022. But 2021 was below his career numbers. He did well in Chicago, so New York should not have bothered him with the whole “big city, bright lights” thing.

I remember him as a strong durable average receiver. I guess they see more there that they can unlock. I don’t love this move. It seems solid. 

[btdart20]

1 hour ago, Sports Guy said:

Wait a minute…WHAT!?!?!!

80 games?  WTF!?!?

If that’s the case, this goes from meh to what in the hell are they thinking?

Gotta think some of that is a sales pitch to get him to buy in.  But 30-40 games at C, 20-30 at DH, 10-20 at 1B.  I doubt he gets to 70.

[HakunaSakata]

Nice call on McCann being a possible target @Just Regular

[StottyByNature]

I like the move, presuming the player to be named is no one of value.  McCann was seen as a starting caliber catcher who has struggled staying healthy.  Hopefully moving him to a backup role mitigates that injury risk.  While I understand that his floor is the same as Chirinos, he is still a bounce-back candidate and could supply a little pop on what has otherwise been a hole on the roster.  Seems like a low-risk, decent-potential-reward type move.  

[eddie83]

1 hour ago, Can_of_corn said:

McCann had a 55 OPS+ last season.  It is at 83 for his career.

Now I know folks love to crap on Mountcastle but I'm betting a tired Mountcastle (112 career OPS+ 105 last season) would outperform him at first.

You bat your best hitters early in the lineup because you want to maximize how often they have a chance to impact the game.

You don't give a McCann 30 games in the lineup when he isn't catching.

There is no reason a healthy starter on the young side of 30 should only be playing in 110-120 games a season. 

I’m just throwing around possibilities. 
 

He isn’t taking at bats away from Mountcastle, come on. 

Edited December 22, 2022 by eddie83

[eddie83]

34 minutes ago, LTO's said:

He's not starting in 80 games next year. 

Of course he isn’t.