Early last week, Braves general manager John Coppolella responded to an emailed question by writing: "We're searching for catching every day." By week's end, we were reminded why. The Braves lost their first two games after the All-Star break on nights that saw them deliver eight wild pitches (with a passed ball interspersed) and Saturday's winning run arrive via a bounced Erick Aybar throw that A.J. Pierzynski, yet again, couldn't handle.
Which, you’ll recall, is how this forlorn season began: Aybar being awful, Pierzynski being awful, too. Difference is, the Braves have a shortstop replacement en route. For Pierzynski, there’s nada.
We stipulate that Pierzynski was never viewed as anything more than a stopgap in case Christian Bethancourt didn't pan out, about which more later. The Braves got an acceptable season from the retread in 2015 (1.6 WAR value); they've gotten an abomination (minus-1.8 WAR) this time. When Tyler Flowers was lost for a month to a broken hand, it became A.J. or bust. Bust it is.
The Braves’ lack of a real catcher isn’t just a footnote in this tankapalooza. Pierzynski is 39 and won’t be here next season. Flowers is no more than a backup. Beyond that lies nothing. The Braves took Brett Cumberland with the 76th pick of the June draft, but he’s 21 and hitting .189 in rookie ball, and he’s regarded as a better hitter than receiver. If you’re basing your future on young arms, you cannot give them a substandard defender — a Pierzynski — as battery mate. You must find a handler of pitchers.
Question is, where? As noted, the Braves keep looking. Last year they made a weekly overture to then-Milwaukee GM Doug Melvin. They'd have loved to include Bethancourt, on whom they'd soured, in a package for the Brewers' Jonathan Lucroy, but Melvin didn't budge. Lucroy has had a concussion-induced down season and Bethancourt was sent to San Diego in a minor December deal. (He has done a bit better there than here.)
Coppolella again: “The answer to that question (of where the Braves might find a catcher) is predicated more on other teams’ willingness or lack thereof to move catching. It’s more likely during the offseason, but we will definitely try at the trade deadline.” That in mind, we assess options.
Lucroy: He has again been excellent (2.3 WAR) this season. He's owed $5.25 million next year, which is nothing. (The Braves are paying Pierzynski $3 million.) The catch, pun intended, is that Lucroy will become a free agent after next season, meaning there's no guarantee he'd be here much longer than J.D. Drew.
The Brewers are where the Braves were when Coppolella and John Hart took over: They need to turn older into younger. For Lucroy, who's 30, they'd want young arms, and not Tier 2 prospects. They'd want Tier 1: Sean Newcomb and/or Kolby Allard and/or Mike Soroka. But should the Braves, having moved heaven and earth to amass such pitching, trade high-reward assets so soon into their rebuilding? Should they be on the other end of the sort of trade — example: Dansby Swanson et alia for Shelby Miller — they've been trying to make?
Brian McCann: He's still better than anything the Braves have. But the case against bringing back B-Mac is the same as for letting him leave as a free agent after the 2013 season: He's due to make a ton of money without ever being the McCann of 2010.
He has been decent (5.8 WAR over 2 1/2 seasons) as a Yankee. That his numbers aren't as good as in his Braves' heyday is no surprise. He's a 32-year-old catcher. He's under contract for $17 million next season and in 2018, with a $15 million vesting option for 2019. (He might help move a few tickets at SunTrust Park. But that many?) And if the Yankees become deadline sellers for the first time since deadline selling became a thing, they won't be interested in Nick Markakis or some other 30-something. They'll want, duh, young pitching.
Wilson Ramos: He's having a breakout season — OPS+ of 136, with 100 being league-average — at a bad time if you're the Braves. He's 28. He can become a free agent in November. He's a key reason Washington leads the National League East by six games, and the #Natitude folks won't be inclined to let him leave without a financial fight. The upside with Ramos is that the Braves wouldn't be losing any prospects (though they'd probably lose a draft pick, which they value almost as highly). They'd just be throwing a wad of money at a guy who might have had his career year.
That said, they are moving to SunTrust, which Coppolella has said "will be a huge boon in terms of recruiting free agents and creating new revenue streams." They can't move boldly forward without a No. 1 catcher, and there aren't many of those. To find one, they'll have to spend big somehow, be it in prospects or dollars. For this Braves regime, spending big would be new.
