A Little Caveat

A little caveat to my Jeter argument from yesterday. I said that the Yankees could get by without offense from CF. That is true--but only as currently constructed. Sam Borden from the Yankees LoHud blog brings up a great point:

· The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that Jorge Posada is the absolute key to the season. If he gets hurt and has to DH, it throws everything off from Matsui as the DH to Jose Molina as an everyday player. Suddenly, the Yanks are down a big bat in their lineup and now that CF spot – which, at this point, is less productive – looms a little larger. Posada HAS to be healthy and catch most of the time for the Yankees’ plan to work.

Yeah...and that is a big if.

My feeling is that Molina should be catching at least a quarter of the time anyways. He is the best defensive catcher the Yankees have had in a long time and I feel like he's a bit better at handling a pitching staff (just watching him call a game this past season, he seems to have a more calming affect on the Yankees staff than Posada who can be a little bit more confrontational with his pitchers--most notably, Randy Johnson, who may have needed a little tough love).

But Molina is really not a good hitter...and that's putting in nicely. In 2007 with the Yankees, his line was a very deceiving .318/.333/.439, though, really, we should have been alarmed, anyways, with 2 walks in 29 games. Last year, in 100 games, and playing as the regular catcher at times, he regressed back to his norm: .216/.263/.313. Not to say in spare duty he'll go back to being a .318 hitter, but it's a better bet for the Yankees than relying on someone with a career OPS+ of 61 to be an everyday catcher.

So who would be a good replacement? There has been talk of the Yankees seeking a trade with the Diamondbacks for Miguel Montero. His numbers have not been impressive to date, but they have improved every year and he's a 25-year-old, lefty hitting catcher which could lead to a nice platoon with Molina if Posada has to miss some time with injury. The Yankees had talked about acquiring him to block him from going to Boston to replace Jason Varitek, though they should still consider that option now that the Red Sox are out of the running (maybe the price would be even less).

Although there's still a lot of good free agents in other positions, there is slim pickings at catcher. You have to choose from three guys who were named in the Mitchell Report (Johnny Estrada, Paul Lo Duca, and Ivan Rodriguez), one guy who is more known for his 70's-porn-star-style-hair than his catching (Sal Fasano), and Gary Bennett...not exactly an enticing group.

So let's pray for Posada's health. If not, let's just pray that Brett Gardner--a slow starter at every level, but a very, very good defensive player with exceptional speed--is able to hit close to his AAA numbers for last year: .296/.414/.422. If that's the case, we can deal without a few "Jorgie Juiced One"s from John Sterling.