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10 December 2010
Ok, I lied. The Yankees don’t NEED Russell Martin. But he would be a rather nice addition to the roster.
About a week ago, the Yankees were first reported to be interested in signing Russell Martin and this led to several levels of hell breaking lose. Many Yankee fans/commentators saw Russell Martin, who was recently non-tendered by the Dodgers, as an impediment to heir apparent, Jesus Montero. After Cashman made it clear Jorge Posada was done as an everyday catcher and that Montero would have a shot to win the job outright in spring training, excitement for the Jesus went off the charts. And rightly so I might add. Look at this projection from Bill James:
.285/.348/.519, 21 HRs, .376 wOBA
That's pretty damn exciting. I still think we should pump the breaks a bit though and here's why.
First off, I think for as exciting as Montero is we’re forgetting his age and experience. While he’s an extraordinary talent, he’s also just 21 and has one full season at AAA under his belt. We should also remember that it took him almost a half season to adjust fully to the level before he settled into his typical groove and destroyed the International league. Also while I expect good things from Montero this year, that projection above is ridiculous. That batting line would have made Montero the 5th best catcher (offensively) in baseball this year. While great things are certainly possible with Montero, he should still be afforded some adjustment period. Additionally, Montero will arrive in New York surrounded by an obscene amount of hype that will surely dwarf the Ike Davis brouhaha from last year. Dealing with the New York media Cluster f**k, adjusting to MLB pitching and further developing his defensive catching skills while learning how to handle the Yankee starters is a giant task, for any 21 year old.
This is why Russell Martin would be a great stop gap. Even if Montero doesn’t make the team out of spring training to delay his arbitration clock, Martin would be a good fit. Russell has two skills which no MLB ready Yankees catcher has in the same package: he takes walks and he’s a good defender.
Martin was never quite the same after two straight season of catching 150+ games. So while the power and batting average are far removed from the 2007 version of Russell Martin, the 27 year old still has plenty of value- at least compared to the alternative, Francisco Cervelli.
Look, I’ve been 8-year-old-on-Christmas-excited for Montero’s debut for a few years now. But the one thing I don’t want is for him to be rushed too quickly into what is going to be an overwhelming situation and burn out. We’ve been preaching patience with Montero here for a long time, so why stop now? We’ll see the big Jesus in pinstripes this year folks, I can almost promise you that. Let’s just be smart about this.
Can you swim buddy?! Hope so!
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