43.5 Checking the Locks: Catcher

[crobillard]

Checking the locks is back. A few changes this season and I'm excited to dive in. Coming off a Landis appearance repeat and loss to Louisville, I'm hoping for a better result this season.

This is a series where I will evaluate the options in each position leading into Spring Training. This is the first of eleven parts. I will be taking a look into the catcher position in this post.

Sure fire locks: Rainer Scheffer, David Katzenbogen
Trying to get in the door: Leon Romo, Juan Colon

Last season finally saw the departure of Eric Fabre to Montreal and we received Rainer Scheffer in the deal. Scheffer is an exciting young talent with 8/8/6/6/7 potentials that still needs a couple point before fully reaching them. The major issue for Montreal is that he was constantly injured for them, so they scaled Scheffer's role back to mitigate his injuries.

Luckily for Edmonton, I have a couple backups that I would feel good about rolling with. Katzenbogen took over catcher in relief of Fabre last season when he was injured. The 14 rated defensive catcher was outstanding in what he did best, throwing out 41.4% of runners trying to steal.He only had one error on the year too. It's arguable that his best contributions could be helping the pitching staff too. This comes at the cost of offense where Katzenbogen is atrocious with a .466 OPS. He can hit at times, but it's not nearly often enough for an every day job. In a special role, Katzenbogen can flourish.

That lack of offense is what made me bring in Scheffer though. Scheffer wasn't bad, but I certainly will expect more from him this season. He played 68 of his 90 games last season in Edmonton and for the year he hit .284/.361/.414 with a 1.4 WAR. I had some concern about his defense too, so it's worth noting he only threw out 24.0% of runners last season, that's 15% in Montreal and 31.3% in Edmonton, so maybe he's learned a few tricks from his backup veteran.

Romo and Colon round out the group. Romo saw a lot of time on the active roster last season with Fabre out and I kept him up as a third catcher as he was hitting pretty well for a #3 .255/.291/.333 in 141 at bats. Certainly not outstanding, but I thought it was good enough to warrant a spot given Scheffer's clumsiness. Colon is the 23 year old prospect joining the group this season. He's been great at the plate when given an opportunity in AAA, batting .275/.382/.443 in 386 at bats for a 3.3 WAR for Winnipeg. He's not bad defensively either. If I had to start Colon, he wouldn't be a bad option and he was likely the option I would roll with long term if Fabre had to go and I didn't have another replacement.