Angels Sign Catcher Rene Rivera

[totdprods]

5 minutes ago, Chuckster70 said:

Perez must be a shitty game caller and defensive backstop. 

Hope we can leverage his nice AAA for a package trade somewhere. 

Or, they know he isn't good enough to displace Maldonado and see him being worth more as trade bait than an oft-used back-up catcher, especially if his skills diminish with lessened playing time. Better off spending a couple mil on a vet who knows the drill and is practically Maldonado 2.0 and using Perez to fill another need.

I think there's a good chance we see the Angels and Maldonado settle before arbitration on a 2-yr deal, maybe around $5m annually. Maldonado was projected to earn $2.8m in arb, the same Rivera just signed for.

[disarcina]

Carlos Perez become trade bait - and he would be a good addition to some club.

Perez played well for the Halos but at one point during the second half of the 2016 season (I think it was) he sort of had some defensive lapses and Scioscia lost faith in him -- in fact, didn't he get sent down for most of the rest of the season......his playing time dipped big time and by then Maldonado stepped up to become, really, one of the better defensive catchers in all of MLB (IMO) -- I think Maldonado solid work behind the plate has been sort of an unheralded aspect of the Halos -- they're strong up the middle (A. Simmons/ Trout etc.) and Maldonado is part of that.

I think if you check the stats, Maldonado may have caught more games in 2017 than any other MLB catcher -- KC's Sal Perez and St. Louis' YADIER usually take that title - but KC's Perez was on the DL --- and Yadier was as well -- although I think YADIER still finished second in that category --YADIER should have gotten the gold glove over the Cincy catcher.

Maldonado is in the league of elite defensive catchers with Sal Perez and YADIER IMO.

Who over is Maldonado's back up is not going to get much playing time and a lot of time warming up pitchers in the bullpen.

 

[Chuck]

“He’s very good. Saw him with different teams, we’ve all seen him. He’s got a great reputation,” Maddon said. “Nice fella. Very good defensive player, great reputation. And he's got some pop, too. He hit a couple home runs. So that veteran kind of presence, the depth that it provides is all good stuff.”

[Chuck]

Eppler molding and shaping a great defensive minded team with veteran leadership.

I like it. 

[arch stanton]

Graterol will probably look back at 2017 as the greatest year of his life. On the ML roster all season with a soft workload and a great seat

[jsnpritchett]

Weird that they'd spend $2.8M on a backup catcher, regardless of how good he is defensively, calling a game, etc.

[Stradling]

Jake Arrieta signing inevitable

[tdawg87]

Dude named Rene. 

[Ohtaniland]

[Warfarin]

Solid move to acquire a veteran catcher.  The signing of Rivera will put our projected luxury tax AAV at ~176mil now.   

[Erstad Grit]

Maldy played way too much last year and ran out of gas. Hopefully this prevents that this year. 

[totdprods]

7 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

Dude named Rene. 

Approves.

[AngelsLakersFan]

strange move...

[Jeff Fletcher]

25 minutes ago, totdprods said:

I think there's a good chance we see the Angels and Maldonado settle before arbitration on a 2-yr deal, maybe around $5m annually. Maldonado was projected to earn $2.8m in arb, the same Rivera just signed for.

Maldonado is not giving up his first year of free agency for $2M.

[disarcina]

paying this new back up guy $2.8 million?

that means Maldonado's price to settle for just went up -- how about two years at $6.5 million - if he tested the market Maldonado might get more than that.

[Second Base]

Rene Rivera is surprisingly good. I watched him with the Padres and he's an exciting defensive option that can go on hot streaks with the bat.

Sucks to see Perez go. He was a solid defensive catcher that took his offensive game to a new level. The Angels undervalued him, and it'll be their loss.

But still, not thing wrong with Maldonado/Rivera duo behind the plate. That's a great combo. 

Our pitchers are lucky and Scioscia is in heaven.

[Jeff Fletcher]

5 minutes ago, disarcina said:

paying this new back up guy $2.8 million?

that means Maldonado's price to settle for just went up -- how about two years at $6.5 million - if he tested the market Maldonado might get more than that.

I am guessing Maldonado either signs for one year and about $3M, or something like 3 years and $15M. You have to ask, what kind of deal can he expect as a free agent next winter and go from there.

[DMVol]

Maldanado wore down last year....Rivera gives Scioscia a chance to rest him more....

[AngelsLakersFan]

I thought Maldonado played so much because Scioscia loved him... now it seems he just didn't care for Perez...

[Cosmo_Kramer]

3 minutes ago, Jeff Fletcher said:

I am guessing Maldonado either signs for one year and about $3M, or something like 3 years and $15M. You have to ask, what kind of deal can he expect as a free agent next winter and go from there.

I'd be happy with 3/15.

[Glen]

1 hour ago, Rico said:

Perez .352/.423/.502 at AAA.  What he do to piss Scioscia off?

He got a tattoo of Mike Napoli.

[Warfarin]

http://www.statcorner.com/CatcherReport.php

This shows that Rivera was roughly in the upper third in terms of pitch-framing on a per-game basis and an improvement in that regard over Graterol.  He'll certainly be a more viable backup than what we had last year, which means we can avoid running Maldonado into the ground.  This also means Perez is as good as gone, as he has no options left and we aren't going to be carrying three catchers.  They'll probably look to trade him.  The return will be marginal, but maybe a useful middle reliever of some kind.

I am also intrigued by the Rays catcher we signed.  He'll start off in AAA, but I have some hope he could be a sneaky good pickup for us and a future contributor.

[Second Base]

Rivera should be a solid backup until Taylor Ward is ready to assume that role.

[Troll Daddy]

Perez’s problem was that he couldn’t hit ML pitching  ... I’m sure he’ll get another chance elsewhere 

[Warfarin]

19 minutes ago, Scotty@AW said:

Rivera should be a solid backup until Taylor Ward is ready to assume that role.

We are building some decent depth now.  We have Maldonado and Rivera in the majors, with Graterol and Casali in AAA.  I envision Casali becoming the primary catcher in AAA, with a chance to be a contributor in the future.  Ward will start off in AA, with a good chance to be promoted to AAA as long as he continues to progress.