“Catcher of the Future”
I’ve received some (mostly) good-natured ribbing for my contribution to the 2010 Mariners annual. I was commissioned to write about Adam Moore, and used the article to discuss the many failed young catchers Seattle has brought in since Dan Wilson became entrenched. My conclusion was the Moore was in a great position to stick where so many had failed because he was able to avoid many of the pitfalls of his predecessors.
Then he hit .195/.230/.283 over 218 plate appearances in his age 26 season while playing poor defense. To cap it all off with some irony, one of those failed young catchers was brought back to push Moore to a more limited role.
That being Miguel Olivo, who was a colossal failure in his first go-round with the Mariners.
Moore has hurt his chances with an awful first impression, but he still has time. 27 is a little old for a player trying to establish himself in the big leagues, but less so for a catcher. Olivo and Jason Varitek, two of the catchers discussed in the article that went on to find success elsewhere, finally found some footing in their age 27 seasons. The Mariners just gave up on those two too quickly. Moore still has time.
It would be great if he could take advantage of the opportunity created by Olivo’s injury. Maybe he recognizes this opportunity, maybe he doesn’t (“Everybody knows [Olivo is] the starting catcher,” Moore told Greg Johns over the weekend), but there is little doubt in my mind that Moore controls his own destiny at this point.
Olivo wasn’t necessarily brought in to replace Moore. Olivo was brought for the same reasons Colorado signed him last year: to push, teach and provide insurance behind a young catcher. Chris Iannetta wasn’t able to do what he needed to do so Olivo took most of the at bats.
Olivo has more security in Seattle given Moore’s profile versus Iannetta’s, but if Moore does what he was expected to do then Seattle would be smart to give him a bigger piece of the time share. Moore doesn’t need to start — catchers are thought to be able to learn more on the bench than players at other positions — but the more playing time the better. Olivo isn’t good enough nor expensive enough that he can’t get knocked down to taking 55-60% of the at bats, or less if Moore catches fire.
Moore blew his opportunity last season, but he still has the makings to become an above-average offensive catcher who is passable defensively. He has a reputation as a guy pitchers like throwing to, which helps. He just has to refine his game … a lot.
The best case scenario for Moore might be to show enough to earn a close-to-equal time share with Olivo by the end of the veteran’s two year contract before taking over full time at age 29. To me, that’s an acceptable progression for a non-Mauer/Posey-type catcher.
It’s time for him to earn it.
Or, maybe he’s the latest in a long list of failed backstops for the Mariners over the past 15 years.
Original Story:
http://www.proballnw.com/03-2011/40-m...
