Pittsburgh Pirates: Five Trade Fits for Francisco Cervelli
The Pittsburgh Pirates have thrown Francisco Cervelli into a crowded catcher market. Where could they trade him?
This off-season has been very interesting in terms of the catcher market. Brian McCann, Jeff Mathis and Kurt Suzuki have already signed as free agents. Yasmani Grandal and Wilson Ramos are available as free agents. The Pittsburgh Pirates are throwing their catcher Francisco Cervelli out there too as a trade target.
An already-crowded catching market is growing even more saturated, as the Toronto Blue Jays have discussed trading Russell Martin and the Pittsburgh Pirates are open to dealing Francisco Cervelli, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Both are drawing interest from a number of teams.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) November 29, 2018
Cervelli is due $11.5 million next season, so he’s not crazy expensive for a team trying to upgrade their catching position. He’s also coming off his best offensive season since coming to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2015. Cervelli posted a .259 average with a career high .809 OPS. He also posted a career high 12 homers and drove in a career high 57 runs.
Defensively, he’s graded out as a below average framer per Baseball prospectus over the past two seasons per Baseball Prospectus. However, he’s able to shut down the running game, throwing out 39% of basestealers last season.
The Pittsburgh Pirates can cash Cervelli in and elevate Elias Diaz to the starting catcher position, after an impressive 82 games in his age 27 season. They are a budget conscious team, so having a starting catcher making the league minimum instead of $11 million and try and use Cervelli to plug another hole or two on the roster makes a lot of sense.
With no shortage of catchers in the marketplace, and teams looking to upgrade their catching position. Where could the Pittsburgh Pirates deal Cervelli to, in order to cash in this asset? Let’s take a look at five possible trade fits.
Los Angeles Dodgers
The Los Angeles Dodgers could use a catcher and they and the Pittsburgh Pirates have made trades, as recently as the David Freese one last August.
Yasmani Grandal was one of the best catchers during the regular season last year, even though his postseason certainly left something to be desired. He’s now a free agent, with a QO attached for any team other than the Dodgers to sign him.
The Dodgers currently have Austin Barnes as the starter, with Kyle Farmer and Rocky Gale as possible backups. Top prospect Keibert Ruiz was just added to the 40-man roster, but the 20 year old hasn’t reached AAA yet.
The Dodgers won’t have luxury tax penalties to deal with, so if they go over this year after adding Cervelli, they have his $11 million coming off the books after next year anyway. Maybe the combination of Cervelli and Barnes is enough at the position until Ruiz is ready to take over in 2020?
For the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Dodgers certainly have a prospect base they can look at to acquire some minor league depth for Cervelli. Maybe someone like Robinson Ortiz who’s 28th on the Dodgers top 30 prospects according to MLBpipeline.com could be enough to swing a deal?
Houston Astros
The team the Los Angeles Dodgers lost to in the 2017 World Series could use some help behind the plate as well. Cervelli could reunite with his former Pittsburgh Pirates teammate in Gerrit Cole.
The Astros acquired Martin Maldanado to help out behind the plate last season. He’s currently a free agent. Evan Gattis, who caught a little bit, is a free agent. Brian McCann went back to the Atlanta Braves earlier this week. The Astros current catchers on their 40 man roster are Max Stassi, Chris Hermann and Garrett Stubs, who is the club’s 15th ranked prospect per MLBpipeline.com.
Needless to say, the opening day catcher is probably not on the roster at this point.
From the Pittsburgh Pirates perspective, Cervelli goes to the other league, which might make trading him more appeasing. Like with the Dodgers, the clubs already have a trade history, which may make things easier in terms of making a deal.
The Astros system may not be what it once was, but they still have some pieces there that could help swing a deal. They are also a club that can handle the salary on their payroll.
New York Mets
Cervelli may have come up to the big leagues as a member of the New York Yankees, but the team in Queens could use an upgrade behind the plate and the Pittsburgh Pirates backstop may be a nice fit for them.
Travis d’Arnaud underwent Tommy John surgery in April and could even be non-tendered. The team also used Kevin Plawecki, Jose Lobaton, Tomas Nido and traded for Devin Mesoraco last season. For a squad that is built around their starting pitching, production on both sides of the ball is very important and that’s what they were lacking behind the plate last year. Plawecki hit .210 with a .685 OPS. Mesoraco hit .222 with a .715 OPS as a Met. Lobaton both hit under .200 with an OPS under .500
Cervelli would cost less than Grandal, plus the team wouldn’t be losing a pick or international money and would preserve the financial flexibility the club has as they have $0 committed to any member of their roster after the 2020 season.
Cervelli may not be the Mets long-term solution behind the plate, but for a team looking to contend in 2019, would make a lot of sense as an upgrade.
Los Angeles Angels
For a team that has the best player in the world in Mike Trout, they are going to have to fill a few holes in order to get him back into the playoffs. One of them is at catcher and making a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates for Cervelli would make a lot of sense for the club as they continue to remake their roster.
The current catchers for the Los Angeles Angels on the 40-man roster are Jose Briceno who hit .239 with a .684 OPS in 46 games last season. They also have Kevan Smith who they claimed off waivers from the Chicago White Sox back in October.
The Angels have about $144 million committed to their roster per Cot’s, so they have some flexibility underneath the tax. However, they have a ton of holes on their pitching staff that they are going to have to get fixed. Could they use Kole Calhoun as a chip for some pitching and someone’s who $10.5 million salary would be about a wash if they are to swing a deal for Cervelli.
The Los Angeles Angels have been that team that has been stuck in the middle for a long time. Upgrading parts of their roster like catcher can help go a long way, especially in a division where Seattle Mariners are tearing things down and the Oakland A’s need a revamped starting rotation.
Colorado Rockies
The last team on our list is the Colorado Rockies, who could use a little extra punch offensively and could swing a deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates for Cervelli. They are a team that has been in the Wild Card game the past two years and their best player is about to become a free agent. Now is as good a time as any to make a splash and go for it if they intend on keeping Nolan Arenado and making another run.
Chris Iannetta provides a little bit of punch offensively, but probably can’t be counted on as a starter at this point. Tony Wolters hit under .200 this past season and could be non-tendered. Tom Murphy has some pretty good AAA numbers, but hasn’t really gotten a chance quite yet.
The Rockies wouldn’t have to dip into their pretty deep farm system that much in order to get this done either, and it’s possible that Cervelli’s offense can be impacted in a big way by playing his home games at Coors Field
The catching market is going to be a big game of musical chairs throughout this off-season. I don’t think Cervelli gets moved until after Grandal and Ramos sign. Whoever of these five clubs don’t make a move for a catcher, could circle back for Cervelli. I would expect him to be wearing a different uniform in 2019 and it could easily be any one of these five.
Next. Archer has hernia surgery. dark
What do you think? Will the Pittsburgh Pirates make a deal with one of these five teams, or perhaps another team altogether? Comment below!