The marketplace for catcher Christian Vázquez is “heating up” and he’s making progress in direction of a deal, experiences Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Per Cotillo, it’s unclear if the Pink Sox are nonetheless concerned.
It seems that the dominos are falling within the catching market. The highest free agent, Willson Contreras, was signed by the Cardinals just a few days in the past. Earlier at this time, the highest commerce choice got here off the board when Sean Murphy was traded to Atlanta. Now evidently groups are rapidly turning to Vázquez, usually thought-about the second-best free agent this offseason behind Contreras.
Now 32, Vázquez has been the first backstop in Boston for many of the previous few years, although he was traded to the Astros on the deadline in the newest season. His bat has been up and down over his profession however his work behind the plate has been praised pretty constantly. From 2014 to the current, he has posted 51 Defensive Runs Saved, which locations him fifth amongst all backstops within the league. FanGraphs’ framing metric has given him a 60.5 in that very same timeframe, ok for sixth place.
Whereas Vázquez is certain to offer stable work with the glove, his manufacturing with the bat is much less sure. Over 2019 and 2020, he hit .278/.327/.472 for a wRC+ of 105. That gave the impression to be a pleasant breakout after just a few years of extra tepid work within the batter’s field. Sadly, he wasn’t capable of preserve it, dropping to a line of .265/.311/.374 over the previous two years for a wRC+ of 87.
Regardless, he nonetheless was the second catcher on MLBTR’s list of the highest 50 free brokers for this offseason, getting predicted for a three-year deal price $27MM. It was reported just a few days in the past that the Twins made him a proposal, whereas he’s additionally been related to the Diamondbacks, Guardians, Padres and Giants with loads of different golf equipment absolutely as effectively. For any golf equipment that miss out on Vázquez, the remaining free brokers would come with Omar Narváez, Roberto Perez and Austin Hedges, whereas the commerce market is now headlined by the Toronto of Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk and Gabriel Moreno.
