Vazquez: Sexiest in MLB

[Sandy Leon Trotsky]

Cora seems more than hesitant about giving Plawecki a significant amount of time behind the plate. If Bloom does bring back Vazquez- which I believe he will- it’s more likely they would look at adding Hernandez as the full time backup and look to deal Plawecki who would likely bring a good relief pitcher in return.

 

[JBJ_HOF]

Hernandez is borderline unplayable as a catcher.

 

[E5 Yaz]

Hernandez is borderline unplayable as a catcher.

Could you expand on this? Haven't read much about him

 

[amRadio]

He seems to be slightly old for AA but isn't he supposed to be very good defensively? I'm not really sure how to approach evaluating the defense of catchers I don't see play regularly because the stats seem so wonky for them in particular. He's slugging almost .500 in AA while being slightly less than a year older than the average AA player. I feel like there has to be some meat on the bone there? Maybe not an everyday regular... but at 23 - given the pro production so far - can we rule that out?

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

He seems to be slightly old for AA but isn't he supposed to be very good defensively? I'm not really sure how to approach evaluating the defense of catchers I don't see play regularly because the stats seem so wonky for them in particular. He's slugging almost .500 in AA while being slightly less than a year older than the average AA player. I feel like there has to be some meat on the bone there? Maybe not an everyday regular... but at 23 - given the pro production so far - can we rule that out?

Catchers generally develop slower/later than typical players, so I wouldn't put too much stock in his age relative to his league. He's not a lost cause by any means, but I don't think next year is the time to be looking for him to be a back-up at the big league level. 2023 though...that's the deadline for him.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

He seems to be slightly old for AA but isn't he supposed to be very good defensively? I'm not really sure how to approach evaluating the defense of catchers I don't see play regularly because the stats seem so wonky for them in particular. He's slugging almost .500 in AA while being slightly less than a year older than the average AA player. I feel like there has to be some meat on the bone there? Maybe not an everyday regular... but at 23 - given the pro production so far - can we rule that out?

He's very raw to be kind. He does have a good arm. I've seem him a handful of times in Portland and he's definitely a bat first catcher. His approach isn't the best either.

Factoring covid and everything else, he's really not all that old for AA this year.

 

[Cesar Crespo]

Catchers generally develop slower/later than typical players, so I wouldn't put too much stock in his age relative to his league. He's not a lost cause by any means, but I don't think next year is the time to be looking for him to be a back-up at the big league level. 2023 though...that's the deadline for him.

It's usually the bat that develops later though, isn't it? Bad defensive catchers tend to stay bad defensive catchers, at least after a certain age. Most players start to decline defensively in their mid 20s, I'm not sure how catcher defense trends. Sometimes, when they start to hit a lot in the minors, their defense gets "talked up" like Ryan Lavarnway, but they are still terrible catchers.

edit: Ronaldo is better than Lavarnway. As Sox prospects notes, a lot of Ronaldo's faults would go away with a robot ump.