San Francisco Giants: Hundley or Someone Else as Backup Catcher?
The San Francisco Giants will need someone to serve as backup catcher in 2019, and there are multiple familiar faces on the market.
The catcher position is the most important on the baseball field, and it will be very important for the Giants to fill out the catching depth chart this offseason. Buster Posey is coming off hip surgery this past August, and though he’s still expected to be ready for Opening Day in 2019, the team will still need someone capable to back him up.
The only other catcher on the Giants roster is Aramis Garcia. The 25-year-old rookie is probably ready with the glove, but he still needs some time to work with the bat. He only played 10 games in AAA Sacramento before he got the call to the big leagues, and he didn’t catch much once he did come up. Instead, he spent most of his time at first base in place of the injured Brandon Belt.
Putting Garcia on the big league roster to open the season would be pretty risky, and also likely detrimental to Garcia’s development. He should start next year back in Sacramento, and the Giants should bring in a more experienced catcher to back up Posey.
The most obvious option would be to bring Nick Hundley back for a third season in San Francisco. The biggest advantage for Hundley is his familiarity with the pitching staff. He’s started 135 games in his first two season with the Giants, and has caught everyone currently on the roster. He’s also been durable, not having landed on the disabled list in the last two years, and is obviously popular with his teammates, winning the Willie Mac Award in 2017.
Hundley has some flaws, though, most notably on defense. Compared to Posey, Hundley provides a steep drop behind the plate, even with Posey at far less than 100% last year. Hundley’s framing ability is a far cry from that of Posey, and teams ran all over Hundley last year. He threw out just 21% of base-stealers last year, well below the league average of 28%, and he threw out just one of 18 attempted thieves after taking over everyday catching duties on August 25th.
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As far as backup catchers go, bringing Hundley back for a third season wouldn’t be the worst idea. But if the Giants decide to go in a different direction, two catchers from new head of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi’s past could be brought in. Stephen Vogt and A.J. Ellis are a pair of catchers that have played for teams under Zaidi’s watch in the past, and both are available this offseason.
Vogt played for the Oakland Athletics in 2013 and 2014, when Zaidi was the team’s assistant general manager. Signing Vogt would come with its own big risks, though. He missed all of the 2018 season because of shoulder surgery, and he was outrighted from the Milwaukee Brewers’ 40-man roster earlier this month. If his continued rehab goes well and he’s ready to play again in 2019, he could provide a strong offensive backup to Posey.
Ellis spent the majority of his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where Zaidi spent the last four seasons as general manager. Ellis was there during Zaidi’s first two seasons in 2015 and 2016. Known as a glove-first catcher, Ellis spent a lot of his time as Clayton Kershaw’s personal caddy. Kershaw made 118 starts with Ellis behind the plate, his most with a catcher.
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The Giants will probably need to bring someone in to back Posey up again in 2019, and there are plenty of good targets on the market.