Three Years for Cervelli

The pirates signed Francisco Cervelli to a three-year extension, and Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke reacts:

I will admit that Cervelli’s impending departure after this season was something that I’ve been silently dreading since no extension was announced this off-season. Elias Diaz is a solid enough catching prospect, but the Pirates have gotten tremendous value from their catchers these past four seasons, starting with Russell Martin and moving seamlessly to Cervelli, and it seemed to me that going with someone like Diaz while waiting for Reese McGuire would be one of those unnecessary small-market rolls of the dice. If you read Travis Sawchik’s Big Data Baseball last year, you know that the Pirates built that surprise 2013 Wild Card club from Russell Martin on outwards. Having a good catcher that expands the strike zone allows the Pirates to take risks on pitchers like Francisco Liriano, and Cervelli is every bit as strong as Martin behind the plate and nearly as good with his bat.

Cervelli posted a 3.8 WAR in 2015, and a 1.3 WAR in 2014. A three-year, $31 million contract indicates the Pirates believe his talent level is closer to 2014 than 2015, so there’s a lot of upside. On the other hand, Pirates starters aren’t doing that well this year, so maybe umpires are finally getting wise to pitch framing and calling the zone correctly.

I also wonder how the previous PED suspension figures in here. Do teams offer players less money if they have been caught in the past, with the idea, that the lower salary insulates the team against losing the player to an even longer suspension? It would be a great question for a GM.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/1V8hfNf