Very slowly the Boston Red Sox are starting to make good decisions in this off-season that up until now has been nothing short of a nightmare which isn't nearly good enough considering how things ended in September.
Today, the team reached a one-year agreement with free agent catcher Kelly Shoppach, formerly of the Tampa Bay Rays and once upon a time a 2001 2nd round draft pick by the Red Sox.
I'm psyched about this move for two simple reasons: 1) it means that Jason Varitek's reign is over at Fenway. 2) It makes one of Boston's AL East rivals worse (in a not so obvious way). He'll make a base salary of $1.35 million in 2012 plus performance bonuses.
Coming out of Baylor University, Shoppach was mostly (9 games in 2005 with the Red Sox) in the minors until 2006 before he was part of a seven-player trade to Cleveland that netted Coco Crisp for Boston.
He's never been known as an offensive catcher although he had a nice season in 2008 with the Indians: 21 home runs, 55 RBIs, .261 batting average, .348 OBP and .517 slugging percentage. For his career, he's hit .224 with a .315 OBP and .417 slugging percentage. He's also coming off a brutal 2011 with the Rays: in 87 games, he had 11 home runs, 22 RBIs and hit .176 with .268 OBP and .339 slugging percentage.
So why am I excited to get this guy that can't hit? It's all because of his defensive prowess, something the Red Sox have lacked in recent years with their catchers. Shoppach led the American League in 2011 by throwing out 41% of base-runners.
I respect Varitek for all he did in the past for the Red Sox, 2004, 2007, blah blah blah (most years, games and homers in team history for a catcher) but it's a joke how long him and Tim Wakefield have basically held the team hostage. They haven't been good players for years but for the Pink Hat fan value, they've been kept around past their welcome like a washed up mall Santa (see the Christmas theme I used there?). Like Mike Felger says, the Red Sox had to get over their case of sacred cowism.
It also means that while Jarrod Saltalamacchia will be the starter for the near future, this gives promising Ryan Lavarnway time to work on his game in Pawtucket. No doubt, he'll be called up at times since catchers always get banged up and miss time during the excruciating 162 game regular season.
Since Salty struggles so much against lefties (.603 OPS) and Shoppach excels (.909 career OPS against lefties, fourth-highest in MLB), it makes perfect sense that they'll be a nice platoon combination for new manager Bobby Valentine.
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