Gregg Zaun
From the Globe and Mail -
Gregg Zaun and Bengie Molina shared the catcher’s job last season, but both are free agents. The Blue Jays offered Zaun a two-year, $6-million package, but he turned it down and is said to be entertaining offers from the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees as a backup. The Cincinnati Reds, who have David Ross in line to be their catcher, have also expressed interest.
Zaun’s lifetime American League OWP is .482 – and since 2000, in the A.L. as well, his OWP has been .505 (in 1,663 PA).
That’s not Cooperstown material. But, it’s not the pits. Flaherty’s Yankees’ OWP was .263 – if you need a baseline.
Considering that the Yankees have no one in the organization now behind Posada, I’m on board with the chase for Zaun. He should be a good back-up catcher – maybe the best one for the Yankees in a long time.
I agree with you. It has been years since the Yankees have had a decent backup catcher. Within the scope of their overall payroll, the cost of Zaun would not be that bad. With Zaun, they could even move Posada to 1B on occasion. It could even be a way to solve the 1B problem — a rotation of Posada, Phillips, and Guiel or some other lefty 1B.
For 1B, I certainly want no part of Shea Hillenbrand. I wonder what it would take to acquire Chris Shelton from the Tigers. Apparently, the Yankees inquired about Wigginton, but the price was too high.
The cost will probably rise w/ the Red Sox in the bidding; but, if it stays reasonable, I’m for it. It will buy the Yanks time to trade for a young catcher to take over for Jorge in a couple of yr’s.
I would love for Zaun to be the backup catcher, but I don’t really see why he would backup for the Yanks or Sox. He was upset with the Jays when they hired Molina and he became a backup again. He feels — maybe rightly — that he’s good enough to start. Would money alone be enough of a motivator to bring him here?
I hope so. Because he would be by far the best hitting backup catcher we had in a while.
I’m not sure about him or Posada seeing time at first. Has either played there? Would either do it?
I think that Posada would do it. He’s done it before and he could handle it given his time in the minors at IF. Anyway, he’s a good citizen and realizes that it would save his legs some wear and tear. Maybe, he could play 115 games at C and 35 games at 1B with Phillips picking up the rest of the time at 1B against lefties. Looking around the league at various 1B, it seems like acquiring a lefty 1B would be easier than acquiring a right-handed hitting 1B. I’m not entirely against using Guiel, but I would check to see if Oakland was willing to move Dan Johnson. It would make sense for them, because Swisher is really best suited to be a 1B. Another guy that I would ask about would be Ben Broussard from Seattle.
This would be a cheap option for the Yankees. Signing Zaun would, in a sense, kill two birds with one stone, if they want to go with the internal options.
I’ve spent the best part of the last year in Toronto, and am really impressed with Zaun. In addition to being a good player, he was an analyst for Rogers’ broadcasts of the world series and came across as a very smart and analytical guy too. I’d love for the yanks to get him.
Canada gets its own World Series broadcast? You guys don’t have to listen to Buck and McCarver?
I guess I’m going to have to take a little mini-vacation up there during the World Series next year.
I spend a lot of time really watching catchers during ballgames. Sign him as quickly as possible. This will give the Yankees the best tandem they’ve had since Girardi left. No brainer.
As long as it’s a 1 or 2 year deal sure.
Would money alone be enough of a motivator to bring him here?
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Not only that, there’s the shot at the series that he never got in Toronto.
Not only that but the episode with Molina may have convinced him that he isn’t really gonna be a starter on a good team.