Two years ago,
the White Sox signed catcher Welington Castillo, even though I thought they had
two pretty serviceable catchers in Omar Narvaez and Kevan Smith. Good thing Rick Hahn kept those two around in
2018, because Castillo got hit with an 80-game PEDs’ suspension. Good thing Hahn went out and got James McCann
last season because Castillo pretty much stunk.
Here’s where it
gets interesting. The Sox traded Narvaez
to the Mariners last year for closer Alex Colome. Narvaez must’ve liked Seattle, given how he
hit 22 homeruns to go with a .278 BA and .353 OBP. And the Brewers must’ve liked those numbers
because they just acquired Narvaez to take the place of Yasmani Grandal, now
with the Sox.
The knock on
Narvaez is his defense. He rated a -12.3
at fielding runs above average and a -20 runs saved. The horror.
He also had three passed balls to go with an admittedly deficient 18
percent caught-stealing rate. Pick the
numbers you want.
Personally, I
never would’ve gotten rid of Narvaez in the first place. Those 22 homers make me wonder why he wasn’t
trying to hit for power on the South Side.
If nothing else, it should be interesting to compare Chicago’s
ex-catcher with Milwaukee’s. All I ask
is that Omar hit against the Cubs.
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