Seattle Mariners NRI : Catchers

Seattle Mariners Non-Roster Invites : Catchers

Last year, the Mariners threw a bunch of players at the wall to see who would stick and it gave us David Aardsma along with some depth. This year, they’ll try the same thing again. However, they will have less roster spots open and I wouldn’t expect as much from these guys.

As with every spring training you’re going to have your glut of catchers to help out with catching all the pitchers that show up. With that said, let’s check out the current NRI catchers and their chances of sticking with the organization.

#41 – Eliezer Alfonzo (RHB) HT : 5-11 WT : 220 DOB : 02/07/79

Alfonzo’s best, and really only skill, is his power. That comes with the trade off of rarely getting on base. Alfonzo has a career .270 OBP in 489 PA spread across a four year period. Basically, you’re getting the same skill set as Jose Lopez, which isn’t that bad if he could repeat 2006 however unlikely that is. But you want to know about his defense, right? Well, from the numbers he’s put up he looks pretty average. He has a career 28 CS% and was the anti-Josh Bard last year in SD putting up a 30% rate, although that came in 24 SBA.

I do think he’s a decent backup catcher and if Rob Johnson can’t make the opening day roster there is a chance he sticks, at least for a little while. However, I wouldn’t expect to see him wearing the Mariners jersey any time soon. Of the catchers on the list he’s the most likely to stick at AAA with Adam Moore.

#26 – Josh Bard (SHB) HT : 6-3 WT : 225 DOB : 03/30/78

The cream of the crop of NRI catchers, so to speak. I don’t think it’s any secret that Bard is the favorite to break camp with the Mariners and act as the backup catcher to Rob Johnson until Adam Moore gets some more time at AAA. Josh Bard reminds me a lot of Alfonzo except he’s a switch hitter and probably does a better job at getting on base, although it’s hard to tell from his numbers. Almost everywhere I read says he’s patient, and I’ll take there words for it, but just looking at the numbers it’s hard to get a read. He does have a career .326 OBP, but when you start to look at the numbers it’s harder to make out. In 5 years he’s run an OBP south of .300, although in all but one of those years he had very few PA. In his two best years he reached 249 & 389 PA and put up OBP of .404 & .364. Really, I have no idea what type of OBP this guy is going to put up, he’s all over the map. If I had to guess I’d say around ~.300.

Defensively Josh Bard is probably easier to get a read on, right? Nope. Bard has a career CS% of 20. That’s bad…however, it comes with a silver lining. In every year outside of SD his CS% was at least 27. Lookout Landing already wrote a piece about it here so I won’t go in to detail too much, but he looks like an average/sligthly above average defensive catcher.

Bard looks like easily the best catcher of this group and should break camp with the Mariners unless Adam Moore looks really good in ST and Rob Johnson is ready to go, but that seems doubtful. Expect to see Josh Bard at least once a week to begin the year.

#72 Steve Baron (RHB) HT : 6-0 WT : 195 DOB : 12/07/90

If you’re wondering why this name sounds familiar it’s because Steve Baron was our supplemental round draft pick in this last years draft. Let me just say that Steve Baron will NOT make the team out of spring training. The only reason he’s here is to help catch and probably get some instructional help. Last year in the rookie league he put up a .179/.241/.292 slash line and by every report I’ve seen on him he needs a complete overhaul on his swing.

#74 Luis Oliveros (RHB) HT : 6-1 WT : 205 DOB : 06/18/83

He’ll be 26 coming in to next year and has spent his entire minor league career with the Mariners. There is a non-zero chance that he makes the team, but a lot would have to happen to everyone in front of him that he’s not even worth talking about. Last year between AA and AAA he ran a .276/.329/.344 slash line which actually isn’t that bad, but a lot of that success came in AA where he was spending his 5th year split between A+/AA.

Don’t expect to see him unless something catastrophic happens to the catchers ahead of him on the depth chart.

#48 Guillermo Quiroz (RHB) HT : 6-1 WT : 215 DOB : 11/29/81

For those that remember, Quiroz actually did get 15 PA for the Mariners last year and put up a .571 OPS. Anyways, judging by his fielding and offensive numbers, he’s an emergency catcher if he wants to stick in AA assuming Alfonzo stays on with the organization in AAA.

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