Omar to Mets

[markedman5]

 

[Brewcrew82]

Good spot for him. Though, Alvarez is going to overtake him pretty quickly, if not by opening day. 

Too bad his offense/power declined as much as it did with the Brewers, as his defensive improvement was impressive. 

[markedman5]

Cohen is paying him 8 million……with a 7 million player option for 2024

 

[Hopper]

Woah, these prices are completely out of hand.  Better them than us I guess.

[brooks_quichenick]

14 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

Cohen is paying him 8 million……with a 7 million player option for 2024

 

Good for Omar!

[DoubleSwitch]

They're buying him to reverse engineer how the brewers turned a bad defender into a pretty good one.

[phnxcrew]

What in the absolute crap? I thought he’d get a 1/3 million deal.  Not even close to worth this.  There really is no point in playing the free agency game for the vast majority of teams 

[DoubleSwitch]

people have wild expectations for catcher offense. There are only10 catchers in the world who can hit at any one time.

[Hopper]

3 minutes ago, DoubleSwitch said:

people have wild expectations for catcher offense. There are only10 catchers in the world who can hit at any one time.

and Omar isn't one of them.

[CheeseheadInQC]

To be fair, the projection system Fangraphs uses projects him to be better than Vazquez next season. This feels like too much, but with Vazquez getting the third year, it doesn’t surprise me. Not many catchers who have hit at some point and aren’t that old out there.

[Oxy]

30 minutes ago, CheeseheadInQC said:

To be fair, the projection system Fangraphs uses projects him to be better than Vazquez next season. This feels like too much, but with Vazquez getting the third year, it doesn’t surprise me. Not many catchers who have hit at some point and aren’t that old out there.

And somehow we got one (with 5! years control!)...plus another couple of bullpen arms...for Esteury Ruiz--likely a AAAA player. Strange times.

[sveumrules]

Truly an insane transformation for Omar...

2016-19: 1216 PA | 113 wRC+ | -10.0 DEF | 4.5 WAR
2020-22: 867 PA | 85 wRC+ | +33.3 DEF | 4.5 WAR

During his Brewers tenure there were essentially eight catchers that were no doubt better than him...

Realmuto (119 wRC+ | +37.1 DEF | 12.6 WAR), Murphy (115 wRC+ | +39.2 DEF | 10.0 WAR), Smith (132 wRC+ | +12.3 DEF | 9.7 WAR), Willson (119 wRC+ | +7.7 DEF | 7.2 WAR), d'Arnaud (114 wRC+ | +26.2 DEF | 6.1 WAR), Perez (124 wRC+ | -20.3 DEF | 5.7 WAR), Rutschman (133 wRC+ | +13.1 DEF | 5.3 WAR) and Posey (139 wRC+ | +13.8 DEF | 4.9 WAR).

After that Omar was one of seven catchers grouped within half a win of each other...

Yasmani (113 wRC+ | +12.6 DEF | 4.8 WAR), Alejandro (124 wRC+ | +8.7 DEF | 4.6 WAR), Trevino (79 wRC+ | +45.3 DEF | 4.6 WAR), Omar (85 wRC+ | +33.3 DEF | 4.5 WAR), Zunino (105 wRC+ | +21.8 DEF | 4.5 WAR), Jansen (114 wRC+ | +14.1 DEF | 4.3 WAR) and Raleigh (101 wRC+ | +23.6 DEF | 4.3 WAR).   

Vasquez (92 wRC+ | +26.7 DEF | 3.3 WAR) value is really held back by his base running (-17.9) which is dead last among all players from 2020-22 with Miguel Cabrera second worst at -13.7. 
 

[Brewcrew82]

15 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Truly an insane transformation for Omar...

2016-19: 1216 PA | 113 wRC+ | -10.0 DEF | 4.5 WAR
2020-22: 867 PA | 85 wRC+ | +33.3 DEF | 4.5 WAR

During his Brewers tenure there were essentially eight catchers that were no doubt better than him...

Realmuto (119 wRC+ | +37.1 DEF | 12.6 WAR), Murphy (115 wRC+ | +39.2 DEF | 10.0 WAR), Smith (132 wRC+ | +12.3 DEF | 9.7 WAR), Willson (119 wRC+ | +7.7 DEF | 7.2 WAR), d'Arnaud (114 wRC+ | +26.2 DEF | 6.1 WAR), Perez (124 wRC+ | -20.3 DEF | 5.7 WAR), Rutschman (133 wRC+ | +13.1 DEF | 5.3 WAR) and Posey (139 wRC+ | +13.8 DEF | 4.9 WAR).

After that Omar was one of seven catchers grouped within half a win of each other...

Yasmani (113 wRC+ | +12.6 DEF | 4.8 WAR), Kirk (124 wRC+ | +8.7 DEF | 4.6 WAR), Trevino (79 wRC+ | +45.3 DEF | 4.6 WAR), Omar (85 wRC+ | +33.3 DEF | 4.5 WAR), Zunino (105 wRC+ | +21.8 DEF | 4.5 WAR), Jansen (114 wRC+ | +14.1 DEF | 4.3 WAR) and Raleigh (101 wRC+ | +23.6 DEF | 4.3 WAR).   

Vasquez (92 wRC+ | +26.7 DEF | 3.3 WAR) value is really held back by his base running (-17.9) which is dead last among all players from 2020-22 with Miguel Cabrera second worst at -13.7. 
 

Time to replicate with William Contreras! Except Contreras can keep his offense...

[Robocaller]

9 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Cohen is paying him 8 million……with a 7 million player option for 2024

 

woof. Mets be spending money.

 

[endaround]

Not sure why people are gobsmacked,  Navarez was worth almost 3 wins in 2021. He was worth 1 win last year. Starting caliber catcher gets low end starting catcher money.

[Hopper]

36 minutes ago, endaround said:

Not sure why people are gobsmacked,  Navarez was worth almost 3 wins in 2021. He was worth 1 win last year. Starting caliber catcher gets low end starting catcher money.

Just to be clear, this amount doesn't surprise you, even a little tiny bit?

I don't see one other person, on any other board including this one, that thought he'd get this kind of payday after his time in Milwaukee.

 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

This deal makes the William Contreras acquisition look like even more of a masterstroke. Narvaez had a terrific 2021 season after a poor 2020, and was basically league average last year. He was one of Stearns' better, if not underrated acquisitions, IMO. Taking a look around the league, finding a catcher who can provide even a halfway decent bat who isn't a dumpster fire defensively is increasingly rare. I think it's safe to say that while Omar Narvaez was never the total solution for the Brewers, he was far from a problem. I appreciate his time as a Brewer. 

[Jopal78]

18 minutes ago, Hopper said:

Just to be clear, this amount doesn't surprise you, even a little tiny bit?

I don't see one other person, on any other board including this one, that thought he'd get this kind of payday after his time in Milwaukee.

 

I don't know if 1 year/8 million (or 2 years/15 million with player option) for Narvaez is surprising . He made 5 million last year with the Brewers, and likely wasn't going to get a pay cut as a free agent. Then he had the good fortune that the supply of free agent catchers is thin this year, and he hits free agency at a time when even mediocre players are getting 8-10 million per year.

[brewerfan82]

10 minutes ago, Hopper said:

Just to be clear, this amount doesn't surprise you, even a little tiny bit?

I don't see one other person, on any other board including this one, that thought he'd get this kind of payday after his time in Milwaukee.

 

Well FanGraph's crowd source estimate for him was 2 yrs, $14M, so it was pretty close to however that gets compiled: https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/free-agent-tracker?&pos=c

So I guess I wasn't surprised since I saw that beforehand. But I was kind of surprised to see just how bad he was offensively with us looking at his numbers after the fact (85 wRC+). That said his defense was good enough to still place him 13th in fWAR (4.5) in that time period and he's projected for 2 fWAR next season, which puts him in line for that kind of contract.

[monty57]

Good deal for Narvaez. Basically a one-year, "prove it" deal, but he gets the added insurance that if he bombs he can exercise his option and get paid an additional $7M.

[Jopal78]

8 minutes ago, Ron Robinsons Beard said:

This deal makes the William Contreras acquisition look like even more of a masterstroke. Narvaez had a terrific 2021 season after a poor 2020, and was basically league average last year. He was one of Stearns' better, if not underrated acquisitions, IMO. Taking a look around the league, finding a catcher who can provide even a halfway decent bat who isn't a dumpster fire defensively is increasingly rare. I think it's safe to say that while Omar Narvaez was never the total solution for the Brewers, he was far from a problem. I appreciate his time as a Brewer. 

The Brewers gave their 2nd round CBA pick in '20 for Narvaez. The Reds used that pick in 2020 to select pitcher Connor Phillips. Phillips was then traded to Cincinnati in the spring of '22 for Jesse Winker. Next Seattle traded Jesse Winker in late '22 to Milwaukee for Kolten Wong.   What a merry go round. 

[Outlander]

Good on Omar to improve defensively since his arrival here as his offense was pretty bad the last season and a half. Can't imagine it ending well in New York but at least he cashed in.

[sveumrules]

If you think 8 million is a lot, Mets are actually paying closer to 15 million with the luxury tax penalty.

Personally I find the way Cohen is operating in contrast to even the other ultra super mega obscenely wealthy MLB owners kind of fascinating.

Think he’s actually kind of setting up a lose/lose scenario though. Get knocked out in the Wild Card again? LOLMets. Win the whole shebang? Well, they spent almost half a billion on payroll and luxury tax, they should.

[wallus]

2 hours ago, monty57 said:

Good deal for Narvaez. Basically a one-year, "prove it" deal, but he gets the added insurance that if he bombs he can exercise his option and get paid an additional $7M.

I don't really consider a prove it deal if you have a player option in year 2 for significant money. Still happy to see Omar get paid, he seemed like a good guy.

[monty57]

4 minutes ago, wallus said:

I don't really consider a prove it deal if you have a player option in year 2 for significant money. Still happy to see Omar get paid, he seemed like a good guy.

By "prove it," I mean that he's getting $8M, but if he has a big offensive year he can decline his option and sign a bigger deal for '24. If he flops, he can exercise his option and still get $7M.

With the way contracts are going, if he had a good offensive year last year, he would have received more than 2/$15. By doing it as a one-year-with-player-option deal, he has a better chance at a big payday than if he had simply signed a two-year deal.