The Yanks' deal with Jorge Posada for 4 yrs/52 million got done. And it had to get done.
Sure, Posada is a lifelong Yankee favorite, a homegrown talent with ties to the championship past. But that's not the reason the Yanks made the right move here.
The reason they made the right move is because Posada is one of the top catchers in baseball history. He's right there with Dickey and Yogi. In fact, most Yankee fans don't realize how historically great Posada is. Even at age 36, he is showing no signs of slowing down.
Heck, you can even tell how good a deal this is for the Yankee when even Mike Lupica writes a favorable article about the transaction:
"And [Posada] stays where he belongs. He will catch the last pitch in this Yankee Stadium, and first one across the street. Good deal. Great Yankee."
We'll get into Posada's numbers in a moment. But for those who are worried that 4 years is too much for a 36 year-old catcher, cast those fears aside.
Joe Girardi is smart enough to come up with a plan to rest Posada more, play him at 1st base, and DH him some. One of the keys to this plan is having a decent backup catcher, and to that end Jose Molina fits the bill, for now
The fact that Girardi is not adverse to DHing Jorge and starting Molina behind the plate without a 3rd catcher on the roster will prolong Jorge's career and make him more valuable throughout the length of his new contract.
If Molina were to get hurt or need to be pinch hit for, resulting in Posada leaving the DH role to go behind the plate, then the Yanks would only lose the DH for that one game.
That is a small price to pay when parlayed against the benefits of DHing Posada once a week. It's this type of forward thinking that Girardi will bring to the Yanks going forward. The previous manager did not have an imagination fertile enough to employ Posada correctly.
And who knows, perhaps in the last year of his contract, Posada can serve as mentor to Jesus Montero (.280/.366./.421 in 2007 Rookie Ball, based on 107 ABs).
So why did the Yanks make Posada a priority? A spin through Lee Sinins' updated Complete Baseball Encyclopedia paints a nice objective picture of his greatness.
These are career best for catchers, based on 4,000 Plate appearances
CAREER
C
OBA
1 Mickey Cochrane .419
2 Wally Schang .393
3 Gene Tenace .388
4 Roger Bresnahan .386
5 Bill Dickey .382
6 Jorge Posada .381
7 Rick Ferrell .378
8 Mike Piazza .377
9 Jason Kendall .375
10 Gabby Hartnett .370
SLG
1 Mike Piazza .545
2 Roy Campanella .500
3 Javier Lopez .491
4 Gabby Hartnett .489
5 Bill Dickey .486
6 Yogi Berra .482
7 Jorge Posada .479
8 Ivan Rodriguez .479
9 Mickey Cochrane .478
10 Johnny Bench .476
C
OPS
1 Mike Piazza .922
2 Mickey Cochrane .897
3 Bill Dickey .868
4 Jorge Posada .860
5 Roy Campanella .860
6 Gabby Hartnett .858
7 Yogi Berra .830
8 Javier Lopez .828
9 Mike Stanley .827
10 Ivan Rodriguez .819
Of course, Posada's value goes beyond the numbers. He is a fiery leader and often acts in the role of a captain when it comes time to get into someone's face.
His defense has improved since Tony Pena has been mentoring him. I am waiting for Dave Pinto to come out with his new Probabilistic Model of Range for Catchers and I suspect that Posada will be somewhere in the middle.
That being said, catching is probably the most difficult position to develop objective defensive metrics for, there are just too many variables. To be fair, though, it would be nice if Posada blocked a few more balls in the dirt.
There is no doubt that Posada means it when he says: "There's a pride that goes with playing here, and maintaining the successes we've had here. There's a pride to being a Yankee. Is that a cliché? Sure. But it's also true."
Now on to Mariano Rivera and a few low-risk signings.
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