{"id":14402,"date":"2012-12-04T01:45:35","date_gmt":"2012-12-04T07:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/?p=14402"},"modified":"2012-12-02T20:37:25","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T02:37:25","slug":"quick-hit-drew-butera-and-twins-catchnig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/2012\/12\/04\/quick-hit-drew-butera-and-twins-catchnig\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Hit: Drew Butera and Twins Catchnig"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13706\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13706\" style=\"width: 352px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/2012\/09\/its-all-relative\/drew-butera-puppies\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-13706\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-13706 \" title=\"drew butera puppies\" src=\"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/drew-butera-puppies.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"352\" height=\"528\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13706\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Drew Butera loves puppies, is indifferent to hitting.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This past Friday was the deadline for teams to tender contracts to arbitration eligible players (also for non-arbitration eligible players, as Twins declined to offer a contract to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/o\/olivele01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-knuckleballsblog.com\" target=\"_blank\">Lester Oliveros<\/a><\/strong>, effectively removing him from the 40-man roster). The Twins had three arbitration eligible players and offered contracts to all three, including catcher <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/buterdr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-knuckleballsblog.com\" target=\"_blank\">Drew Butera<\/a><\/strong>. That means that all five catchers currently on the 40-man roster are likely to remain with the Twins heading into 2013. \u00a0What else does this move say about the Twins 25-man roster (We already know that <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/minors\/player.cgi?id=pinto-001jos&amp;utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-knuckleballsblog.com\" target=\"_blank\">Josmil Pinto<\/a><\/strong> is not a viable candidate to make the 25-man roster, so we&#8217;ll omit him from the discussion going forward)?<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><\/strong><strong>The Twins are NOT going to carry four catchers on the 25-man roster.<\/strong>\u00a0With Mauer and Doumit locks to make the 25-man roster, and the Twins unlikely to carry FOUR catchers in 2013, when the Twins tendered a contract to Butera that puts <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/herrmch01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-knuckleballsblog.com\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Herrmann<\/a><\/strong> on the outside looking in.<\/li>\n<li><strong><\/strong><strong>The Twins like having a defensive specialist as their third catcher.<\/strong> Chris Herrmann would give the Twins a third catcher that has the ability to play multiple positions and pinch hit if needed, but he hasn&#8217;t yet developed into a great defensive backstop. \u00a0Butera, on the other hand, is a defense first catcher. \u00a0Butera&#8217;s BEST offensive season was 2012, and he hit just .198\/.270\/.279. \u00a0Pitchers rave about Butera&#8217;s ability to call a game and he has had success throwing out runners (33% career caught stealing rate). \u00a0Having a defensive,\u00a0likable\u00a0 \u00a0third catcher probably also helps the team between games when pitchers are throwing bullpens or side sesssions, but on a game to game basis, Butera is only called into action about once every four games.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The Twins do not believe that <\/strong><strong>Chris Herrmann<\/strong> is ready to compete for a Major League job.\u00a0Herrmann played briefly with the Twins after a September call-up in 2012, but otherwise has yet to play above AA. \u00a0Herrmann could be the heir to <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mauerjo01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-knuckleballsblog.com\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Mauer<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s throne if\/when Mauer is eventually forced to move to 1B or DH full time. \u00a0The Twins will likely give Herrmann development time in Rochester in 2013.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Drew Butera will continue stealing a roster spot, despite playing only occasionally, and having value ONLY as defensive specialist.<\/strong> \u00a0Drew Butera cannot hit, so he has no value as a pinch hitter. \u00a0He doesn&#8217;t play any other defensive positions (even as a Minor Leaguer Butera only played 3\/450 games away from catcher), so he provides no additional roster flexibility when he isn&#8217;t catching, even if the Twins wanted to put him into the lineup. \u00a0Even for catchers, he isn&#8217;t fast, so he can&#8217;t be used as a pinch runner (Butera has never attempted a stolen base in the Big Leagues, and has been thrown out 3 times in 5 attempts in the Minors). So he can&#8217;t hit, he can only catch (where he&#8217;s 3rd in line behind Joe Mauer and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/doumiry01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-knuckleballsblog.com\" target=\"_blank\">Ryan Doumit<\/a><\/strong>), he isn&#8217;t fast, and only gets into games about 1\/4 of the time. \u00a0And yet the Twins want to keep him on the 25-man roster.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure that another team could have claimed Butera if the removed him from the 40-man roster. \u00a0Which means that the Twins could easily sign him to a Minor League contract and stash him at Rochester. \u00a0Then, if the Twins needed an emergency catcher they could add him back to the 40-man roster and call him up AND he&#8217;d be available at Triple-A to help mentor and teach Chris Herrmann.<\/p>\n<p>It was just a simple transaction, handing a 2013 contact to Drew Butera, but it has an impact on the upcoming season and gives fans a little more insight into the line up the Twins are likely to use to start the season.<\/p>\n<p>-ERolfPleiss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This past Friday was the deadline for teams to tender contracts to arbitration eligible players (also for non-arbitration eligible players, as Twins declined to offer a contract to Lester Oliveros, effectively removing him from the 40-man roster). The Twins had three arbitration eligible players and offered contracts to all three, including catcher Drew Butera. That means that all five catchers currently on the 40-man roster are likely to remain with the Twins heading into 2013. \u00a0What else does this move say about the Twins 25-man roster (We already know that Josmil Pinto is not a viable candidate to make the 25-man roster, so we&#8217;ll omit him from the discussion going forward)? The Twins are NOT going to carry four catchers on the 25-man roster.\u00a0With Mauer and Doumit locks to make the 25-man roster, and the Twins unlikely to carry FOUR catchers in 2013, when the Twins tendered a contract to <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/2012\/12\/04\/quick-hit-drew-butera-and-twins-catchnig\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Quick Hit: Drew Butera and Twins Catchnig<\/span><span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,55,18,488,10],"tags":[769,215,27,424,808,618],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14402"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14402"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14411,"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14402\/revisions\/14411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/knuckleballsblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}