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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Mets acquire Kelly Shoppach from Red Sox

The Mets have moved to improve their depth at catcher by acquiring Kelly Shoppach from the Red Sox, the club has announced.

The 32-year-old Shoppach has a solid batting line of .250/.327/.471 in 158 plate appearances this year, and he has a career OPS of .738 in parts of eight major-league seasons. Potentially, he’ll provide an upgrade for the Mets, whose catchers have combined to hit just .239/.298/.298 in 2012.

The Red Sox will receive a player to be named in exchange for Shoppach. As well, the move creates more playing time for Ryan Lavarnway and ensures he’ll remain on the 25-man roster.

Thanks to Butch.

Repoz Posted: August 14, 2012 at 03:53 PM | 25 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: mets, red sox

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1. Esoteric throws a 'hard slider' Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:03 PM (#4208200)

A PTBNL? Why on earth couldn't the Nats have swung this deal instead?

Either way, seems like a solid enough move for the Mets.

2. PreservedFish Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:08 PM (#4208206)

Anything to make the team more watchable.

3. Matt Clement of Alexandria Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:09 PM (#4208208)

The Mets made a waiver claim, blocking everyone else from the rights to Shoppach. I'm guessing the PTBNL is the St. Lucie assistant to the traveling secretary.

I don't understand why Shoppach wasn't dealt before the deadline, and certainly the Nats could have used him. I do wonder, a bit, if Cherington was restricted from making a trade by ownership's desire not to appear to be sellers at the deadline.

4. The District Attorney Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:13 PM (#4208214)

It's a shame Shoppach is a free agent if I'm not mistaken; he's not gonna matter much this year, but the Mets could use him going forward. Maybe he'll like it here.

More importantly, I have Lavarnway in Strat-O-Matic ;)

5. Lassus Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:15 PM (#4208217)

"Shoppach, your first assignment: we need you to kneecap Mike Nickeas. Just in case."

6. PreservedFish Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:15 PM (#4208219)

Maybe he'll stick around for another year. The Mets figure to have the same issues at the position in 2013.

7. flournoy Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:16 PM (#4208221)

More importantly, I have Lavarnway in Strat-O-Matic ;)

Yeah, me too. This is good news. Now I hopefully won't need to draft another back-up catcher next year!

EDIT: Sorry, I hate these kinds of posts, too. Ignore me.

8. Dale Sams Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:20 PM (#4208229)

Actually MCOA, Carfado said Shoppach cleared waivers.

9. Der_K Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:20 PM (#4208230)

Coke to Dale.

10. Matt Clement of Alexandria Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:26 PM (#4208242)

Actually MCOA, Carfado said Shoppach cleared waivers.

This was the initial report in a couple places, but it appears to be wrong. See the Mets official twitters:

#Mets moves: Claim catcher Kelly Shoppach on a waiver claim from the Boston Red Sox for a player to be named later.

Confirmed by Rob Bradford.

11. Dale Sams Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:29 PM (#4208244)

Well, that makes a little more sense than him clearing.

12. Ravecc Posted: August 14, 2012 at 04:31 PM (#4208245)

"Shoppach, your first assignment: we need you to kneecap Mike Nickeas. Just in case."

And don't forget Rob Johnson too.

13. AJM Posted: August 14, 2012 at 05:35 PM (#4208334)

Hopefully I'll never see Nickeas again.

14. Lassus Posted: August 14, 2012 at 10:30 PM (#4208515)

Can Shoppach pitch? Two walks and a walk-off 3-run homer from the pen in the bottom of the 9th.

15. MM1f Posted: August 14, 2012 at 10:39 PM (#4208520)

But why are the Mets bothering to claim anyone?

16. Russlan is fond of Dillon Gee Posted: August 14, 2012 at 10:44 PM (#4208524)

I don't really get what the Met front office is doing right now.

17. PreservedFish Posted: August 14, 2012 at 11:17 PM (#4208535)

I think it's easy to understand what they're doing. Just like they didn't want to trade Isringhausen last year or Hairston this year, the Mets still want to win games, even if they suck. They don't want things to get embarrassing.

Shoppach is a good catcher (career 98 OPS+, which is easily starter quality). Getting him is a good thing. And he fills a position of need. Maybe they get a leg up on re-signing him.

18. AJM Posted: August 15, 2012 at 12:19 AM (#4208552)

Why is Acosta still on the team?

19. Russlan is fond of Dillon Gee Posted: August 15, 2012 at 04:18 AM (#4208580)

Shoppach is a good catcher (career 98 OPS+, which is easily starter quality). Getting him is a good thing. And he fills a position of need. Maybe they get a leg up on re-signing him.

His OPS+ is 85 over the last three years though. Thole is having a bad year but I still think the Mets should be using him as the starter, if only to evaluate him further. For the rest of the season, I'd rather have Thole playing everyday with Johnson or Nickeas backing him up than have him splitting time with Shoppach, even if the latter might lead to a slightly better record in 2012.

20. tjm1 Posted: August 15, 2012 at 04:34 AM (#4208581)

I think the answer has to be, as stated in #17, to have a better chance to sign Shoppach for next year. A Thole/Shoppach platoon makes a lot of sense for the Mets. They both have fairly extreme RHP/LHP splits, for whatever those mean with the number of plate appearances they both have.

21. Der_K Posted: August 15, 2012 at 09:20 AM (#4208609)

Well, that makes a little more sense than him clearing.

It does - the initial report confused me.

I'd claim him - solid to decent and affordable.

22. villageidiom Posted: August 15, 2012 at 09:22 AM (#4208612)

I don't understand why Shoppach wasn't dealt before the deadline, and certainly the Nats could have used him. I do wonder, a bit, if Cherington was restricted from making a trade by ownership's desire not to appear to be sellers at the deadline.

I'm guessing it simply wasn't a pressing issue at the time. Whereas now they needed to clear out space on the 40-man for the activation of Andrew Bailey from the 60-day DL. Someone had to go, and one could argue Lavarnway has made Shoppach expendable.

23. Ravecc Posted: August 15, 2012 at 10:28 AM (#4208643)

Eh, the move itself is pretty pointless. But it rids the Mets of Mike Nickeas, so.

As for getting the leg-up on signing him, for a team that is sure to pinch pennies again in the coming offseason, I would have thought adding the $350k they are paying him this year to their offer next year would matter more.

But, meaningful games in September y’all!

24. JJ1986 Posted: August 15, 2012 at 10:45 AM (#4208653)

I think Shoppach has had a good enough season that he can find a bigger role with another team next year.

25. tjm1 Posted: August 15, 2012 at 11:30 AM (#4208696)

I think Shoppach has had a good enough season that he can find a bigger role with another team next year.

You might be right, although teams that make decisions based on 150 or so at bats deserve what they get. He's a pretty good defensive catcher who has hit lefties pretty well over his career. He doesn't seem to whine about not playing every day. He's an ideal platoon catcher. Any team looking to play him 100-120 games will likely be disappointed.

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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Mets acquire Kelly Shoppach from Red Sox

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