2:52pm: The Rockies have not determined whether they'll pick up their side of Olivo's option, tweets Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post. Renck says the Rockies are keeping an open mind, with Victor Martinez on the radar. At #20, the Rockies would give the second-best available draft pick to the Red Sox if they sign V-Mart after he turned down an arbitration offer.
8:11am: The Rockies will exercise their option on catcher Miguel Olivo, tweets Tracy Ringolsby of Inside The Rockies. By reaching his 110th game played on September 26th, Olivo's club option became mutual and jumped up to $2.7MM. That means Olivo could still decline the option in search of a bigger payday or multiple years, though he told Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post last month he wants to stay.
The 32-year-old backstop hit .269/.315/.449 with 14 home runs in 427 plate appearances this year for the Rockies. He caught 935 innings, throwing out 42% of attempted thieves. His presence in 2011 would again create an uncomfortable situation for Chris Iannetta, who is on a multiyear deal running through 2012. Iannetta has a 2013 club option he can void if he's traded, which seems like a legitimate possibility this winter.
God dammit.
I’m curious as to what kind of value the Rockies could get if they traded Ianneta. His numbers overall, in terms of OPS, look good for a pitcher (discounting this last year), but they’ve screwed around with him so much that he’s never come close to playing a full year.
Except for the fact that he’s a catcher. I know what you’re getting at, though.
Why sign the guy to a 3-year deal just to bench/demote him? Is it Tracy that doesn’t like him?
The 3 year deal was to buy out his arbitration. Plus he had all the look of becoming a solid front line catcher, which in Arbitration would have cost the Rockies dearly. However, he never developed fully into that.
Defensively he’s good at receiving, but average to below average in throwing. Calling a game, he’s not very active with the young pitchers, where Olivo and Torrealba would talk to a pitcher after a couple of wild throws, Iannetta just put the fingers down. That’s one area I think was different than the coaching staff would have wanted.
And yes, there are rumblings that Iannetta isn’t real coach-able.
He’s good at receiving? Sounds like he should go to the A’s and be buddies with Billy Beane.
Appreciate the info – I just felt that after his 2009 ‘breakout’, he was discarded pretty quickly when he struggled initially in 2009, and then all but shut down after a few weeks early in 2010.
Catching is a quirky position. It doesn’t take much to get out of sync either on offense or on defense. Hard telling what would happen with Iannetta elsewhere, but I’m guessing there are a stack of teams that would love to find out…given his offensive potential over a full season.
Way to jump the gun
Pick up his option. VMart at the cost of giving up the #20 overall pick in deep 2011 draft just isn’t worth it.
Is it just me, or are Iannetta and Napoli almost the same player? Seems neither are defensive gems, but both are in a continuous state of unrealized offensive potential.
It’s just you. Napoli had pretty consistent playing time and hit 26 HR’s, and Ianetta didn’t.
The comparison isn’t that far off. Napoli has more pure power, while Iannetta is better behind the plate.
In the morning Tracy Ringolsby reported that the Rockies will pick up the option. In the afternoon Troy Renck reported that the Rockies have actually not yet made their decision.
I think they should pick up the option. That’s not a ton of money, Olivio played well for them; he also handled their pitching staff fairly well. If Ianetta finally breaks through, Olivio would be a nice trade chip. If Ianetta doesn’t break through, you NEED Olivio to catch the bulk of your games.
Iannetta has plenty of power.
They are saying they don’t know.