The Mets have acquired catcher Kelly Shoppach from the Red Sox on a waiver claim in exchange for a player to be the named, New York announced (via Twitter).
Shoppach, 32, hit .250/.327/.471 in 158 plate appearances with Boston this season and is a career .227/.316/.422 hitter. He's notably tougher on lefties, though, hitting .270/.364/.530 in his career against southpaws, and has thus been deployed primarily in platoons. Shoppach earns $1.35MM in 2012 and will be a free agent at season's end.
A little late the Mets won’t compete this year
Why is that irrelevant? Tons of teams make trades even when they don’t compete.
Because he is a free agent after the season…they may not resign him
They need to dip into the FA market anyways this offseason– so it could just be a time saver if they decide to resign him.
Interesting. Decent pick up by the Mets.
Agree
Can someone explain this to me? In addition, I guess Duquette and Showalter are satisfied with Teagarden batting .077, I am not, I guess they are.
PS I guess the American League teams are happy with their back-up catcher.
Teams don’t normally trade within the division. And Teagarden is far and away the better game caller and defensive catcher. Also single-handedly won two games for the O’s and probably will catch a grand total of like two more times the rest of the season. You are overreacting, sir.
Seems Sox are making room for Lavarnway
The Sox aren’t going to trade to a team that’s standing directly in their way.
Except the Orioles didn’t claim him at all. I’m fairly certain the way the waiver wire works is the teams in the same league get the first shot to make a claim so the Mets claim would have come after the Orioles passed.
Yup, from what I understand it’s reverse record then the other league. So the O’s wouldn’t have had the first cracks at him but they would have a claim before the Mets.
Thanks. The waiver wire always confuses me at least a little every season.
Oh, I thought he had cleared waivers somehow. Yeah, the O’s had a shot and passed, I guess.
I don’t think anyone initially claimed him
Cool.
Why didn’t the Sox trade him two weeks ago, when they might’ve gotten more for him.
I seriously doubt it. Shoppach is a backup catcher and a PTBNL is usually the best anyone can get for one.
I hope that Jason Bay is NOT the player to be named later!
Oh I sure do!
He raked in Boston, but no way Sox take on that contract
Praise jesus no more Johnson or Nickeas.
Don’t look now, but Nickeas is hitting near .330 in AAA..
I really wanted Shoppach to be dealt in the beginning of the season. Pick his brain for Rays info, trade/release him and call up Lavarnway. In fact the way Lavarnway caught & hit in Spring Training the Sox should have had him up opening day, and never signed Shoppach.
But alas, but real Ben Cherington and fake Ben_Cherington on here had to keep Shoppach around and waste Lavarnway in Pawtucket for another season… all Lavarnway did was win you game 161 last season!
Is that a little white flag I see in Boston?
Never mind, it’s a napkin from KFC.
Trading the backup catcher they’ve been looking to deal for weeks. Yeah, totally a sign of surrender…………?
I hear that! However it looks like more of a setup – just another excuse to make a fried chicken related ‘joke.’
Come on! Those are funny!
1. It was mostly a joke. I don’t expect a Sox fan to laugh.
2. I don’t see how giving away a solid, yet unspectacular, backup is part of the plan to win this year.
It simply means that they’re going to try out Lavarnway for the rest of the season rather than return him to Pawtucket.
Inherently, isn’t such a move focusing on next year?
Considering that Lavarnway has a higher ceiling than Shoppach anyway… only kind of?
Yeah but it’s not exactly waving the white flag either. I’m under no illusions that the Sox will make the playoffs this season but I still wouldn’t call this a white flag. It’s simply giving a rookie a shot.
Edit: Double post.
I guess it isn’t a major move like dumping Beckett or Crawford, but they still gave away a solid contributor to this years team to see if a rookie can hang next year. If Boston were battling the Yankees right now for the division, do you think they make the same move?
But fine, no white flag, just a napkin. I said as much in the first post 😉
Do you think Lavarnway is an upgrade over Shoppach for the rest of THIS season?
Is giving Machado playing time focusing on next year? No, its simply clearing room for a better, younger, cheaper player.
No, the Orioles brought up Machado to replace the floundering Wilson Betemit. It was a win now move. If the Orioles were 20 games out, he’d still be in AA, maybe moving to AAA.
So Orioles bring up young, future player it’s a win now move. Red Sox bring up young, future player they are re-building? You watch way too much ESPN.
Well, if all prospects and veterans are created equal, then I guess this applies. But they aren’t.
Do you seriously not see the difference between these two moves?
Calling up Machado to play everyday at third base over Betemit and giving away Shoppach so that Lavarnway can be the backup C are two entirely different things.
One is an instant upgrade, the other is an instant downgrade with the chance to be a lateral move. I understand his Lavarnways potential for the future, but I don’t see how you can argue that he’s an upgrade at this point.
More like the Baltimore Trollioles amirite
How long have you been saving that one? Septemberish last year?
Solid answer to my question tho … So what is it a sign of?
I’d hope that if I were sitting on a joke for that long it’d be better than “Baltimore Trollioles”
He was just waiting for the Orioles to be relevant enough to mock. Suffice to say, it’s a little dusty.
Good call. No one mocked the Orioles before this year.
Despite their record, the O’s still don’t have a very good club. If you look at runs scored vs runs allowed, you will see this. They’ve been mostly lucky. On paper the Rays, Angels, perhaps Oakland and Boston all have better clubs, despite their records
the orioles have no chance at winning the world series! dont talk ish about the redsox until your team trys making the playoffs for once , im glad im not an orioles fan!!!
It’s a sign that they a) completed a trade for a guy that they have been looking to deal for at least a month, b) move a player they almost certainly weren’t going to bring back next year (and so now they at least got something for him), and c) wanted to keep Lavarnway in the majors (and had to clear a 25-man roster spot since Bailey is coming off the DL, so someonw had to go.)
do you have night terrors involving Robert Andino?
Have you had night terrors involving the Orioles not having a winning season these past 13 years?
Hardy har har… don’t forget, you still have 9 games left vs the Sox. We’ll see if/how much you are laughing on Thursday are this 3 game series wraps up. A sweep (though unlikely) puts you only 2.5 ahead of the chicken eaters.
The Mets should consider extending Kelly Shoppach, as he would actually be a good backup for the Mets. The best part of this: automatic out Mike Nickeas is pushed back down to Buffalo.
With the way Thole calls games, he may well be intended to be more of a starter than a backup – or at least a platoon.
He’s already there.
Since the Mets aren’t competing I’d bet this move was partially designed to make sure they had first crack at re-signing him.
should be your starter over what you have, very solid player and decent against lefties
Pelfrey or Johan Santana as PTB.
Sox will do that, they love thier little projects
No the Mets need to WIN NOW…therefore they’ll throw in Zach Wheeler
Shoppach is such an improvement over Mike Nickeas and a great guy to have in a platoon with Josh Thole. I agree with the sentiment of many that the Mets should work on a contract extension with him so he is on the team next season. This was definitely one of their teams bigger needs moving forward and now it seems to have been addressed. Nice move. Boston is now free to use Lavarnway which is exciting because he has good pop.
hopefully w/ more playing time Lavarnway can bat better than .100
Is he being handed the starting job, or just backing up?
don’t know yet, but R. L. catching Beckett 2night
We officially have ur first catcher since Piazza
Although I don’t think the return for Shoppach would be anything significant that the return is a PTBNL, alone, is not necessarily a sign that the return isn’t that great. In August it could just mean that the player could not pass through waivers, for example, so the Sox may have a name, but not the ability to get that player yet, for example. Or at least I believe that’s one possibility.
you could be right or it could be that the red sox don’t want to have the player named so they don’t have to make a 40 man roster move for him.
Yep – another good point considering they’re already at 40 now.
DFA Punto, Becket and Ben Cherington, then you’ll have plenty of room
Don’t hate the PTBNL, hate the game
Brilliant!
I bet the PTBNL is a choice between Jason Bay and Bobby Bonilla with the Mets on the hook for the remainder of either contract, which I believe is, amazingly enough, about equal at 16 million dollars per player.
they’re still paying for BobbyBo?
Good pickup for the Mets. It may not do much for the Mets playoff hopes this year, but it gives them a good platoon partner for Thole, and he’s an upgrade over any of the previous players in the Mets revolving door of backup catchers. If they re-sign him at the end of the season, it’s one less thing Alderson needs to do to improve the team.
I am surprised the RedSox didn’t throw Valentine into the deal
No mention as to whether Shoppach is a good defensive catcher, whether he handles pitchers well and if they like him behind the plate.
Can we give them Jason Bay for Kelly?
I can only laugh if you think they’re the same move.
He’s certainly has potential and has had big years in the past … but what is it about his .815 AAA OPS (Nearly .200 points lower than 2011) and his .332 OPS in the majors (albeit SSS) that inspires such confidence that he’ll be better than Shoppach for the rest of this season? .
Of course I’ve looked at his numbers … They’re just not that great THIS year. If this were 2011, you’d have a solid argument.
Look up Lavarnways MiLB offensive numbers and he was voted the defensive catcher of the year by BA last week.. that should cease some of the voices saying that he can’t catch..
Lavarnway has CRUSHED at every level since he was drafted in ’08. Offense was never, ever a question. It was his defense and getting voted defensive catcher of the year at the AAA level should really dispell some of that nonsense for good.