Trade Analysis: Eli Marrero to the Orioles

by Marc Normandin on Jun 12, 2005 9:14 AM EDT

The Orioles decided to try and fix their catching situation, sinec Javy Lopez is still out. Eli Marrero will most likely take over at catcher for the O's in place of Geronimo Gil and Sal Fasano. Let's take a look at their season stats so far:

Marrerro 2005 Royals
.159/.229/.341
HR: 4
2B: 4
BB: 7
SB: 1/1
SecAvg: .272
Iso: .182
Career: .246/.304/.406

Not cutting it at all, but Marrero is a better player than that by a longshot, even if he is only league average. There is alot to be said for that, especially when your other two catchers...well, aren't league average:

Gil 2005
.191/.214/.294
Career: .236/.283/.342

Fasano 2005
.244/.311/.585
Career: .217/.301/.401

If Marrero can even put up a line of .262/.327/.451 like he did in 2002 in St. Louis the Orioles will be better off. All they had to trade for this was a body with a pulse in the minors and some cash. Also, here's a little tidbit:

.269/.332/.447

Marrero's career line against lefties. Not to shabby, even though not amazing. Check out the full line:

.269/.332/.447
AB: 524
HR: 16
2B: 37
3B: 4
BB: 48
SB: 11/15
SecAvg: .282
Iso: .178

I'd take that over the mid-power, low average bats of Gil and Fasano. Marrero's PECOTA Projected MLVr was at .009 for this year; and he was expected to have a .270 EqA. Now that he is out of KC, expect to see those numbers start to come up. Chris Kahrl put it a great way the other day:

"As for his struggles as a Royal, well, after years of being relevant in St. Louis in Atlanta, how would you feel about becoming just another part of one of baseball's worst-run franchises? Just because there isn't a metric for morale doesn't mean it isn't a factor, and a hundred regrettable plate appearances aren't enough to write a guy off."

Let's see if Marrero can put together a decent season now that he's been traded. Maybe he can hit against lefties on occasion when Lopez comes back from injury in order to give him time off, since he complains about starting much too often to avoid injury. Lopez's career numbers against lefties are good, better than Marrero's, but no different than his righty numbers, so for the sake of rest it is a workable situation.

Update [2005-6-12 12:4:30 by Marc Normandin]: I was notified that Marrero is not going to catch while in Baltimore, but as I state above, I think that should be the case to get usefulness out of him.

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