The problem with the question, “How do you replace Russell Martin?” is that it’s a trick question. If we define “Russell Martin” as a very strong defensive catcher with an emphasis on pitch-framing that has decent on-base abilities (at least as it comes to walk-percentage) and decent pop for the position, well, I think the Pirates are relatively good at identifying the relative strengths and weaknesses of players and finding a puzzle piece to put into that slot. If we define “Russell Martin” as 2014 Russell Martin, then suddenly we’ve got that same very strong defensive catcher with a .400 OBP, and that player is borderline irreplaceable, even if the player you have playing his position is Russell Martin himself.
I actually think that Martin’s high BABIP that lead to his offensive breakthrough last year is fascinating, and I wish I had taken some more time to understand it before he left the team. He talked a bit about how the Pirates and Jeff Branson in particular changed his approach last year to utilize PNC Park’s shape to drop more singles into the outfield. Lots of players say stuff like this and it could be an ex post facto boilerplate application of a basic idea to explain something that is luck-based and borderline unexplainable, except for two things. One is that the Pirates had a team-wide offensive explosion based on a climbing OBP, and the other is that I’m starting to believe that the Pirates understand better than anyone how and why hitters hit baseballs where they do. That thought has ramifications far beyond the way we in the baseball blogging community tend to apply it to solely to defensive shifts. Ultimately, though, that idea will have to be tackled elsewhere. The point is that Russell Martin’s huge year last year is interesting but likely difficult to replicate, and also that Francisco Cervelli exists in his shadow: he only gets 500 words and I didn’t even mention him by name until after word #300 in this post.
This is Russell Martin‘s triple-slash line from 2009-2013: .234/.332/.370. This is Francisco Cervelli’s career triple-slash line: .278/.348/.381. The day the Pirates traded for Cervelli, Brandon McCarthy tweeted this:
@DCameronFG then they’re doing a hell of a job of it. Cervelli is a stud
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) November 13, 2014
What I would posit to you is this: health issues aside (and the health issues are HUGE, see above picture), what the Pirates believe that they have acquired in Francisco Cervelli is a catcher that is really, really similar to the Russell Martin that they signed in November of 2012: a strong defensive catcher in the areas that they value with enough offensive upside to be useful at the plate. In other words, the Pirates almost certainly could not have replaced the Russell Martin that played for them in 2014, but if Cervelli stays healthy (again, a big if), then I think they did a decent job of replacing the one that would have played for them in 2015.
<500 is an ongoing series previewing 2015 for each key Pirate in fewer than 500 words.
Photo by Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
