Notice: Trying to get property 'display_name' of non-object in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/src/generators/schema/article.php on line 52
keyboard_arrow_uptop
PITTSBURGH PIRATES
Team Audit | Player Cards | Depth Chart

Signed C-R Russell Martin to a two-year, $17 million contract. [11/28]

I’m might be missing somebody, but so far as I can tell by going through the past 20 years of rosters and transactions, these are the biggest per-season contracts ever given out by the Pirates to entice a free agent:

  1. Clint Barmes: 2 years, $10.5 million
  2. Derek Bell: 2 years, $9.75 million
  3. Kevin Correia: 2 years, $8 million
  4. Jeromy Burnitz: 1 year, $6 million
  5. Lyle Overbay: 1 year, $5 million

I know, right? It’s not just that they haven’t given out a lot of money or been able to entice big free agents. It’s that Jeromy Burnitz’ one-year, $6 million deal is the fourth-biggest ever given out to a free agent import. This is Pittsburgh.

So Russell Martin is (unless I’m missing somebody) now the Pirates’ biggest ever free agent import, having reportedly signed for two years and $17 million to catch A.J. Burnett and the rest of the Pirates’ almost-competitive staff. He’ll also hit. Here’s how he does at each of those things:

Defense
Measuring the basics of catcher defense, Martin doesn’t stand out: he’s not a great pitch-blocker, he threw out a career-low percentage of baserunners in 2012, and by FRAA he has been below average (slightly) in each of the past five seasons. But when Max Marchi looked at catcher defense three months into the season, he had Martin third best with the glove. That’s because Martin is a pitch-framer.

"Another thing that goes into catching ERA is your ability to receive — getting a called strike here and there — making a pitch look good that maybe was not necessarily a strike," Martin says. "For me, the true part of catching is being able to do that. I take a lot of pride in it."

In the final tally, he was at about 20 runs better than average with the frame in 2012 and now ranks third in baseball over the past five years. Those aren’t runs that show up in WARP yet, or any other Win Above Replacement model, but unless you have a reason to think those runs aren’t real, keep them in mind.

Offense
Like Rod Barajas, the man he replaces behind the plate in Pittsburgh, Martin was the victim of a BABIP in the .220s in 2012. At .222, Martin’s was the lowest in baseball (minimum 400 plate appearances) in 2012 and the fifth-lowest in a season since 2000. Martin has never been a notably low-BABIP guy, with a .295 success rate entering the season. (It’s now .286.) Batters aren’t completely absolved by a bad BABIP, but Martin’s batted balls followed their traditional patterns, both in elevation and direction. If Martin is hitting the ball more weakly, it doesn’t show up in his HR/FB rate, which was a career high. If he’s slower, it—well, he probably is slower, but he still stole a half-dozen bags, kept his double-play rate under control, and legged out the second-best infield-hit rate of his career. All that is to say, Martin’s season was one of those BABIP seasons.

Unlike Barajas, Martin has secondary offensive skills. Among all of baseball’s catchers over the past two years, he has the seventh-most home runs and the eighth-most walks. His True Average is merely 18th, so he will need that BABIP get well soon.

At 1.5 WARP per year—his average over the past three—he’s maybe just on the upper end of the current market, in which a win goes for $5 million to $6 million. Credit him with those framed runs saved and he becomes a bargain, particularly compared to Rod Barajas, a below-average framer. Credit him with those framed runs and the Pirates just upgraded their catcher by four wins. Playoff-bound? Not likely, but four more wins would have made for a winning record and a more exciting September this year.

Somewhere we should note, and so thus the noting has begun, that the Pirates signed Russell Martin away from the New York Yankees. The Pirates and the Yankees don’t generally pursue the same players; the Pirates’ set a franchise record for payroll in 2012 and were still outcompensated by the Yankees infield by $20 million. On the surface, this is Screech beating Slater in the Miss Bayside contest. Two days ago, Ken Rosenthal wrote that “the New York Yankees remain the favorites to sign Russell Martin,”  but

The Yankees say they’re committed to getting under the $189 million luxury tax threshold by 2014, and if you doubt their resolve, here’s some pretty strong evidence. According to Jon Heyman, the Yankees saw Martin as worth $6 million per year, “maybe a tick more.” Considering the uncertainty around catcher defense metrics, and the Yankees' information advantage regarding Martin’s work with pitchers, that might be justifiable. It’s just a whole new league when the Yankees let $2 million get between them and their best option. And when it’s the Pirates waiting with pen in hand. 

Thank you for reading

This is a free article. If you enjoyed it, consider subscribing to Baseball Prospectus. Subscriptions support ongoing public baseball research and analysis in an increasingly proprietary environment.

Subscribe now
You need to be logged in to comment. Login or Subscribe
johnmeister
11/30
Your new Rupert Murdoch Yankees, ladies and gentlemen. Come to the game, watch an inferior product and have your phones tapped as well.
wordsinthewater
11/30
Why go political here? The Yankees committed to reducing payroll under the luxury tax threshold before Murdoch purchased the Yes Network.
Oleoay
11/30
I'll trade my Cubs for your "inferior" product as long as the Yankees bring their perennial .500+ winning ways to the NL Central.
TADontAsk
11/30
I guess you're going by average season salary, so this doesn't quite make the top, but I remember Pat Meares being a "big" signing. From what I can find, it looks like that contract was 4 years and $15 million.
lyricalkiller
11/30
Ah, thank you. I limited it to guys making more than $4 million in a year, which is how Meares slipped through the cracks/didn't qualify
buccosmfg
11/30
The Pat Meares deal was an extension, not the initial signing.
Oleoay
11/30
Matt Morris should get an Honorable Mention just for the sake of showing how goofed up the Pirates were.
juiced
11/30
Not a good deal.
bigdaddyleroy
11/30
If we're counting extensions, then Jason Kendall's six-year $60-million extension easily wins.
nolansdad
11/30
Great play with the title here. Awesome book.
jimcal
11/30
Money quote of the day: " It’s just a whole new league when the Yankees let $2 million get between them and their best option. And when it’s the Pirates waiting with pen in hand. "
hotstatrat
11/30
I can't wait for the Pirates to play the Blue Jays in the World Series and have the all-Canadian battery of Chris Leroux and Russel Martin face Canada's team in a crucial situation. Perhaps, Canadian Brett Lawrie will be the decisive batter.

While Russel was born in Greater Toronto Area, but grew up in Montreal, Leroux was born in Montreal, but grew up in the GTA.
hannibal76
12/02
A lot of us in Pittsburgh were frustrated all year last season that Michael McKenry didn't get more starts behind the plate. I've already heard folks suggesting that he'd be a better bargain than Russel Martin. How do the two measure up against one another?