Revisiting the New and Improved Lavarnway!

As so often happens, when a guy starts making some money as in starting arbitration years and even just running out of options and having to be on the 25 man or lost, they have a make or break point to a large degree. I think some team still might find a role for him in mlb. He's still cheap. I do agree that it's probably not on the Sox. I think he has a shot at the mlb level with some team next year and will get a chance to prove himself again. He needs to get healthy and hit the weights big time. He's smart enough to know that. I think he still has a chance but it's clear I'm in the minority here on that one.

I see even Vasquez has a lot of passed balls and is not likely to hit well. And he may very well be our starter next year. The bar is so low for catchers that it would seem someone would be willing to take a flyer on him.

You should change your name to the newandimprovedlavarnwayguy

I tried to give the guy a more positive thread but for whatever reason the guy can't catch a break. He isn't a washout yet. He still has a shot to chance to catch on with a mlb team next year even. i don't get the vitriol as he doesn't deserve it. I can only assume it's intended for me, and i'll take it in his stead. He doesn't deserve the negativity. At all.

He has become good enough to be on some team's 40 many next year for sure. And I think even a 25 man in the right situation. It's just my opinion but I wish more people shared it. The guy deserves another shot. Again, Farrell said he didn't even expect him back from the injury this year and he came back and improved his numbers. He's an underrated player IMO.

As a catcher, he struggles to block pitches, is a below-average pitch framer, and has a fringy arm and mechanics. This year, he started 14 games at catcher and 50 games at 1B/DH (after Swihart got hurt, he did make a few additional starts at catcher during the IL playoffs). Some of that is because he played behind two very good catcher prospects in Vazquez and Swihart, but those two guys will continue to get reps ahead of him (as will Butler or whoever replaces him at the glove-first third catcher), and it's very hard to see him getting sustained reps behind the plate for this organization going forward.

As a first baseman, his bat isn't enough to carry him now that we're pretty sure the power has totally evaporated. He hasn't broken a .150 ISO in three years, and he's been sub-.100 the last two years. He has good walk and decent strikeout numbers, but because the offensive bar for a first baseman is set so high, that's not going to be enough. There are just five qualified first basemen with a sub-.150 ISO this year, three of which are below-replacement-level, and two of which are James Loney and Joe Mauer, who combine either elite strikeout avoidance or elite walk rates with above-average defense, something that Lavarnway will find difficult to replicate.

Because of the above, and the fact that he's now out of options, there is a near-100% chance that one way or another (likely via DFA; maybe a trade), Lavarnway will not be on Boston's 40-man roster next spring. If DFAed, I'd guess that he has a good chance of clearing waivers and returning to the organization as emergency depth, but with Brentz and Hassan ahead of him on the right-handed bat depth chart (and a projected MLB roster stacked with them), it's hard to envision a scenario where he makes his way to Boston next year. Even with another organization, I just don't see a lot there in terms of sticking on an MLB roster long-term. He doesn't have enough glove to be a backup catcher, enough bat to be a first baseman, or enough versatility to be a bench guy.

Not quite the way it happened. He hit quite well when he first showed up in AAA. As a 23 year-old he had a fantastic line between AA and AAA, definitely not the lower minors. That line of .290/.376/.563, including 18 doubles and 18 homers at Pawtucket in only 264 PAs had us all excited. The swing got changed because it was a bit long, and it all seemed to fall apart. The power evaporated and that's when the limitations that jmei mentions came to the forefront.

Even if you're not a great or even a very good catcher, if you've got power and patience there's room for you in an AL lineup at DH and/or 1B. Lose that power, and the patience is nowhere near as valuable if your limited to those positions.

It's great that he came through in the playoffs, and I think he will get a chance somewhere. But it probably won't be with Boston, sadly.

To me he doesn't have to be an above average hitter for a catcher to have an mlb career ( you are saying above that he projects already to be an above average as a hitting catcher if I understand you correctly ). He just has to be better overall as a player than the worst overall catcher in the league. The added value of being able to play 1st some helps. His low cost helps a lot. If his bat already projects as above average that's a big plus.

He doesn't have a ton of passed balls or wild pitches. It's not good but it's not crazy bad for a young catcher just breaking into the majors. His passed ball percentages are not that much worse than Vasquez's. I'm not saying he's anywhere near as good as Vasquez ok...but he may well hit better than Vasquez and we are expecting Vasquez to start.

I'm just saying he has a decent chance to stick as a back up catcher in mlb for 5-7 years. Maybe even longer. We will see. Most of you disagree. We will see.

To me he has A's reclamation written all over him.

Platoon guy with great part time numbers with a chance to have one of those crazy hot streaks down the stretch some year into the play offs.

An ivy league Gene Tenace