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Braves Add Backup Catcher Ryan Lavarnway

By Fred Owens

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Apr 8, 2015; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Baltimore Orioles catcher Ryan Lavarnway (60) at bat against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Baltimore Orioles 2-0. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

According to Kevin McAlpin the Braves have signed another backup catcher.

The Braves are uneasy about their catching depth.  That appears to be a message they’d like Christian Bethancourt to hear and understand.

On May 12th they signed veteran backstop Wil Nieves to a minor league deal and stationed him at Gwinnett. When the Brewers were in town word came that the Braves had inquired about Jonathan Lucroy and today they sign Lavarnway.

Ryan Lavarnway

Lavarnway la-VARN-way was selected in the sixth round of the 2008 Amateur Draft by the Red Sox.  An outfielder in high school he converted to catching at Yale and led Division one in hitting (.467) as a sophomore. He followed up that 14 homer year with a 13 homer Junior season even though a broken wrist cost him the last eight games of the season and set an Ivy League record with 33 homers in his three years there.

Baseball America (subscription required) had this to say about the backstop after his 2011 season.

"“Lavarnway generates plus power with a combination of strength and discipline. He works counts, lets pitches travel deep and pounds the ball to all fields. His swing is relatively compact considering his long arms. Lavarnway’s defensive improvement is a tribute to his intelligence and work ethic. He lacks athleticism and agility, but he has transformed himself from a dreadful receiver to an adequate one. . . his arm strength is just fringy (but a) quick release and throwing accuracy allowed him to erase 38 percent of base stealers in 2011. . . .he has well below-average speed, his only other option is first base. . .”"

In spite of being slow and just average behind the plate Lavarnway was MLB’s #93 prospect prior to the 2012 season.  He also ranked #98 for Baseball prospectus that year but his bat didn’t materialize as he finished with a .157/.211/.248/.459 line including 2 homers in 166PA. The next season saw him get only 77PA with Boston though they were more productive at bats and 2014 saw him get just 10 PA in Boston.

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In spite of going back and forth between the majors and Pawtucket his four AAA years resulted in a .284/.377/.448/.824 line including 32 homers (18 in 2011) and 130 walks while striking out just 192 times in 1102PA.

He was claimed off waivers in December last year by the Dodgers then two weeks later by the Cubs and four days after that by the Orioles.  The O’s DFA’d him and he cleared waivers but elected free agency instead of accepting assignment.

That’s A Wrap

When I heard about the signing I confused Lavarnway with another red Sox backstop who was mostly glove and no bat. Lavarnway appears to be an average defender with a good arm, a good idea of the strike zone and used to have a power stroke. He sounds like a Kevin Seitzer kind of reclamation project at the plate.Defensively it’s hard to say how he’ll work out. The Braves have some good catching coaches around and Lavarnway is a hard worker so maybe they can help him improve.

The real message here is that Bethancourt needs to figure out what’s he doing wrong and fix it. I was a fan of the young catcher from two years ago and gave him a pass when he had inconsistent defense last year but this year he’s still a coin flip behind the plate. At his best he’s an elite catcher but lately he’s looked just average or below.

The Braves won’t tolerate bad defense behind the dish. AJ isn’t a great defender and now that his bat is chilly again he should only catch Shelby Miller and Mike Foltynewicz as they seem to work better with him. We could easily see one of the guys from Gwinnett come up and Betti go down if the situation doesn’t improve.

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