The Giants have sent LHP Jack Taschner to the Phillies for C Ronny Paulino. Meet your new backup catcher.
From SFGiants.com:
Paulino, 27, could replace Steve Holm as the Giants’ backup catcher. Paulino hit .278 in 304 games with Pittsburgh from 2005-08 before Philadelphia obtained him in an offseason trade. Paulino played in only 40 games for the Pirates last year due to a sprained right ankle and hit .212 with two home runs and 18 RBIs. But he had his most productive season in 2007, hitting .263 with a career-high 11 home runs and 55 RBIs, matching a personal best.
I can’t find much to disagree with about this trade. Taschner was obviously working on borrowed time after his struggles in Spring Training and the Giants really don’t have the time this season to let him figure things out. He’ll be 31-years-old this season and his career has been plagued by inconsistency. If everything breaks right, Taschner is a middle reliever but Philly obviously wasn’t happy with their in-house left-handed options.
Paulino’s best season came in 2006 when he put up a .330 wOBA and was worth +2.6 wins. He dropped to +1.8 wins in 2007. Paulino didn’t play much in 2008 because of injury. Paulino has hit LHP quite well in his career — quite well is probably an understatement — putting up a line of: .355/.417/.498 in 288 career PA’s against lefties. Of course, Molina also hits left-handed pitching well. I don’t know much about his defense but BaseballProjection.com has his 2009 projected defense at +1 run above average, indicating that he’s not horrible.
Not a bad deal for the Giants. Paulino will only be 28-years-old this season and, unlike Taschner, he’s been productive at the major league level a couple of times in his career. He’s probably not starting material but as far as backups go, he’s not a bad option and he does have some slight upside. Good deal. Now, sign Ohman and we’ll be cooking.
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Update: But wait, there’s more! From Baggs:
The long vigil has ended. The Giants finally completed their dealings late Friday night, flipping C Ronny Paulino to the Florida Marlins for minor league RHP Hector Correa.
The Giants had acquired Paulino earlier in the evening for left-hander Jack Taschner. With the loop closed, the Giants will save Taschner’s $835,000 salary. They might spend that, and more, on free-agent left-hander Will Ohman, but I don’t get the sense that move will follow, necessarily.
More tomorrow.
So it goes Jack Taschner -> Ronny Paulino -> Hector Correa. Correa was drafted by the Marlins in the 4th round of 2006. Baseball America had this to say about Correa after his 2007 season:
Hector Correa, rhp, Marlins. He posted an ugly 9.29 ERA in low Class A, but Correa was just 19 and fanned 83 in 59 innings after a demotion to short-season ball. Regardless of his stats, it’s his stuff that’s noteworthy. With little effort, he throws low-90s fastballs and low-80s sliders, and he also has faith in a changeup with nice life.
He missed most of 2008 with injuries. Like the Paulino deal, this isn’t bad either. I’m surprised the Giants got anything for Taschenr, really. Correa is another upside-arm that the Giant can stash away in their minor league system. Steve Holm just breathed a sigh of relief.
As attractive as Paulino was, another catcher seems silly when you have uber-prospect Posey in your farm system. And we have Sandoval, who is a catcher despite the best efforts of the team to forget that. This kid Correa just turned 21, so we dealt for upside, as you said. I’m sorry to see the Special Agent go, and I expect he’ll pitch against us this year and strike out the side, but that’s OK, he played his way off the team and that’s how it goes. So, who’s our LOOGY?