Ausmus Returns to the Dodgers
The Dodgers brought in Brad Ausmus last year as a mentor to young catcher Russell Martin. Apparently, they were happy with that arrangement, as the club agreed to continue its relationship on Tuesday, signing the 40-year-old (41-year-old in April) to a contract guaranteeing one million dollars this year with a mutual option for 2011.
Simply put, Brad Ausmus is a terrible hitter. A horrible hitter. Adjectives struggle to describe how bad of a hitter Brad Ausmus is. Even with his extremely lucky 2009 – a .370 BABIP, 80 points above his career average resulted in a .322 wOBA in 107 PAs, just below average – Ausmus has compiled a stunning -51.8 wRAA since 2006. CHONE projects him for a ridiculously bad 52 wRC+. Yes, that’s right – Ausmus is projected to be half as productive as the average MLB hitter. Basically, that means that Ausmus is no longer an MLB hitter.
Of course, it’s only one million dollars for a large market club and it’s just a backup catcher role. What does it really matter? Still, roster spots have value, and the Dodgers are far from the point that the Yankees are where another marginal win holds little sway over their playoff fate. Even with Russell Martin’s general health in 2009, Ausmus still saw 100 plate appearances. At the level that CHONE projects him, that’s about a 6 run loss versus an average hitter, and a 5 run loss versus the projected offensive level of AJ Ellis, for whom CHONE projects a 94 wRC+.
I’m going to give Ned Colletti the benefit of the doubt and assume that he isn’t fooled by Ausmus’s performance last year and is instead bringing him back to continue his mentoring of Russell Martin. Martin, at 27 and entering his 5th season, can probably be considered a veteran at this point. Even if you buy that Martin still needs to be treated like a rookie, consider this: After three straight 107 or higher WRC+ seasons, the addition of Brad Ausmus coincided with a substantial drop in power and Martin’s worst season yet, with an 88 wRC+.
This is nowhere near enough data to suggest that Ausmus is responsible for this decline, and to make such a claims would be irresponsible. What’s more likely is that Brad Ausmus’s presence has not and will not affect Martin’s skill in the slightest – after all, Martin is a better hitter than Ausmus ever was in his career – and the Dodgers are wasting an important roster spot at a time when they need all the wins they can get as a playoff contending team.
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Clearly a move made for intangibles, rightly or wrongly. Ausmus has always been considered a great clubhouse presence, almost a player coach. Which makes me wonder why they didn’t just bring him back as an *actual* coach…
I believe Paul Bako was also available….just sayin’.
Personally, I think Russell Martin was a bit overrated when he first came up and he’s probably playing at about the level he’s capable of being at. (if you average the last couple years). It happens.
The Dodgers need to just trade Ellis. He just OBP’d .438 in AAA in 2009, and the Dodgers still felt the need to resign Ausmus (who’s really not all that bad if you place any faith in the Catcher RAA statistic found on baseball-reference), so it’s pretty obvious they have no intention of using him.
The Mets, for example, could be a bidder for Ellis’ services.
And what mentoring he’s providing!
Look I’m not sayin’ that Ausmus is a negative influence on Martin, but isn’t it funny that Martin’s numbers have gone down during Ausmus’ tenor with the Dodgers? What’s Colletti’s goal here? Isn’t it a coincidence that ‘Colletti’ sure sounds a lot like ‘Illuminati?’ I’m not sayin’ that this is a socialist conspiracy to make all catcher’s talent levels equal, but it’s interesting that no one else is reporting on this.
Martin’s numbers have headed down for two years now. To even hint that Ausmus has some influence on that is crazy.
I think the point is that Ausmus brings nothing to the table. He’s probably not making Martin worse, but he’s not making Martin better either. So the Dodgers are giving up money and a roster spot to a catcher who brings zero benefit to the team.
Martin’s wRC+ since 2006: 107, 126, 117, 88.
Yeah, he dropped off slightly in 2008, but hardly enough to call it “headed down” at the magnitude that we saw last year.
Martin’s downward slide pretty much started at the 2008 All-Star break. In 2008:
pre ASB: .294/.394/.436 (.316 BABIP)
post ASB: .260/.371/.336 (.299 BABIP)
For his career:
pre 2008 ASB: .289/.373/.450, 1 HR every 38 PA
post 2008 ASB: .253/.358/.331, 1 HR every 85 PA
Martin’s power has disappeared since he hung out with Alyssa Milano at that party during the 2008 All-Star festivities 🙂
If you’re going to lose your power, that would be a good way to do it.
This deal seems pretty bad, which just makes the Kendall and Pudge deals look ludicrously terrible.
Let’s face it, most backup catchers are below average hitters for their position. Given that Ausmus may get 100 PA again this year, how many wins (or fractions of wins) are the Dodgers missing out on by rostering Ausmus over some other journeyman catcher that could’ve been signed for around $1M? My guess is that it is not even worth wasting a breath over.
And to the others that have mentioned trading A.J. Ellis, I think this would be irresponsible as he would likely be the starter if Martin were to see any significant time on the DL. Ellis is more benefited by playing every day in AAA than wasting away and running his service time clock sitting on the bench in LA.
Also, I believe that any analysis of Ausmus should not only take his offense into account, but also his defense. Defensive metrics for catchers are not reliable at this point, but obviously some catchers play better defense than others. FWIW, Chone has Ausmus as a +4 defender at catcher.
vr, Xei
Don’t be too high on the Dodgers’ idea of Ellis. He’ll be 29 in April, and his MLE from 2009 was .238/.347/.284. He’s basically an even lighter hitting, older version of 2009 Russell Martin. Sure he’s cheap, but as we’ve seen with Ausmus, Buck, etc, you can sign any ole catcher for not a lot of money to serve as a backup.
On the other hand, someone might be willing to part w/ a decent prospect due to Ellis being a catcher and having a great walk rate. Yes, walk rate is always a big plus, but unfortunately it’s all Ellis really has going for him offensively. He has 4 HR’s in his 174 game PCL career, and that’s just not going to fly, imo, as a .240 hitter.
Dodgers fans: Enjoy Brian Sabean v2.0! First it’s the 40 yr old catcher. Now comes trading good prospects for marginal ‘veterans’ and signing broken down 35 yr old infielders who can’t hit, field, or stay healthy.
Enjoy!
Two straight trips to the NLCS. Those darn Phillies!! 🙂
vr, Xei
Let’s face it. Brad Ausmus is never going to mentor Russell Martin on the art of hitting. If he’s going to help anywhere, it’s on defense.
That’s why this is alarming:
Martin’s “Catch” runs above average, from baseballprojection.com:
2006: 2
2007: 7
2008: 1
2009: -6
I love me some Brad Ausmus, but he obviously isn’t rubbing off on Russell.
Where I come from, one guy “rubbing off” on another is not a good thing.
Man, that’s my 2nd bad joke in one thread.
Anyway, I will give Jack some credit for writing a serious article on Ausmus resigning with LAD. I wouldn’t have made it past “Who gives a crap?” if I was writing such an article.
Note: I’m not commenting on jack’s writing or research just the hum-drum nature of anything Brad Ausmus.
A $1M deal for a decent backup catcher (never mind the “mentoring”/”clubhouse presence” part) is hardly a move worth criticizing to this extent. You can say it’s a waste of a roster spot, but obviously every team has to have a backup catcher. How many other teams have backup catchers who are really good hitters? If they could hit (and field) well enough, they’d be starting. Who would you suggest they should have acquired instead?
I’m not so much down on this move ($1MM? Who cares, you can just cut him if you want) as I am critical of the Dodgers still keeping A.J. Ellis. Seems like a waste of a guy who might have trade value for the Dodgers.
A.J. Ellis has very little to no trade value. The Dodgers need him on the 40 man for depth purposes.
vr, Xei
Weren’t the Royals looking into acquiring Ellis before getting their Sabean on by signing Jason Kendall?
Where was the article calling Mark Shapiro dumb for signing Mark Redmond, the 38 year old who OPSed .588 last year? Or is this just an excuse to slam Ned Colletti?
It’s a backup catcher, you could redistribute them at random and no one would notice.
*Yawn*, BFD I say.. What the Dodgers ought to be worrying about is who’s going to pitch for them every 4th and 5th day. Lady Billingsley, Kuroda, Kershaw, Padilla, then who? Roster says Charlie Haeger. Really??
I think you named four pitchers. The Dodgers would only need to look for a fifth starter and James McDonald, Scott Elbert, Josh Lindblom and Eric Stults come to mind. Charlie Haeger is in the mix and, really, fifth starters aren’t usually BFD’s for any team
Just a random thought – maybe they brought Ausmus on to be Haeger’s personal catcher. Knuckleballers..
Martin caught Haeger a couple of times in relief at the end of the year. It doesn’t seem that Martin has trouble catching knuckleballers. We just assume that the starter can’t catch a knuckleballer because of Jason Varitek.
When I see Ned Colletti’s name, all I can think of are snake skin boots. Sigh…
Pretty much, moral of the story, Ausmus and Carroll’s salaries would be much better spent giving Logan White two draft picks to play with by offering Wolf arb.
Yeah, any non-league min signing of a replacement level player has that exact undertone.