Miguel Olivo – Blech
Dave · December 8, 2010 at 5:30 pm · Filed Under Mariners
Reportedly for two years and $7.5 million. Not a fan of this at all. More analysis coming later, but I would consider this Jack’s worst move since giving Brandon Morrow away.
Apparently, this one might be bunk. Word in Orlando is that could all be smoke. Shannon Drayer says talkings are ongoing but nothing is done.
If Olivo is the answer, what is the question?
Hey, it could be worse.
For his career Olivo has a strike-out rate of 27.8% and a walk rate of 4.1%. Let me repeat that: a walk rate of 4.1% !! In over 3,000 plate appearances he has walked 125 times. That is absurd.
I hate Miguel Olivo. (As a player – I’m sure he’s a perfectly wonderful person.)
I would say that it is at least better than what we had last year – but I’m not sure its going to be. At least last year didn’t cost us anything save for a few fragments of our souls.
Did we have to give him 2 years? Blech …
Does Jack want to make every night “Turn Back the Clock Night” at the Safe?
Maybe we can bring Quinton McCracken and Wiki Gonzalez back.
The only thing cool about him is we share the same Birthday. Same year too. That little confidence in Moore huh. How’s his defense?
Fair point. But I’m not so sure Olivo’s translated stat line will be much better. Hopefully he can at least … you know … catch the ball.
Positive Spin:
1) We are a jammed finger away from Rob Johnson without adding a catcher
2) Jose Lopez (Olivo) will be batting 8th instead of 4th this year!
I guess he can keep the seat warm until Steve Baron is ready.
Really?? Is a good defender but awful hitter so far…
Oh, c’mon, guys, look on the bright side: when Oliva played for us last time we only lost 93 and 99 games. Come back year!
I am pretty sure he was being sarcastic about Baron…
There does not seem to be any confirmation on this rumor yet. Maybe this discussion is moot?
Good point. I just wanted to give Moore the full time job and see what he has. Olivo’s experience could help Moore though.
Perhaps Miggy is Felix’s personal catcher now, and Moore is still the fulltime catcher. Just not the Opening Day catcher.
Dammit-
This is horrible news– I thought I had read somewhere that the M’s had signed Olivia Newton-John… “Xanadu… XAN… A… DUUUUUU…”
It’s Xanudu! (Great slogan for next year.)
The team can wear roller skates on the field…
Hopefully this isn’t going to happen, because I’ve been shaking my head for 10 minutes in disbelief.
Plus!!! If we had signed Olivia-Newton John…
They could play “Summer Nights” from Grease in the middle of the season…
And everytime Jack Wilson comes to bat, maybe “Hopelessly Devoted To You”…
And when Boston comes to town– “You’re the One That I Want” (Oooh… Oooh… Oooh…) when Adrian Gonzalez bats… (Or when Cliff Lee pitches for the Yankees/Rangers/A’s…)
(okay, done now)
NO NO NO NO NO BAD TOUCH BAD TOUCH
MrZDevotee,
The ’70s aren’t coming back. Deal with it.
I just hope we can say the same thing about Miguel Olivo.
I believe that the tweet insinuated that the Mariners are the most likely team to have offered Olivo the two year contract. It does not state that we are for a fact, that team.
Maybe Dayton Moore will get Olivo Fever and sign him to a multiyear contract. Here’s hoping!
Apparently, this one might be bunk.
Praise Jeebus.
I hope this rumor is another falsehood. I’m losing some confidence in Z. But I’m also concerned with his emphasis on the failures of the young guys last year. It seemed like the team did everything they could for much of the year to make sure Saunders and Moore would have as little confidence and consistent playing time as possible, repeatedly benching them in favor of alternatives such as Byrnes, Griffey, and Rob J. Plus it’s not just the young guys who were not performing – how about calling the veterans, such as Figgy, to task?
I hope this isn’t true. 🙁
Do we give up a draft pick? I mean, the Blue Jays did offer him arbitration… If we have to give up a draft pick this is Bavasi bad.
Oh wait. Does that just mean they are given an extra pick from at the end of the first round? I’m confused.
I said in the previous Olivo-related thread that I didn’t think this was true, that there was nothing about it that passed the smell test, and so on. I still want to believe I was right the first time, and I hope Divish is correct, and by the time anything comes to pass everyone will have come to their senses…
…if not, I’m done. While this would scarcely qualify as the kind of colossal cock-up to which we all became accustomed under the Bavasi regime, it would demonstrate to me that the current FO doesn’t get it to the degree we all thought they did. If they bring him in on a cheap contract for one year because they couldn’t find another warm body to be a veteran back-up to Moore, I guess I could live with it. If they commit more than one year to that chump, then, f**k it. 34 years of incompetence punctuated by a few wonderful memories between 1994-2003: there’s a line between glutton for punishment and masochist, and if the team is really stupid enough to bring Olivo back, at least for me, that line has been crossed.
Perhaps I am being a bit shrill, but WTF? There is not a single metric — from eye tests to advanced stats — that in any way suggests this could ever be a good idea. If there’s any truth to this and it comes to pass…AAAARGH!!!
Somewhere out there Bill Bavasi is nodding his head in approval.
Long time reader of the site, but this is my first post.
I am assuming that the Olivo report is circular reporting. As far as I can see, there is one tweet from Troy Renck located here: http://twitter.com/TroyRenck/status/12670926223056896
It seems like this has spun from an unsure tweet to fact. I give Jack Z a little more credit than to sign Olivo (especially for 2 yrs 7.5 mil).
We need a catcher and there is a short list of impact catchers, but what about Russell Martin? I say offer 2 yrs for 10 million. This is not out of the question in terms of salary. Plus even with his off years the past two, he was still a 2 WAR hitter. Hopefully a change of scenery will benefit him, and he could rekindle his inner 2007-2008 Russell Martin. He has infinitely more upside than Olivo. That is my take on our catching situation, if we spend money we should get a potential middle of the line up hitter (we need one!).
So Dave please pass along my proposal to Jack Z 😉
Thanks! Good work USSM team!
No, the Blue Jays get a compensatory supplemental pick. This means they insert a new pick in there and no one loses a pick, they just all get shifted back one slot after the first round. So there really is no draft cost to signing these types (Type B) of players.
This one really made me LOL.
In another note, if we sign Miguel Olivo to be the full time catcher I’m gonna drink until I pass out to the next winter meetings.
Why are we not seriously looking into Ryan Doumit, Ricky Nolasco, or Josh Willingham?
But, but – it has the Drayer/Salk seal of approval!
He may not be a great fit, but he is an older guy that has been around and will compete with Moore, if it makes moore a better catcher and he is cheap (cheap being the key) enough I dont mind it as much as others. Now go get Josh Willingham and Ian Desmond from the Nats or maybe Valbuena from the Indians and the team continues to rebuild nicely and could still win a few games while blooding the kids.
Buy low, sell high when managing roster assets. We seem to have the first part down.
Progress over the previous regime!
Oh Miguel Olivo:
Welcome back.. your dreams were your ticket out.. welcome back.. to that same old place that you laugh about.. Well the names have all changed since you hung around.. But those dreams have remained and they’re turned around.
Who’d have thought they’d lead ya.. Here where we need ya.. Yeah we tease him alot cause we got him on the spot.. Welcome back…
um, really?
Only I think I’d actually rather have one of the Sweathogs behind the plate next year than Mike Olive.
MLB Traderumors is announcing it’s official…2 years and 7 million…terrible…
FoxSports says the deal is done. $7M for 2 years, with an option for a third year.
Well the bar is set very low for Olivo. So if he can hit above .200 and have an OPS above .700 then it’s a big upgrade. Still think 7mil is way too much and safeco is going to kill Olivo’s power numbers.
Yup. On Tuesday Drayer talked about him being “fiery” and bringing “leadership”, how Felix would “love throwing to him” (Hello, RoJo! Watch those batters’ feet!), and how he’s caught two no-hitters.
He sucked the first time around…what does Z think has changed since then? If he’s the everyday starter, it’s pathetic…if he’s just there to take Rob Johnson’s role as Felix’s caddy, then that’s an awful expensive caddy…
I have a feeling this is Z’s last year…
Oh, and he was Grienke’s personal catcher in 2009. Somehow that mattered too.
Did these media folks somehow not notice that Felix didn’t exactly tank after Rojo got himself demoted?
The Rockies traded Miguel Olivo to Toronto a month ago for a PTBNL. They declined his $2.5M option making him a free agent.
Why didn’t we get involved earlier?
Well this IMO, is the worst move Jack Z has made. I know the M’s need a catcher, but not this bad. They should have saved this $ for another pitcher.