Prospect Insider - M's miss out on Doumit

M's miss out on Doumit

By Alex Carson

By 11-18-2011

Word on the mean streets of the SoDo district is that the Minnesota Twins have inked catcher Ryan Doumit to a 1 year contract valued at $3 million.

"Hey," you might shout. "The Mariners could have used that guy!” Sure, you'd contend, the M's have Miguel Olivo but could have used Doumit as a dish backup, DH, first baseman and corner outfielder.

While Olivo was the cause of anguish for some fans in 2011, Doumit wouldn't have figured to take much of his squat time away. Doumit isn't a solid defensive catcher and the toll his body has taken isn't worth him remaining there.

Doumit's value is tied to his offensive potential. He produced a .303/.353/.477 triple slash and a .360 wOBA last season in 77 games.

Indeed, a fine shortened 2011 he had. Perhaps the best 77 game stretch of his career. Though, with an inflated BABIP from career norms and knowing that he'll be 32 on opening day, there isn't reason to expect anything explosive from him.

Signing Doumit certainly would not have solved the Mariners offensive woes. It may have been a small step in the right direction, but I'll be the first to say I'm glad I don't have to be faced with the potential of seeing Ryan Doumit flounder around left-center field in a way that would leave me longing for Raul Ibanez's defense.

Doumit could have been a decent and cheap pickup with offensive upside. Don't get too caught up though in the club losing out on handing $3 million to a non-catching catcher who also doesn't profile well anywhere else.

m\'s-miss-out-on-doumit,-kind-of

Comments
The following 6 comment(s) for this article are shown below:

1. By: skyway park on 11-18-2011 16:35:26
I am glad some other team signed him. We don't need anymore injury risk signings in my opinion and every report I've read was that he could no longer play catcher so where would he play?

2. By: Alex Carson on 11-18-2011 16:54:19
@skyway park - He's played some 1B and RF. In the AL, obviously he'd get ABs at DH, too.

3. By: Jason A. Churchill on 11-18-2011 17:43:07
It's important to note that at no time has Doumit been considered a legit option at catcher by any team that I know of. So it's not a matter or "no longer," as if you could reduce his playing time and still use him there.

4. By: rjfrik on 11-18-2011 18:25:06
I wish Z would kick the tires on Cespedes.

5. By: dafix_isin on 11-18-2011 18:43:26
If the M's front office has determined that they don't see enough signs of encouragement behind the dish, they could try to angle for a trade for the other Suzuki, Kurt. Though I will admit, I have no idea who Billy Beane would reasonably replace him with. If Beane is really in the position that he's gonna have to move a lot of his young, established talent due to budgetary constraints, how long till he has a nervous breakdown or something?

Remember it's Trader Jack, not Free Agent Jack.

6. By: rightwingrick on 11-20-2011 02:29:14
The M's constant quest for a catcher continues, whether part-time (Doumit) or not. Would have been nice to have a good bat to go to, as one of perhaps two or three "marginal improvement" moves...which may also have been the case with OF Grady Sizemore. With both of those guys apparently gone, the M's are probably rethinking their next moves for the winter. Raises the chances of a trade, in my view.

Big free agent signing? Hard to tell, since some of our brightest prospects are in AA or AAA or on the ML roster and about ready to fill the holes a free agent might fill.

3b? Liddi and Francisco Martinez, and even Kyle Seager.
LF? Wells, Robinson, J. chavez, Chaing, Saunders.
1b? Smoak, Carp

But it seems we need at least one powerful sure-thing bat to speed the development of the team.

How about Adam Jones from Baltimore for Gutierrez and pitching? David Wright from the Mets (for a year) for pitching?

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