A month after saying that acquiring a veteran backup catcher would be a top priority, Sandy Alderson downplayed the entire idea and told reporters that he would be prepared to pair Anthony Recker with Travis d’Arnaud if that’s how things work out.
Adam Rubin with the quotes:
“First of all, we like Anthony Recker as a backup,” Alderson said. “So if we were to get a more veteran guy, it would be in part out of concern that somebody is going to have to play every day if d’Arnaud gets hurt. Part of it might be a desire to have a little bit of mentorship for both d’Arnaud and Recker.”
“The nice thing is we have a guy like [coach] Bob Geren on our staff, who had been very good at that himself. So the backup veteran backup catcher is not really a high priority for us. I mean, it’s nice to have. We’ve got some other need-to-have holes to fill.”
You might infer then that a reunion with John Buck would not seem overly likely.
“Ultimately if we have to go with Recker and d’Arnaud, we’re happy with that,” Alderson said. “It would be nice to have somebody else available to us. [Rookie Juan] Centeno is the only other guy that we have under contract at the Triple-A level, so we’d like to have somebody else. But it’s not a high priority.”
My guess is that Sandy is suffering from sticker shock. I think it’s safe to say that as much as they wanted you to believe everything is now hunky-dory, it’s obviously not…
Lot’s of back-pedaling going on early in the hot stove season for the front office… Lot’s of back-pedaling…
