Management reaffirms Henry Davis at catcher for 2024
Ben Cherington talked to the MLB Network about Henry Davis on Monday
After Ben Cherington took over as General Manager, the Pittsburgh Pirates made a huge push to bolster the depth at the catcher position.
In just a short time, he brought in Henry Davis (draft), Endy Rodriguez (trade), Carter Bins (trade), and Abrahan Gutierrez (trade) from outside the organization, with two of them becoming some of the best prospects in all of baseball at the position.
Davis and Rodriguez made their major league debut this past season, with one shifting to the outfield to keep their bat in the lineup. While Davis struggled in the outfield, Endy thrived behind the plate, finishing among the major league leaders in both pop time and caught-stealing rate on Baseball Savant.
It’s always been a question if Davis would be able to stay behind the plate, but his bat vaulted him up to the top of the draft in 2021, so it didn’t seem as big a deal.
The way Endy emerged as a legitimate major league catcher worked out perfectly; he can stay behind the plate, and Davis can utilize the thing that brings him the most value to the fullest.
The Pirates don’t seem ready to give up on Davis behind the plate, as they’ve stated the plan is for him to enter 2024 as a catcher.
If day one of the Winter Meetings did anything, it was reaffirmed that, on multiple fronts, Davis would head into Spring Training as a catcher.
“In the short term, Henry is focused on catching this offseason,” Cherington said on the MLB Network Monday. “That’s where he’s doing his training, he’s going into Spring Training as a catcher.”
It’s an interesting statement, as the Pirates saw Endy emerge last year at the major league level, showing he can handle the position defensively. Also, now the fact that they now have four catchers on their 40-man roster after signing Ali Sanchez during the weekend.
Cherington mentions how Davis is one of the hardest workers in baseball and feels like he can rise to the challenge of being a major league catcher.
“We think it’s important to the Pirates, important to Henry, to give him every opportunity to be a major league catcher,” Cherington finished on the Davis topic.
“We think he can do it, so that’s what’s in the short-term.”
Of course, if Davis had graded out better in right field last year, this may not be a conversation. I’m still not sure it should be one, with the way Endy played, but if you want to give your first overall pick one last chance to prove he can catch, that’s fine.
The question comes if he doesn’t look good or isn’t one of the two best catchers after Spring Training.
Do you option your 23-year-old former first-overall pick with over 250 plate appearances last year? Or do you move him back to right field after telling him not to focus on that all offseason?
It doesn’t seem to be a good position to put yourself in if you are the Pirates.
Had to laugh at this headline at dkps: “ Cherington expects payroll to increase in 2024.” This is the classic Coonelly BS. When you’ve had a rock bottom payroll for many years, an “increase” doesn’t mean s***. The question is whether you’ll raise it to a competitive level. That’s never happened under Nutting.
Everything BC says/does makes me less and less inclined to believe this team will ever compete with him at the helm. Completely bungled the C position last year, especially with Davis. Both him & Endy "needed reps" last year, so they split them up then, each played about half the time at C anyway. Wasted half a year trying to shoehorn Davis into RF only to throw it all away in the offseason?
Lots of these decisions are seemingly pretty minor, but a small market team needs to make great decisions on the margins. This is like death by a thousand cuts.