The Phillies have agreed to, pending physical, a 2 year, $2.75 million contract in which he will make $1.25 million in 2010 and $1.5 million in 2011. In 2009, Schneider managed only a .218/.292/.335 line with 3 home runs in 194 plate appearances. It was a down year in the luck department, though, as he saw his BABIP dip to .228, down from a career average of .278. When that regresses, we can hopefully expect him to post something closer to his 2008 performance – .257/.339/.367. When Driveline Mechanics attempted to construct a combined statistic for assessing catcher value (combining pitch blocking, steal attempts, throwing errors, and fielding errors), they found Schneider to be the 12th most valuable among major league backstops. All in all, a pretty standard signing for the backup catcher spot. Certainly an improvement over both Paul Bako and Paul Hoover. A one year deal certainly would have been preferable, but at $1.5 million in 2011 it’s not exactly going to cripple the team if Schneider falls off a cliff.
Meanwhile, as I mentioned in my previous post, the Phillies signed DeWayne Wise and Wilson Valdez to minor league contracts. Both are options worth exploring. You probably know DeWayne Wise as the savior of Mark Buehrle’s perfect game last year, making a brilliant leaping catch off the wall in the 9th to prevent a home run. That’s sort of the whole story on him. He’s quite good defensively – 11.7 career UZR/150 in the outfield – but has no bat. In 153 plate appearances in 2009, he “hit” .225/.262/.366. He will likely spend 2009 in AAA trying to figure out how to get on base, and get a September call up for some defensive depth on the bench. Wilson Valdez is probably the guy that should’ve gotten Juan Castro’s contract. He’s been very good at shortstop in his career, compiling a 15.6 career UZR/150 (although the sample size is not quite where it should be for UZR to be totally reliable). Last year at the plate he managed a .256/.326/.337 line. Yes, that is an OBP over .300. Why can’t he be our backup middle infielder?
One last thing to keep your eye on: the Tigers declined to offer arbitration to Placido Polanco. This probably makes him more appealing to the Phillies, who now would not have to give the Tigers a first round draft pick as compensation for losing a Type A free agent were they to sign him. I’m personally hoping that Rube doesn’t jump at the opportunity; as I said in my offseason priorities post, Beltre is the best bang for the Phillies’ dollar, an elite defender, and DeRosa and Polanco, while an upgrade over Feliz, won’t provide a whole lot of value. Check back at the end of the day when the Phillies finalize their list of players to offer arbitration. Jayson Stark believes the Phillies will not offer arbitration to either Chan Ho Park or Scott Eyre.
