This trade target fits what Eppler is looking for in a catcher

[beatlesrule]

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cervefr01.shtml?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-

Guy gets on base and according to this article https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/11/mlb-trade-rumors-francisco-cervelli-russell-martin-pirates-blue-jays.html

he's available.

[kevinb]

33 year old catcher who put up basically his career year last year in the NL Central. Ehh pass 

[Stradling]

Zero chance the Angels will go after a $10 million catcher with limited upside.  I don’t even think I’d want them to pay Ramos $10 million.  

[totdprods]

If he came with Nova, didn’t cost any prospects, and Pittsburgh ate some money or took some salary back, it wouldn’t be the worst move. How OBP is consistently solid and he and Nova have Yankee ties.

Still a little too much scratch for average players though. Now if they wanted to headline with Taillon and and we chipped in some big name prospects...

[Docwaukee]

6 minutes ago, totdprods said:

If he came with Nova, didn’t cost any prospects, and Pittsburgh ate some money or took some salary back, it wouldn’t be the worst move. How OBP is consistently solid and he and Nova have Yankee ties.

Still a little too much scratch for average players though. Now if they wanted to headline with Taillon and and we chipped in some big name prospects...

[Angelsfan1984]

How about Russell Martin if they throw in stroman? Perhaps the Angels  could flip Calhoun in the deal with a low level prospect...

[Pancake Bear]

Russell Martin is awful and expensive. 

Cervelli would be cool if he can play 1B also. Basically, if we’re getting a bat first C, he should be able to play 1B part time. 

[Docwaukee]

Martin has 1/20 left and is 36.  He'd be worth about 1/5 as a free agent.  He's also pretty terrible offensively.  

[beatlesrule]

15 hours ago, totdprods said:

If he came with Nova, didn’t cost any prospects, and Pittsburgh ate some money or took some salary back, it wouldn’t be the worst move. How OBP is consistently solid and he and Nova have Yankee ties.

Still a little too much scratch for average players though. Now if they wanted to headline with Taillon and and we chipped in some big name prospects...

They are better than average though. Both of those guys. Eppler likes guys that get on base and don't have a big contract attached. Fransisco fits that bill and so does Nova in regards to not on a big contract and pretty good. Eppler traded for Kinsler last year and his contract was 11 million.

[totdprods]

49 minutes ago, beatlesrule said:

They are better than average though. Both of those guys. Eppler likes guys that get on base and don't have a big contract attached. Fransisco fits that bill and so does Nova in regards to not on a big contract and pretty good. Eppler traded for Kinsler last year and his contract was 11 million.

Ivan Nova's 3-yr average for ERA+: 99 (100 is league-average)
Cervilli's 3-yr average for OPS+: 102 (100 is league average)

They're about as definitively league-average as you can get...and that's not a bad thing. 
I'd wager most of the hitters and pitchers those two would replace ran around a 70-80 last year, so an even 100 would be big.

Only issue is it'd still be using up about 2/3 of our money. We'd still be needing some help in the form of, any caliber, one more SP, one RP, a 1B, and a 4th OF.  Pretty tough to do those with only ~$10m remaining. Pittsburgh would need to eat some money, throw in a reliever, take some money back, or the Angels would have to get creative. 

Overall, I'd tend to be in favor of it though.

[beatlesrule]

10 minutes ago, totdprods said:

Ivan Nova's 3-yr average for ERA+: 99 (100 is league-average)
Cervilli's 3-yr average for OPS+: 102 (100 is league average)

They're about as definitively league-average as you can get...and that's not a bad thing. 
I'd wager most of the hitters and pitchers those two would replace ran around a 70-80 last year, so an even 100 would be big.

Only issue is it'd still be using up about 2/3 of our money. We'd still be needing some help in the form of, any caliber, one more SP, one RP, a 1B, and a 4th OF.  Pretty tough to do those with only ~$10m remaining. Pittsburgh would need to eat some money, throw in a reliever, take some money back, or the Angels would have to get creative. 

Overall, I'd tend to be in favor of it though.

In regards to OBP, Fransisco is not average.  From all accounts, Eppler likes OBP.  He also threw out 39 percent of guys trying to steal. I guess you can pick and choose certain stats to show average but in the categories Eppler seems to value, they aren't average at least not Fransisco.  It's also about not giving up a draft pick. I haven't done too much research so I don't know how many pitchers or catchers that are available are as good and Fransisco and Nova and don't cost a draft pick and will be the same or cheaper than those 2.  If you can trade some fringe guys that weren't a first round pick or whatever and get a player or players that are better and cheaper than signing a FA and giving up a draft pick, you do it.  Keep in mind the budget this team has and Epplers statement about how important draft picks are. You kind of hint at the budget but again, what better players are out there at C and SP that are as good and as cheap as those 2?

[totdprods]

4 hours ago, beatlesrule said:

He also threw out 39 percent of guys trying to steal. I guess you can pick and choose certain stats

Pick and choose certain stats eh? All signs point to that 39% being a massive outlier. His career CS% is 23% - 20% in 2017, 19% in 2016, 22% in 2015...

Also, I'm not sure where you're trying to go with this...I said I was in favor of trading for both, so I'm not disagreeing that they'd be good targets, just stating that overall, their production is league average - which is a good thing relative to our prior production.