Salty Dog

Jarrod Saltalamacchia wasn't behind the plate last night in Erik Bedard's second start for Boston, a 4-3 win over Minnesota. But his play of late has made him an integral part of the squad, and so I decided make a quick comparision of Salty and the the one that got away. Here's a quick look at how Saltalamacchia stacks up against Victor Martinez, whom the Sox let walk last offseason:

Player	Salary	G	AVG	HR	RBI	OBP	OPS	OPS+	rWAR	fWAR	CS%
VMart	$12,000,000	99	.325	6	64	.376	.818	129	1.9	1.8	22%
Salty	$750,000	72	.257	11	38	.323	.800	115	1.3	2.4	30%

Going by the traditional stats, Martinez has the advantage hands down. But there are several things in the Sox favor when considering to go with Salty as their (mostly) everyday catcher this year. A deeper look reveals that Martinez has caught just 26 games behind the plate, making him slightly less valuable as a DH/1B option (which clearly the Red Sox are not in need of). This explains why Fangraphs has Salty rated higher with a 2.4 WAR over VMart's 1.7. Add that to his improving defense, and it's looking like the Sox have found their catcher for the next half decade. The money saved on Martinez to sign Gonzalez and (ahem...) Crawford doesn't hurt either. In any case, we'll keep an eye on this as the season moves into October.