Cards bring back LaRue
November 30th, 2009 | by Ryan Boyer |The Cardinals will bring back backup catcher Jason LaRue for the 2010 season. The financials of the contract are not known yet.
There was speculation that the team was going to look for a higher quality backup to Yadier Molina for next season, as they wanted to give Yadi a bit more rest than he usually receives, so this does come as a bit surprising. That said, I don’t have any big issues with it.
LaRue received just 104 at-bats last season, but that number figures to grow in 2010 (he had 164 at-bats in 2008).
One guy that I would rather have as a backup to Yadi would be Bryan Anderson, but given that he is coming off a down season and was plagued by a shoulder ailment, I didn’t see him as a legitimate option, thus I am okay with bringing LaRue back for one more year.
Anything is better than Matt Pagnozzi.
Update: MLB.com Cardinals Beat Writer Matthew Leach tweeted this just after the LaRue news, confirming what I said about the chances of Anderson backing up in 2010:
There was about a 1% chance of #stlcards having a 2010 backup C from w/in the organization. 1% Pagnozzi, 0% Anderson/other.
Tags: Bryan Anderson, Jason LaRue, Matt Pagnozzi
