I Can’t Believe I’m Writing A Post On Miguel Olivo

Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

I’m uncomfortable. I’m conflicted. I’m laughing. These are things that Miguel Olivo makes me feel and do. Here we are 2 weeks into the season, and we are actually discussing Miguel Olivo.

Miguel Olivo.

It’s sad, it’s senseless, the only possible thing worse about trying to write a post about Miguel Olivo, is attempting to write about the current state of the Dodger’s catchers, oof.

You don’t need me to spend ~600 words on why they’re awful, that’s been done before, and that’s been done well. I mean, I could summarize the state of the catching situation in two words: Miguel Olivo. It seems like the Dodgers enjoy signing players who either couldn’t stick with the Marlins, were mistreated by the Marlins, or both. And Miguel Olivo is both of these things.

And just in case you didn’t know who Olivo was (I wouldn’t blame you if you had no idea who he was prior to the Dodgers signing him), Miguel Olivo is a journeyman catcher who isn’t good at baseball. He’s on his 9th organization attempting to get a big league spot and stick. Olivo has amassed 500 plate appearances only once in his career, in 2011 with the Mariners (and that really shouldn’t count). His career triple slash line reads .241/.275/.417. This translates to “huh, on the very rare occasion that I so happen to hit the ball, it could possibly travel pretty far”. He’s an adequate defender, although that has deteriorated greatly with age. Oh, and he’s a catcher that turns 36 this summer.

So he’s hasn’t got much going for him aside from everyone on the Dodgers being terrible. Tim Federowicz is hitting  137% below the league average somehow. He’s had numerous mental lapses, and just doesn’t seem like a major league caliber player right now. You all know the deal behind Drew Butera. Good defense, somehow one of the top 10 worst hitters ever. It’s not great, and they have been both soooo bad, that while A.J. Ellis recovers from his knee injury, we are even talking about Miguel Olivo.

It honestly boils down to this. I don’t think Tim Federowicz is a major league caliber catcher, I don’t think Drew Butera is a major league caliber catcher, and Miguel Olivo certainly isn’t a major league caliber catcher, or else someone else, somewhere else would have snagged him to be on their major league roster. Olivo couldn’t beat out an already putrid Drew Butera or Tim Federowicz for a spot on the bench, why should he have one now? Does 2 Albuquerque influenced weeks (he’s slashing .396/.448/.698, mostly due to an insane .515 batting average on balls put in play) make up for the fact that he didn’t even show enough in spring training to earn a spot on the 25 man going?

The Dodgers catching situation is bad, everyone being discussed isn’t ideal, there’s definite chance for Olivo to be worse than FedEx and Butera, so why waste a valuable 40 man roster spot on him when he’s likely to be awful just like the ones currently on the 40 man? A.J. Ellis is back soon, not much reason to recall Olivo when he is likely to be bad, and not be on the team much anyways.

But boy, George Kottaras would look real good in Dodger blue just about now.