Should the Chicago Cubs attempt to sign Kurt Suzuki?

Sep 21, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; Oakland Athletics catcher

(22) high five teammates after hitting a two run home run against the Minnesota Twins during the seventh inning at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

First of all, I would like to introduce myself. As you all can see, my name is David Miniel. I’m 25 years old from Sterling/Rock Falls, Illinois which is about two in a half hours outside of Chicago. I’ve been a Chicago Cubs fan for half my life. The love of this team was handed down to my by my Grandfather who passed away in March of 2000. I miss my Grandfather a lot, especially when baseball season begins.

But I know as soon as Opening Day is underway, he’s right there with me from the beginning to the end of the season. Anyways, here’s my article. Just thought I would give a little insight on myself as this is my first piece as a member of ‘Cubbies Crib’.

Let’s get this show on the road.

Right now it looks like the Oakland Athletics may not pick up the 2014 option for veteran catcher Kurt Suzuki.

With the Chicago Cubs looking to spend some money on a free agent catcher this season, this could be a good thing for this team. He’s not the most elite catcher in the league, but at the same time he’s not the most expensive and can still provide both offensively and defensively.

Now it’s pretty obvious that Dioner Navarro could end up leaving the team after having a career year batting wise, so his price tag may be higher than what he agreed on before joining the Cubs for the 2013 season.

I’m not saying the Chicago Cubs should go all-out and throw a whole bunch of money at Suzuki’s face and name a street corner after him. But he did some good things in Oakland that Billy Beane and the rest of the organization liked.

Their only problem right now is they have three other catchers who are ready to take over. If or when Navarro leaves, since we traded Clevenger to Baltimore, we would really only have Welington Castillo as a major league ready catcher.

Unless we have a prospect down there who can come up and give us a Giovanni Soto ‘Rookie of the Year’ type season.

J.C. Boscan already decided that he was going to test the free agent market. Boscan did fairly well in the six games he appeared in with the Cubs this season. He managed to put up a .222/.300/.333 batting line through six games this season.

Now back to Suzuki. He’s a 30-year-old, six-year veteran that could come with a cheap price tag. I’ll tell you this much, he’s going to be worth a lot less than Brian McCann and Mike Napoli.

Through 94 games played between the Oakland Athletics and Washington Nationals during the 2013 season, Suzuki hit five home runs and drove in 32 RBI’s. He put up a .232/.290/.337 batting line  and had a .991 fielding average.

His arm could use a little work as his caught stealing percentage was a career low of .123 He managed to throw out eight base runners but allowed 57 stolen bases between Washington and Oakland.

All i’m saying is at least give him a glance Theo and company.

One thing that Nate and Dioner showed us this year, is just because a guy comes with a cheap price tag doesn’t mean he’ll play like a cheap player.

Both Schierholtz and Navarro had career seasons with the Cubbies this year. If the Cubs take a chance on Suzuki, he could do the same thing.

Thank you for reading!