The move to acquire Kelly Shoppach as a free agent this winter was a surprising and much-critiqued move by many a Red Sox fan. It appeared that the Red Sox already had a reliable backup catcher in Ryan Lavarnway, who had batted .231/2/8 in 17 games in 2011. However, in Shoppach's brief tenure with the Red Sox, he had quite a bit of success as a backup catcher-- batting .250/5/17 with solid defense in 48 games and 140 at bats. Today, in a much more anticipated move, Shoppach was traded to the Mets for a player to be named later. Shoppach will bolster a weak catching position for the Mets and will probably get more playing time, particularly against lefties, against whom he's batted .250/.313/.500 this year. Taking over as the Red Sox' backup catcher will be Ryan Lavarnway, who has batted .125/0/0 so far this year but is looked on as the catcher of the future. Hopefully the Red Sox can get some value out of Shoppach but I wouldn't count on a huge return.
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