Bet you never expected to read an article with that title, right?
In the past week and a half we have seen both major parties roll out their selections for Vice President of the United States. Donald Trump and the Republicans have tabbed Governor Mike Pence of Indiana. Hillary Clinton and the Democrats will go with Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia.
This job that Pence and Kaine run for is one of the oddest eggs we can imagine. Constitutionally the VP has only one official role which is as the President of the US Senate. But this is ceremonial and one that the VP’s rarely attend to. It is true that they can vote if the Senate is tied and this comes up every so often. For the most part the vice president’s role is to become president if the president dies or becomes incapacitated.
What power and influence he has is based on his personal relationship with the president. In recent years we have seen VP’s given an active role like those of Joe Biden and Al Gore. Meanwhile some think Dick Cheney was not only the most powerful VP in modern history but that he had more overall influence on the direction the country took than even his boss, the President.
Before all that the VP was a forgotten soul. Harry Truman had almost no relationship at all with FDR. When Roosevelt died Truman was told: “You’re the president now and oh, by the way, we are building an atomic bomb.” That’s what I call being out of the loop.
So what has this to do with baseball or sports in general?
In some sports there are roles also filled by folks who don’t get to play much but rather must endure the waiting game.
Do you recognize the name Ryan Nassib? If you are a casual fan of the NFL you probably do not but the more knowledgeable fans know that Nassib is the backup quarterback for the New York Giants. His entire season last year consisted of one game in which he went 5-for-5 passing.
Most NFL QB’s aren’t the ironmen that Eli Manning is so the backup quarterback is usually more active than this but that position is pretty much the vice president of the NFL team.
You can make the case for the backup goalies in hockey and the guys at the very end of an NBA bench. In the lower leagues or in college they were uber stars but where they are in the ultimate league is one where the motto is “hurry up and wait.”
In baseball the VP role goes to the backup catcher especially if that player is dramatically inferior to the number one guy.
Rene Rivera is currently the Mets’ backup catcher. He is a notoriously bad hitter with enough power to occasionally “run into one” and reach the cheap seats like he did in the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Cardinals. He is a very good defensive player with a better than average throwing arm both for power and accuracy. He also has a reputation as a good pitch framer buying many borderline pitches as strikes for his pitcher de jour.
Were the #1 guy, Travis d’Arnaud, to be injured (and what are the odds of that – maybe 80% or more) it might fall to Rivera to take over the role. It is likely that Rivera’s offense would be so poor that the team would have to either bring up Kevin Plawecki or find another catcher outside the organization to be the interim #1.
Just like in politics you really hope that you can keep your backup catcher and vice president out of the top job.
Nice job, Larry.
There are a few examples where the back-up has had to step into the starter’s role and performed very well–see: TR and HST.
Rene Rivera has been an awesome pick up. I think he’s an unsung hero of this team. He’s had some unexpected clutch hits on top of doing gold glove level work behind the plate. His rapport with pitchers is amazing too. I was so impressed at how quickly he spotted Thor’s diminished velocity and walked out to the mound and waved to the bench.
To your point, while Yadier Molina’s understudy might be like a backup QB, our situation is completely different. Since we have a catcher who is made out of Legos we are really forced to carry three catchers on our 40-man roster. If I were in Sandy’s shoes, I’d find a way to package him in a trade within the next year, when his value is high enough and before he enters year 2 of arbitration. I just don’t see ever committing a long-term contract to such an injury prone player.
I like Rivera too. We should trade for Lucroy though.
^ +1