Posted by Craig Brown on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 3:28 pm

Suddenly in the market for a backup catcher, the Texas Rangers swung a trade today to bring former hero Ivan Rodriguez back to Arlington.

With Jarrod Saltalamacchia on the DL with arm soreness, the starting catcher job in Texas now falls to Taylor Teagarden.  Neither have distinguished themselves offensively.  Salty’s OPS+ is 74 and Teagarden is at 65.  If Ranger fans think they’re getting Pudge’s bat from 2000, they’re sadly mistaken.  His current OPS+ is 74 – the same as Saltalamacchia.

However, since catching is more about the defense (and because the Ranger lineup has more than enough firepower to compensate for a below average offensive player) I thought we should look at how this effects the Rangers defensively.

The opposition has been running on Saltalamacchia’s arm all summer.  With good reason.  He’s gunned down just 17 of 80 stolen base attempts (pitchers are responsible for two of his caught stealings.) Overall, he’s thrown out 21% of all would be thieves.

Meanwhile, Teagarden has shown to have the superior arm.  In 21 attempts, he’s thrown out eight runners trying to steal, a success rate of 38%.

Runners are aware that Teagarden’s arm is superior to Saltalamacchia’s.  According to Baseball Reference, there have been 1,153 stolen base opportunities (defined as plate appearances through which a runner was on first or second with the next base open) on Saltalamacchia’s watch.  In other words, 6.9% of all runners who can steal, attempt to do so with Saltalamacchia behind the plate.

Teagarden has seen considerably less action behind the plate for the Rangers.  He’s been the backstop for 480 stolen base opportunities, which means only 4.3% of all opportunities turn into attempts.

Now add Pudge into the mix.

Pudge has always had a gun.  For his career, he’s thrown out roughly 45% of all would be base stealers.  That’s just an awesome number.  And one of the reason’s he’ll be making a speech in Cooperstown one day.  While he’s lost some of his arm strength, he’s still throwing out runners at a decent rate.  This year, he’s thrown out 13 of 34 would be thieves, a success rate of 26%.

While his arm has lost some of it’s life, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not effective with runners on base.  This year, Pudge has been behind the plate for 1,227 stolen base opportunities.  That means just 4.1% of all opportunities turn into actual stolen base attempts.

Can Pudge still throw?  Maybe not, but in many ways it doesn’t actually matter.  That’s because Pudge is a deterrent.  The threat (or perceived threat) of his arm make runners reluctant to attempt to swipe the next base.

By bringing Pudge back, the Rangers have eased a burden on their pitchers.  By losing Salty, they’re a better team.  That may be harsh, but it’s a reality.

Pudge is making $1.5 million this year and is six plate appearances shy of kicking in some incentives.  He’ll net an additional $200,000 when he hits 350 PA’s and another $200,000 for every 25 plate appearances thereafter.  Obviously, many times when a player like this is dealt, the original team eats some of the contract.  No word on who the Rangers are sending back to Houston, but it looks like two “mid-level” prospects.

I don’t know how much Houston is paying (if anything at all) but with Texas in the hunt for the Wild Card, it seems like a small price to pay for a nifty defensive upgrade.

Ranger fans are undoubtedly delighted that one of the all-time greats is returning to the fold.  But this move is much more than a nostalgia trip.  This move is about keeping the Rangers is position to succeed.