Padres: A Trade for Catcher Pedro Severino Could Make Sense

San Diego Padres — Why Would They Want Pedro Severino?

Let me start by saying, I don’t see Severino as a long-term solution to the Padres’ problem at catcher. I view him as a back-up, but for the rest of this 2020 season, he could certainly by the primary catcher for the Padres.

But I also don’t see anyone out there — other than Salvador Perez — that gives the Padres a proven everyday catcher.

Severino has been around a while after making his debut with the Washington Nationals in 2015.

He didn’t get a full run of things until 2018 when he played in 70 games for the Nationals and hit just .168 with 2 home runs.

But things started to click for him in Baltimore last year as he hit .249 with 13 home runs in 96 games with an OPS of .740.

That’s carried over into 2020 as he’s currently hitting .333 with 5 home runs and an OPS of .981 in 24 games.

His .367 BABIP suggests his average will come down a good bit, but he’s also striking out much less this year and is making hard contact 42.4 percent of the time he puts the ball in plate — well above his career average of 30.3 percent.

What concerns you the most with Severino is that he’s been terrible defensively. He had -13 defensive runs saves last year according to FanGraphs and has -3 this year with a negative framing rate as well.