The Case for Michael McKenry

The Royals wanted a catcher this offseason.  We signed one.  A very well documented signing.  The catching situation around Kansas City has caused some of us great heartache and migraine headaches.  I’ve seen many question or revoke their fanship, but perhaps all is for naught.  I present to you the case for Michael McKenry. 

Michael McKenry was the 7th round draft choice of the Colorado Rockies in 2006.  McKenry attended Middle Tennessee State University and was the 198th player taken in the draft that produced players such as Luke Hochevar, Evan Longoria, Clayton Kershaw, Tim Lincecum, and Max Scherzer.  The 2006 crop of draft eligible college catchers was considered very weak in that particular year.  Twelve catchers were drafted before McKenry, nine from the NCAA ranks while three from high school.  I believe none have received as much as a cup of coffee.

The Rockies have recently signed former Royal stud Miguel Olivo to battle for the starting catching position with incumbent Chris Iannetta.  This will be an interesting battle as Olivo is offensively strong while defensively horrible.  But, more importantly for McKenry, this does not allow him to get a realistic shot as the backup in Colorado this season or next.  And it’s appearing that he may be running out of chances as the Rockies have international signing highly touted prospect Wilin Rosario hot on his heals.  Rosario has been ranked ahead of McKenry in the last few Rockies prospect polls I have seen including being ranked as the #7 prospect on Sickles Rockies list. 

Baseball America ranked McKenry as the best defensive catcher in the Rockies system as he threw out 46% of base stealer last season.  Michael is said to be a natural leader with very good receiving skills.  He has the build of a catcher and will be solid defensively at the position for years to come. 

Almost everything I’ve read on Michael is good.  He hit for a decent average last year at Tulsa (.279), has a good batting eye (54 BB to 69 K), is on base quite often (.376), and seems to even have some of that slug that Trey loves (38 extra base hits out of 100 including 12 HR).  As with most catchers, speed seems to elude him as McKenry stole 2 bases out of 4 attempts last season in AA.

One scouting report that I read states that the best case outcome for Michael is an everyday MLB catcher with plus defense and a chance at above average power.  It seems as though McKenry has a relatively high ceiling and a decently good floor as a defensive MLB backup who could have some occasional pop. 

With the Royals signing of Jason Kendall now paring him with Brayan Pena, it seems as though we may have an opening at catcher either next year or the year after.  This Royal catcher timetable seems to fit McKenry’s timetable perfectly.  With the successful year at AA Tulsa, Michael seems to be on target for a MLB ETA of 2011.  Olivo and Iannetta will still be in Colorado and Rosario will probably have passed him on the prospect watch for the Rockies.  With this being the case and McKenry hitting the 25 mark on his age this year, he seems to be destined as a classic blocked player in the Rockies system.  However, if he was to break 2011 with KC as a backup catcher, he will have the opportunity to grow into a starting catcher (at age 26) with decent but limited potential. 

McKenry may never make it as a starting big league catcher, but he is younger than Jason Kendall and has a shot to make a solid MLB career.  McKenry seems to possess all the tools that Dayton Moore wants in his catcher.  And, as a bonus, and even though I don’t believe Dayton looks at this in evaluating players, he seems to be a devout Christian closing blog entries with Bible verses and seemingly living to Christian fundamentals. 

Dayton Moore seems to have a trade history with the Rockies.  In fact, he has made trades with Daniel J. O’Dowd before.  Perhaps you remember Jeremy Affeldt and Denny Bautista for Ryan Shealy and Scott Dohmann?  Or future considerations for Ramon Ramirez?  And if not those two, then perhaps Jorge de la Rosa for future considerations? 

With the recent history of Moore and O’Dowd, one would assume that we could perhaps get catcher Michael McKenry from the Rockies for only “future considerations.”  If we were to do that soon, perhaps Michael could get some seasoning in our system and begin to learn his new pitchers.  It is still scary, the thought of Dayton Moore trading away Michael Montgomery for someone like McKenry….

References:

Michael McKenry Player Page from MiLB

2006 Draft Scouting Footage from MLB.com

Sickles 2010 Prospect

Sickles 2009 Prospect

Sickles 2009 Prospect Review

Michael McKenry

MiLB AFL Blog

Scouting Report from Baseball Intellect