Gregg Zaun

Background
The Orioles signed catcher Gregg Zaun to a 1-year contract worth $1.5 million, with a club option for a second year. The option has a buyout of $500K, so the guaranteed money is $2 million.

Zaun, who played for the O's when he first came up in 1995-96 and who is famously Rick Dempsey's nephew, has played for 7 teams in 14 major league seasons, including Toronto for the past 5 years. It was there that he was first given the chance to start.

Stats

Year	Tm	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS+
2008	TOR	86	245	29	58	12	0	6	30	2	38	38	.237	.340	.359	87
14 Yr		1114	3125	392	783	170	9	78	405	23	437	484	.251	.344	.386	90

ND's Take
I think we can all recognize the logic behind this signing. Gregg Zaun is nothing more than a placeholder. He's keeping the dirt behind home plate warm. He's the hors d'oeuvres before the sumptuous main course.

Of course, I am referring to Matt Wieters, perhaps the O's best positional prospect since Jeffrey Hammonds (let's hope he turns out better than that one did). For any number of reasons (service time, seasoning, mentoring), the O's have decided not to hand over the keys to the Mercedes to Weiters just yet, and they fully intend to have their star catcher of the future begin the season in Norfolk.

He won't be there long. Whether it's June or August, Wieters is going to be with the big league club this coming season. Until then, though, someone has to catch the ball when the pitchers throw it. Enter Gregg Zaun.

Until this signing, the O's didn't have a single catcher on their 40-man roster. They had invited about 8 guys to spring training, the best of whom is Chad Moeller, who is not a legit option as a major league starter. Guillermo Quiroz? I don't think so.

So we considered the free agent options, and there were 4 guys out there:
- Matt Treanor: better than Moeller, but not by much, and who signed elsewhere before we could really consider him
- Jason Varitek: looking for tens of millions on a multi-year deal, which is exactly what we don't need
- Ivan Rodriguez: I'll come back to this in a minute.
- Gregg Zaun: former player who was well-liked by the fans for his hustle, which reminds them of his uncle Rick, who is an all-time fan favorite.

So, really there were two option, and one was guaranteed to appease the masses who have been irritable since Tex signed his pact with the devil. (I'm not suggesting that Zaun really satisfies those who were hellbent on having Tex in our lineup, but he's a bit of a salve to the burn for the Orioles Way crowd.)

IRod? Well, he'd have been a good mentor for Wieters IF he'd have been willing to cede his starting role midyear and become a player-coach of sorts. That doesn't sound like a wise bet to me. He's certainly not the IRod of old, so his production value wouldn't have been worth the money he was looking for.

Zaun seems to me to be a good role model. A hard worker who takes nothing for granted. A guy who respects the game and the people in the stands who are spending their hard-earned money to watch him play and are thereby paying his salary.

Is he going to hit much? Not likely. Is he a superb fielder? Not really. But the couple extra wins we might have gotten from half a season of IRod certainly isn't worth the extra salary or the potential headache of having two starters when Wieters is called up.

So kudos to the O's on this one. At least they can go get a decent placeholder when they need one.