Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-Man: Brian Serven

Brian Serven is a 28-year-old (turns 29 in May) right-handed hitting catcher. He was a fifth-round draft pick in 2016 by the Rockies. He was added to the Jays 40-man roster opening day, costing the team pitcher Yosver Zulueta.

He’s played 73 games for the Rockies between 2022-23. He hit .195/.248/.332 in those games with 6 home runs. He’s played 377 games in the minors with a .240/.310/.418 with 49 home runs.

There isn’t much written about him online, but Baseball Prospective has this in their 2023 Annual.

Brian was Serven career backup catcher vibes in his rookie season, marrying some fantastic defense with three or four empty plate appearances every four or five days. The advanced stats love his glove, particularly his framing ability; by Framing Runs, he ranked 10th in the majors, albeit in a far smaller sample than his starting counterparts. On offense, he’s miles behind instead of high—too many whiffs with too aggressive an approach left him toward the bottom of the leaderboard at his position in DRC+, and that’s with the average catcher hitting like a 1990s backup middle infielder. The good news is that his defense will carry his bat. The bad news is that framing is where he grades out best, and an automatic strike zone would slash that value significantly. If the Cyberdyne offices where MLB is creating its robo umps get blown up this offseason, that’s probably Serven trying his best to escape his pending obsolescence.

Catchers will be graded differently when we get robo-umps, but Serven is a glove-first catcher who will lose much of his value if we get robo-umps. That’s a problem for later, though. Right now, we will enjoy his framing abilities and the rare times he gets into a game. He does seem like the perfect number-three catcher.

Serven started spring training with a bang, hitting 3 home runs early, which got our attention, if not the front office's. This spring, he had a .200/.310/.640 batting line in 29 PA. I don’t expect that sort of batting line if he should get 29 PA during the season.

Serven has two option years left, so he could be sent back to Buffalo when Danny Jansen comes off the IL and come back the next time a catcher gets injured.

PECOTA has Serven playing in 43 games, 136 at-bats, with 3 home runs with a .211/.271/.336 batting line.

ZiPS has 70 games (they don’t try to guess playing time) and 6 home runs, with a .190/.242/.308.

Steamer 11 games, 1 home run, .190/.251/.321 line.