Zach Wilt: Did O's, Wieters make the right call in offseason?

Back in November, Matt Wieters and the Baltimore Orioles made baseball history. The Birds catcher became one of the first players to accept a team's qualifying offer when he agreed to sign back with the O's on a one-year, $15.8 million deal. Prior to last offseason, all 34 players who were extended a qualifying offer turned it down in favor of hitting the open market. Sometimes it worked in their favor, sometimes it didn't. Looking at you, Nelson Cruz. Wieters, along with Brett Anderson and Colby Rasmus, opted not to take the risk, but instead accepted the cash and returned to their respective clubs.

This was a big deal for the Orioles. Wieters is a Scott Boras client who was seen as the best catcher in last season's free agent market despite coming off an injury plagued season. Boras always advises his clients to hit free agency as that's where the most money is typically found. However, Wieters' value was a bit lower than it could potentially be this winter, as he was just a season removed from Tommy John surgery. Some didn't think it was worth it for the Orioles to risk having to pay him nearly $16 million, but others argued that picking up a first round draft pick if and when he signed elsewhere made the offer worthwhile. Wieters returned and here in early June, the internet is still dissecting whether the right move was made last winter.

Through 40 games, Wieters has been valued at just under 1 fWAR, his same total in 75 games played a season ago. He's currently slashing .282/.327/.437 and outperforming most of the statistics that the preseason projections had set for him. ZiPS from FanGraphs predicted that he'd hit .262/.314/.431 with 1 fWAR in just 59 games. He should have no problem exceeding those totals.

Among catchers with at least 100 plate appearances, Wieters ranks first in the American League in batting average, second in on-base percentage and first in slugging. His 106 wRC+ is second in the AL behind Astros backstop Jason Castro (109). He's ahead of his career totals in all three categories.

Defensively, the advanced statistics haven't been kind to Wieters in recent years. Despite an All-Star appearance in 2014, he recorded zero defensive runs saved in 194.2 innings behind the plate. He hasn't had a positive number in that category since 2012, when he posted a 10 DRS. He's at -1 so far this season.

The pitch framing statistics tend to indicate that more often than not, Wieters costs Orioles pitchers strike calls more than he turns close balls into strikes. According to data from StatCorner.com, coming into last night's contest, 15.5 percent of balls were caught inside the strike zone with Wieters behind the plate. Of course, these statistics are very new and tend to vary slightly depending on the source.

Wieters' fWAR is valued at $7 million on the free agent market. Which means that right now he's obviously being paid over twice his value so far this season. But we're just about one third of the way through the year. Those numbers could quickly balance out.

Of course, given the severity of Caleb Joseph's injury, having Wieters back on the roster this season has been incredibly important for the Orioles. Earlier this week, we learned that Joseph won't catch again for another month after undergoing surgery on May 31. Imagine the O's being without their top two catchers this season.

Looking back on the decision to extend the qualifying offer to Wieters, I feel the same way about it as I did last fall. It was the right move for the Orioles at the time. Could they risk overpaying him in 2016? Absolutely, though I don't think they will based on the information I presented above. Even if they do, it's worth having his experience back in Baltimore and worth picking up a first round draft pick had he turned it down and signed elsewhere.

Zach Wilt blogs about the Orioles at Baltimore Sports Report. Follow him on Twitter: @zach_wilt. His views appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our pages. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.