FRIDAY: Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports (on Twitter) that Teagarden will earn $725K if he makes the Major League roster and can earn $25K for appearing in 60 and 80 games. He can also opt out of his contract if he's not in the Majors by June 15.
MONDAY: The Mets announced that they have signed catcher Taylor Teagarden to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. The 30-year-old Teagarden is a client of the Boras Corporation.
Teagarden, a former third-round pick and Top 100 prospect (per Baseball America) has spent time at the Major League level in each of the past six seasons. He's totaled 518 plate appearances between the Rangers and Orioles in those eight seasons, producing a .206/.266/.390 batting line with 20 home runs. With the Mets, Teagarden figures to compete with Anthony Recker to serve as the primary backup to Travis d'Arnaud, who should be New York's everyday catcher in 2014.
That guy had 1 hit last year.
I’m surprised Buck didn’t force DD to offer Teaparty a minor league deal.
Hopefully they still look for a lefthanded hitter who can backup/split time with d’Arnaud. Hector Gimenez might have made more sense here. Recker is awful & Teagarden hasn’t lived up to the hype.
Interesting that the article mentions his career stats but not his incredibly awful 2013 season with the O’s.
Probably doesn’t count, because it registered statistically zero
He has a cool name. That’s all I’ve got.
Whew and Thank God is all I have to say!
Since his last name is Teagarden, it sounds like he should play in Japan.
He had a very significant game-winning homerun during the magical season of 2012, and for that we will always be grateful
It was just a few years ago when Texas was absolutely stacked at catcher. Max Ramirez (#84 2009), Teagarden (#79 2009), and Salty (rated as high as #18 in 2006). Another good reminder that elite prospects often do not turn out as planned.
Don’t forget they were demanding Clay Bucholz for the smell of either Teagarden, or Salty, Boston offered Bard, who was a dominant reliever for 3 years after that and the Rangers ended up with zippo.
teagarden, the mets signed a guy named teagarden, at least if it was beergarden
i could see the signing but c’mon..
Clevenger the O’S now back up catcher appeared in like 3 game at the end of the season and had 6 hits. Good bye Taylor. U ain’t bringing the mets any glory!
Hopefully this is a depth move. I still think they need a solid veteran catcher behind d’Arnaud. I was hoping for a defensive minded guy like Suzuki. At this point I guess I would settle for Shoppach, Torrealba, or Buck
I think Buck would be great to bring back honestly he did pretty well for the Mets when he was their and as a backup primarily I think he would flourish much better in that role then as the starter hopefully they bring him in for the spring.
Yea, as of right now he’s my top option. Between the combination of my faith in d’Arnaud, and the fact that this isn’t a contending year, I was really hoping that they would go with a defensive minded catcher such as Suzuki to really help in the development of the young pitchers (and even the development of d’Arnaud). Obviously that can’t happen now so I think Buck is the best option.
I don’t see him on the FA list but I think Henry Blanco is available. I think he could be had on a minor league deal with a ST invite. At worst, he works with the pitchers and catchers in ST and gets cut, but you still get a month of mentorship for virtually nothing.