The Marlins announced that they’ve signed catcher Ramon Cabrera to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training. Cabrera is represented by Octagon.
The 27-year-old Cabrera spent the past two seasons in the Reds organization but was cut loose by Cincinnati back in December. The former Pirates/Tigers farmhand appeared in 74 games with the Reds in those two seasons, hitting a combined .264/.291/.378 with four home runs in 215 plate appearances. While Cabrera has never shown much power in the minors, he’s consistently hit for respectable batting averages and gotten on base at a solid clip, as evidenced by a .287/.352/.381 slash in parts of nine minor league campaigns (including a .274/.327/.343 slash in 577 Triple-A PAs).
From a defensive standpoint, Cabrera has nabbed one quarter of potential base thieves at the Major League level and logged a 23 percent caught-stealing mark over the life of his minor league tenure. Baseball Prospectus is rather down on his framing work, rating him as the game’s second-worst framer in 2016 despite a limited role. Cabrera figures to compete for a Triple-A spot with the Marlins rather than a candidate for a spot on the big league roster, as Miami will entrust impressive young backstop J.T. Realmuto and veteran A.J. Ellis with its catching duties in the Majors. Miami’s current options in Triple-A include Tomas Telis, Carlos Paulino and Cam Maron.
