The Rays signed Casey Kotchman to a minor league deal and invited him to Spring Training, according to Marc Topkin of the St. Petersburg Times. The deal could pay Kotchman $750K, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter). Kotchman, 28 next month, provides insurance for Dan Johnson, another left-handed hitting first baseman.
Kotchman hit .217/.280/.336 in 457 plate appearances for the Mariners last year, adding nine homers and 20 doubles. He hit as many as 37 doubles for the 2007 Angels, but his production has dropped off since. The former first rounder has a .736 OPS against right-handed pitching and a .656 OPS against left-handed pitching in his career.
The Indians had interest in Kotchman as recently as yesterday.
Good luck Kotch.. hope ya find your way on a team someplace
Ah, nuts. I was hoping the Tribe would’ve signed him.
The man’s got quite the glove. However his offensive production has gone from acceptable due to his ability field– to outright horrible.
I always liked Kotchman for some reason. Hopefully he can get his swing back, he is still relatively young.
That’d be nice. Remember how GOOD he was supposed to be?
This is probably only in case Johnson looks absolutley lost at 1B in the Spring, I really doubt this will be the next Pena minor league deal. Dude can’t hit. And sadly there is no designated fielder position.
Kotchman is an outright liability offensively. I wish the goofy looking guy luck but Rays fans don’t hold your breath hoping this guy figures it out again.
Pena hit .196 last season. Kotchman will be the second coming of Ty Cobb in comparison.
only in average not in obp/slugging/ or home runs so no no he wont
I had the Krotchman on my fantasy team last year thinking he’d hit .300 15 hrs 85-100 RBIs and that the Mariners would be like the 85 Cardinals.
What a disaster. Thank God he was more for depth than anything.
This guy isn’t even worth 750K in MLB. I’ve always hated Dave Magadan/Mark Grace/Doug Miechewiez types.
What? Mark Grace had some really good years.
what made you think he would hit .300 with 15 hrs and 85-100 rbis? the closest he has ever hit to .300 was .296 in 07…he only has 2 double digit HR seasons in his career and the most was 14 and he has never gotten more than 74 rbis…so i dont know where you were thinking he would get those numbers from but next seasons fantasy baseball you might want to look up numbers before making your wish list
I meant .285-.300.
I figured things were going to click for him in Seattle and with Ichiro and Figgins on base and running all the time he’d be the one cashing them in. Age 27 years played a factor too.
Past numbers don’t always dictate future performance.
thinking the Mariners would be relatively good was your first mistake…
How do you figure? Ichiro, Figgins, Lopez, Gutierrez all had decent 2009 seasons. Ichiro was the only one who sustained his productivity.
well needless to say, i didnt think theyd be one of the worst teams in the MLB, but they really had no starting pitching after Lee and Hernandez, and who would be hitting homeruns for them? Surely not Milton Bradley.
yeah i agree with what u say i think the mariners also are the worst team in finding players all the team is mainly rookies they suck and always will suck
He’s turned into Doug Minkewicz only he doesn’t have a cool nickname like “Minky”. If he makes the team he’ll play the 9th inning in games the Rays are winning unless the 1B slot is coming up in the order.
Yeah, Minky is a really cool nickname.
As a Rays fan, I’d rather have Kotchman over Johnson… $750K isn’t much, I’m not a HUGE fan of Johnson though..
You and a bunch of other fans are down hard on Johnson. I think once he gets playing time you’ll quickly forget about Carlos Pena’s one good year.
Yeah probably… We’ll see, Kotchman isn’t really any good. I think Zobrist should play 1st anyways!
Insurance for Dan Johnson? Talk about limited coverage…
You know and I know that lurking in the background is future 1st baseman Ben Zobrist.
Kotchman is a good defensive first baseman, but just that. Dan Johnson can be the offensive 1B, and Kotchman can be our defensive 1B. I hope all of our acquisitions work out this season. It seems bleak right now, but who knows? Still need a closer.
I’d like to think Johnson can provide some offense for the Rays, but he hasn’t really done anything to show he’ll provide consistently at the plate. The projection of his numbers may look decent on paper, but he has been a career minor leaguer for a reason. Let’s hope he can just stay consistently average.
Viable depth at first base is never a bad thing, especially on a minor league deal. Plus, he’s only going to be 28 to start the season. If he finds his .270 stroke again, he’s a great defensive replacement/security policy/occasional starter.
This guy is still young, but when he was really young the guy somehow was the starting 1B with teams as elite as the Angels. I have no idea why he was starting, but he was for years.
He only started for a year and a half on the Angels, not what I would call “years.” The first year at age 24 he put up a .296 .372 .467 line and a WAR over 3. Not bad at all if you ask me. Perhaps not great for his position, but at a young age it’s hard not to be optimistic with that. He slipped the following half season before getting traded for Teixeira.
Just out of curiosity: considering he’s an above average fielder, does he have any positional versatility?
If he has he doesn’t have a record of it.
Left handed and runs too slow for the OF… where else would he play besides 1B?
If the guy somehow came back and hit .270 with 15 hr’s and 70-80 RBI and played similar defense to what Los played I think the Rays would be ecstatic. He’s still pretty young and may have something left. Shame he’s not a righty so they could just platoon him with Johnson….
As a Mariners fan I hated this guy around game 10 and he never did anything to change that. He doesn’t even look like he wants to hit, he just wants to get the embarassing thing he does 3-4 times a day over with so he can go back to fielding. What a joke.
C’mon, Dan Johnson is the great pumpkin! Any of the 13 Rays fans rooting for Kotchman over him are delusional at best.
Yeah!!! Good idea! And then the Red Sox will trade Crawford for Wily Mo Pena.