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Rays To Sign Casey Kotchman

By Ben Nicholson-Smith | January 28, 2011 at 2:07pm CDT

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.

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Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Casey Kotchman

New York Notes: Mets, Cashman, Rangers
Main
Anthopoulos Talks Hill, Encarnacion, Wells, Arencibia
View Comments (35)
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35 Comments

  1. Fighterdelafoo

    14 years ago

    Good luck Kotch.. hope ya find your way on a team someplace

    Reply
  2. heyirma

    14 years ago

    Ah, nuts. I was hoping the Tribe would’ve signed him.

    Reply
  3. Joe

    14 years ago

    The man’s got quite the glove. However his offensive production has gone from acceptable due to his ability field– to outright horrible.

    Reply
  4. HerbertAnchovy

    14 years ago

    I always liked Kotchman for some reason. Hopefully he can get his swing back, he is still relatively young.

    Reply
    • dc21892

      14 years ago

      That’d be nice. Remember how GOOD he was supposed to be?

      Reply
  5. joeybw

    14 years ago

    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.

    Reply
  6. m4r1n3r

    14 years ago

    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.

    Reply
    • Patricio

      14 years ago

      Pena hit .196 last season. Kotchman will be the second coming of Ty Cobb in comparison.

      Reply
      • jwsox

        14 years ago

        only in average not in obp/slugging/ or home runs so no no he wont

        Reply
  7. safari_punch

    14 years ago

    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.

    Reply
    • HerbertAnchovy

      14 years ago

      What? Mark Grace had some really good years.

      Reply
    • jwsox

      14 years ago

      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

      Reply
      • safari_punch

        14 years ago

        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.

        Reply
    • df7215

      14 years ago

      thinking the Mariners would be relatively good was your first mistake…

      Reply
      • safari_punch

        14 years ago

        How do you figure? Ichiro, Figgins, Lopez, Gutierrez all had decent 2009 seasons. Ichiro was the only one who sustained his productivity.

        Reply
        • df7215

          14 years ago

          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.

          Reply
    • Kyle Anderson

      14 years ago

      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

      Reply
  8. Kickme Inthenads

    14 years ago

    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.

    Reply
    • Guest

      14 years ago

      Yeah, Minky is a really cool nickname.

      Reply
  9. Richard Janvrin

    14 years ago

    As a Rays fan, I’d rather have Kotchman over Johnson… $750K isn’t much, I’m not a HUGE fan of Johnson though..

    Reply
    • MrSativa

      14 years ago

      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.

      Reply
      • Richard Janvrin

        14 years ago

        Yeah probably… We’ll see, Kotchman isn’t really any good. I think Zobrist should play 1st anyways!

        Reply
  10. Rootdown

    14 years ago

    Insurance for Dan Johnson? Talk about limited coverage…

    Reply
    • MrSativa

      14 years ago

      You know and I know that lurking in the background is future 1st baseman Ben Zobrist.

      Reply
  11. Nick

    14 years ago

    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.

    Reply
    • df7215

      14 years ago

      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.

      Reply
  12. Karkat

    14 years ago

    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.

    Reply
  13. optionn

    14 years ago

    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.

    Reply
    • soitgoes8

      14 years ago

      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.

      Reply
  14. RidiculousPage

    14 years ago

    Just out of curiosity: considering he’s an above average fielder, does he have any positional versatility?

    Reply
    • MrSativa

      14 years ago

      If he has he doesn’t have a record of it.

      Reply
    • John W

      14 years ago

      Left handed and runs too slow for the OF… where else would he play besides 1B?

      Reply
  15. kdawg89

    14 years ago

    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….

    Reply
  16. Tell

    14 years ago

    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.

    Reply

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