The Rangers announced that they have acquired catcher Luis Martinez from the Padres in exchange for right-hander Ryan Kelly (via Twitter).
Martinez, 26, has been added to Texas' 40-man roster. The right-handed hitter appeared in 22 games with the Friars in 2011, hitting .203/.309/.305 in 68 plate appearances.
Kelly, 24, was a 26th-round pick of the Pirates in 2006. He has a 4.50 career ERA over five minor league seasons.
Remember when everyone was talking about the “Embarrassment of riches” the Rangers had at Catcher? Yeah, that was great.
That organization needs to really check how it develops/readies catchers…that way they can stop trading for one every July and every offseason.
Two of those catchers are in the American League East, with one starting & one backing up. I’d say that’s a healthy success rate considering the nature of the position and the rarity in which a quality player is found.
Catching is tough, man. At least you understand (if not knowingly so) that Texas is a very well run franchise, & constantly searching for or acquiring catchers is great business.
Yeah, well, they didn’t get much value for either of those two catchers. Unless you really buy into Roman Mendez’s value.
Yeah, two of those guys are in the majors on AL East teams. Plus Salty brought Texas back one of its top pitching prospects in David Perez. Not to mention they have a new, improved group of catching prospects in the wings with Jose Felix, Tomas Telis and Kellin Deglan leading the way.
This will be Kelly’s 4th organization in the last year. It was almost exactly a year ago he was swapped for Corey Wimberly from the A’s, then flipped for Guillermo Moscoso.
I see no upside for either team. Worthless deal IMO.
Unless Texas needed the added depth to use one of their young catching prospects in a trade maybe? Telis, Felix or Deglan would be a good piece in a deal for a possible big trade.
With the trade of Teagarden, this is probably more of a depth move so that Round Rock has the catching position solidified.
You’re probably right.
Probably right, but you never really know with JD. Even at that, I wonder why they’d want this guy as a AAA filler. Not much of a bat from the look of it. Must be a defensive star.
He has great numbers in the upper levels, especially for a catcher. I know nothing of his defense
His defense is superb. Sad the padres traded him.
Oh okay, I’m not too familiar with him. Maybe he’ll be a Torrealba replacement if they trade him.
I think they want to make him into a bullpen arm.
It’s simple. He has two options left.
Ya, why did we do this. We have 2 solid catchers in Torrealba and Napoli. Makes no sense.
Well, he’ll certainly not be in the majors. Depth only. I just dont understand trading for him. There are depth catchers on the FA market.
It would cost more money exploring FA options as opposed to exploring trade options. In my mind, depth can be had by dealing from another position of depth.
People seem to think every single trade contains this huge impact for the major league clubs. This is not one of those deals.
There are Minor league catchers on the free agent market. It would not cost more.
We can agree to disagree here. I have reservations about free agency when costs vary on paper and rosters are forced to change after bringing on one extra guy. A clean one-for-one swap from a position of depth makes it a bit simpler in the long run. But that is my humble take on this. Not every one would act the same way in addressing these issues. That’s part of what makes baseball awesome.
Is this the foreshadowing of a Yorvit Torrealba trade? Or just a move to sure up AAA depth?
Could be foreshadowing a big trade for a package including one of Texas young catching prospects I’d think.
Oh no! He was linked to the Mets recently….there goes our big splash this offseason!
(note the sarcasm here…)
note the spelling of sarcasm.
Good one sportsfan
*sports fan
What’s that supposed to mean?
I think they got the wrong Martinez in that link
Luis did pretty good catching but couldn’t hit at all. Put up a 200 avg hitting part time in Petco.
Napoli might not be the catcher everyone thinks. He may spend good chunks of time at 1b and dh. Martinez brings good depth; and Kelly is another young arm that will probably report with pitchers to spring training for Buddy Black to figure out. I’m guessing with their depth he’ll either fill out the back end of the AAA rotation, or work from the pen.
According to the team site, he will be in AA next year – Kelly.
can he play RF?