The Angels have agreed to sign catcher Chris Iannetta to a three-year extension, Mike DiGiovanna of the LA Times reports (Twitter links). The contract is worth $15.5MM, Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com reports (on Twitter). The deal keeps Iannetta off of the free agent market for the foreseeable future and provides the Angels with certainty behind the plate.
Iannetta's previous contract included a $5MM club option for 2013. He had the right to void the option as a result of the 2011 trade that sent him to Anaheim. Now it's academic, as his new deal covers the 2013-15 seasons. Octagon represents the 29-year-old.
Iannetta missed most of May, June and July to undergo wrist surgery. When healthy he appeared in 79 games, hitting nine home runs and posting a .240/.332/.398 batting line in 253 plate appearances. He prevented 26% of stolen base attempts, a rate that's slightly better than average.
This offseason's class of free agent catchers still includes the likes of Russell Martin, Mike Napoli and A.J. Pierzynski. MLBTR's Extension Tracker offers a look back at some recent extensions for other catchers.
There went the best all around guy from the potential market in all likelihood. Understand he has missed time in the past, but with defensive liabilities in Napoli and all around defensive lackey Pierzynski and Martin, who is basically useless other than hitting HR at Yankee stadium?
Curious how much he actually signed for.. This will make the market for 3 FA, who all should be backups get massively over paid by desperate teams, 2 of which (Napoli and AJ) that could either be DH’s, or PH in the NL.
Russel Martin 2012 OPS splits:
Home: .699
Away: .728
21 homeruns, 18 last year… from the catcher position. That’s not a backup catcher.
Napoli and A.J pinch hitters in the NL? wow.
Saltalamacchia’s OPS was .742 and he hit 25HR, but regard for him is the same as Martin.. Nothing but a HR and can’t get on base otherwise, nor worth anything on defense.
Guys like all 3 of those FA (and Salty) a few years back were borderline backups. Kelly Shoppach was left off of the list in the article of “class” FA and for my money? he can play top notch defense, throw with a cannon arm and at least hit HR..
THAT is more than Martin can do (and Salty)
I’d rather have Shoppach as a starter than what several teams currently employ, or give martin (example) the 7-10m AAV he is looking for and the 6m guys like John Buck is making.
Shoppach has been a backup pretty much his whole career, and there’s a reason for that. Put him as an everyday and he’ll get exposed. horrible average. decent power. alright defender. not top notch defense…
I don’t know how can you say Martin doesn’t get on base… His batting average was .211, his OBP was .311… that’s 100 point higher and .23 points higher than Saltalamacchia who had a higher average and is known to be a strikeout machine. Martin has the longer track record as well.
No doubt Salty is a HUGE K machine.. Like 30% of the time, but the OBP is nearly the same still as you mentioned over the last 2 seasons (all Salty has been a regular) and Salty’s OPS has been higher both years.
The 100 point difference in Martin’s Avg and OBP being .211 and .311? Don’t think that really matters very much either.. .222/.288 for Salty.. neither gets on base very, other than via hitting a HR and Salty hit 25, Martin 21. Both were high in league leaders for backstops in that single category.
Shoppach has played regular before at Cleveland and did ok, he strikes out a MASSIVE amount of times. the mets played him regular after acquiring him from Boston and he did pretty well, still k’ing a lot however.
I think he can do much better than some guys out there who have signed huge deals in the past.. John Buck comes to mind right off and Shoppach deserves a chance. Would like to see a team like the mets give him a full season chance.
Yea I agree he played well with the Mets playing him most of the second half of the year. But I wouldn’t bring him back unless we have another option at catcher as well that doesn’t include Thole.
You can say it because .311 sucks.
And it was an even worse .290 vs RH.
He did have a .356 obp vs lefties tho.
AJ Pierzynski 2012 numbers:
.278/.326/.501
27 HR, 77 RBI
135 games (and 11th consecutive season of 125+ games)
26% caught stealing rate (career average 24%)
This does not sound like an NL pinch hitter to me. At 35, he’s got his better years behind him, but he absolutely deserves a 2-year deal, and probably gets a 3-year deal. TO CATCH.
Martin has been a God send in NY. He quietly played through back issues this season, which led to his terrible numbers overall. Not sure what kind of length the Yanks will re-sign him at, but $7MM a yr would be fair. He turned that down last year, but seeing how he finished, he should snap it up
That is why it’s all important (to me) now to develop an even fair catcher. this market has been totally blown out of proportion with the Molina signing by the Cardinals. Saw below a poster proposing AJ get 3Y from the Chisox.. ‘Tek got2/5m from Boston at that age and he was universally seen as the best game caller around. Couldn’t throw, but his mastery of running a game was known by all. Giving AJ 3y and?? 7? 8m over that period is laughable.
I can’t see Cashman offering7m AAV to Martin over more than 2 seasons even and he is 6Y younger. Maybe a 3Y with total team option on that 3rd.
Teams have just got to focus now on developing a catcher. guys like John Buck with the Marlins (3/18m) and molina at 5/75m have destroyed the market and made it a travesty. Salty next year will get another wild deal from some team. It is hilarious.
molina deal looks great so far with a .315 average, .371 ops, .501 slg. he had 22 hrs 76 rbi’s for a catcher. not to mention his .997 fielding percentage and throwing out 48% of base stealers
John Buck did not ‘destroy the market.’ he was smart enough to take the not very smart money offered by some extremely not smart baseball executives. what? was he supposed to refuse. “No, thanks, you silly idiots. I can’t accept. I’m just not worth that much.”
as for Yadi: hello. best catcher in baseball.
What? 2/18m for a career below average catcher who NEVER could hit, except his FA year was worth that deal? The deal itself destroyed the market for other teams and DOES NOT matter if the Fish offered it or not.
Molina? 15m AAV for 5 seasons BEFORE his miracle 2012 year? Another guy who had never hit. Market destroying deals, both and BOTH were called that when they were given. The Molina deal is why Russell martin (unwisely) turned down his 3/21m offer from Cashman last year and who knows what kind of preposterous amounts some loon GM will throw at especially Pierzynski and Martin now.
Odds are there are at least a couple out there who will not bid sanely and go over board, just like St. louis did to retain Molina and Beinfest did just to obtain John Buck. The Fish have regretted the Buck signing since day 1. Have a feeling whoever ends up giving both AJ and Martin 7-10mAAV over 2 years are going to be having those exact same regrets.
Napoli? If he can find his bat again can have some use as a DH (AL) or as a 1b, but AJ doesn’t exactly have the track record of consistency and all of a sudden came out of the blue with his miracle FA year.
Every last one of those guys are terribly bad potential signs. me? I would gamble on low cost Shoppach 1st. odds are he will do at least as good with the bat (FS) as Martin, play better defense (by far) over any of them and isn’t going to cost any team more than a couple million is my guess.
Moral to all this?? Develop your own catchers.. Signing people like this is a huge waste of money.
somehow I still think you end up making my point. it takes stupid thinking to offer stupid contracts. there is no how no way the Marlins had to make that offer. yet you can argue that the Cardinals had to. (by the way, the Cards did develop Yadi)
As an Angels fan I am quite happy about this deal. Iannetta’s avg is low, but he takes so many pitches and works a ton of walks with some power. Never unhappy to see Iannetta walking or doubling to the gap in front of Trout.
Nice signing. Reason he needed the surgery is cause he got injured while catching Weaver’s no-hitter. Wonder if this makes Conger expendable or just the back-up catcher now.
Love this. :DDDDD
So does this mean Conger is now trade bait since the Angels already have Bobby Wilson at back up? Or does this mean Bobby Wilson is out since the Angels don’t intend to re-sign Ervin Santana and Dan Haren? (The two pitchers Wilson usually caught for.)
I hope Wilson is out. Can’t hit a lick
Mets need a catcher why not try sending him there (Conger)….
conger should start practicing for third base.
I’m glad they extended him, he was too short. How did they do it, did they put him in one of those ancient torture racks and slowly wind the crank, pulling on one side his legs and on the other side, his neck? I hope it wasn’t too painful for him.
He’ll look back on it favorably though because the extra inches should definitely add to his power potential.
this is a great deal for the halos
Eh I think it was a tad high at $5 million a year for his production but I guess its fine since he’s atleast respectable defensively as well.
A good, “get-it-over-with” deal. This pretty much means the end for Conger in an Angels uniform. I have a very bad feeling once Conger latches on to another team, maybe even an AL West team, he’s going to start tearing it up. Just like Napoli, he has potential, just never given the chance.