The Cardinals have designated catcher George Kottaras for assignment, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. The move clears space for new catcher A.J. Pierzynski.
Kottaras collected only six plate appearances for the Cardinals, who claimed him from the Indians July 11. For the season, Kottaras only has 33 plate appearances, hitting three homers in that span. He’s hit .216/.326/.414 in parts of seven seasons in the big leagues.
I wanted to see him hit. Guess I’m alone in that!
The only game he caught was a shutout so he did nothing wrong. What was the point of this Cardinals?
you don’t keep 3 catchers on the roster?
They’ll let him go to AAA if nobody picks him up. It’s not like they signed him as anything other than an emergency catcher really.
If Kottaras does clear MLB waivers — something that is hardly a foregone conclusion — he will have the opportunity to sign AAA contracts with several different clubs. My prediction: the Cardinals made a bad mistake here. Pierzinski is a headcase, who the Red Sox let go for no compensation. Pierzinski was trouble and a distraction in the Red Sox clubhouse. No other cclub wanted Pierzinski, , and no other club claimed him on waivers.
If he were to be claimed they would be held accountable for the 4 million left on his red sox deal. That’s the largest reason why he cleared. Cards only owe him the prorated league minimum (im guessing 150,000 at this point in the season.
Clearly, Pierzinski’s very bad contract was one reason for Pierzinski not being claimed, but Pierzinski was just signed to it last winter. As the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Cardinals beat writer essentially states in his story about this move — and no surprise — Pierzinski must have been a real problem in the Red Sox clubhouse. And after losing four straight games, none of which losses were attributable to Kottaras — Cardinals’ management panicked and brought in “A.J.Headcase” — supposedly for more offense — the lack of which was why the Red Sox sent him packing. Bad move by the Cardinals. Clubhouse chemistry is key for any team with aspirations of making a title run.
Mariners should sign Kottaras to a minor league contract playing in AAA before being called up by the Mariners should Sucre struggle on offense/defense or injury by Zunino. He brings some playoff experiece w/ the A’s couple years back.
3 for 4 with a RBI today…nice start AJ!! Cruz choked w/ his opportunity to tie the game yesterday! Hope AJ can fall in line with the leadership of Waino, Yadi and the others that know “the way!!” It can be done!
Ironically, the departure of Kottaras was mostly due to the failure of Tony Cruz to demonstrate to Cardinals’ management that he could serve as the Cardinals’ No. 1 catcher for the remainder of season. As the Post-Dispatch report notes, the Cardinals originally had no interest in Pierzinski — who had been out-of-work in catching-starved MLB. And the Red Sox thought they could bring him into their winning culture too — and then couldn’t wait to get himout of their clubhouse before the All-Star break.