TODAY: Iannetta can earn up to $1.75MM in performance bonuses in the coming season, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune tweets. The club picks up a 2017 option, at a $4.25MM price tag, which can also vest at $6MM under unspecified circumstances.
YESTERDAY, 6:28pm: The contract guarantees Iannetta $4.25MM and includes incentives, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports on Twitter.
6:03pm: The deal includes some form of option for 2017, Iannetta indicated to reporters on a conference call to discuss the signing (via MLB.com’s Greg Johns, on Twitter).
5:07pm: The Mariners have signed catcher Chris Iannetta to a one-year deal, the club announced. Fellow backstop John Hicks was designated for assignment to clear roster space.
A deal was said to be close during the GM Meetings, but it obviously took a bit longer to come together. Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto obviously continues to be a fan of the veteran, as he brought him to the Angels when he ran that club.
Iannetta is entering his age-33 season on the heels of a rough 2015 campaign. In his 317 plate appearances last year, Iannetta slashed just .188/.293/.335. He did, however, reach double-digit home runs for the fifth time in his career and maintained a strong 12.9% walk rate. Also, a .225 BABIP may go some way toward explaining the poor overall results.
Of course, there’s also quite a bit of history suggesting that Iannetta can bounce back offensively. He produced at or above the league-average rate for seven of the eight seasons before 2015 and owns a .231/.351/.405 lifetime slash line.
Notably, though he endured a rough campaign at the plate, Iannetta was better than ever behind it. After years of sub-par results, StatCorner rated him the fifth-best framer in baseball last year. And Baseball Prospectus credits him not only with a remarkable turnaround in framing, but also in overall defensive value.
If Iannetta can carry that forward, he and Mike Zunino could make up an outstanding defensive unit. It remains to be seen how the playing time will be allocated between the two, but Iannetta will certainly provide some cover to allow Seattle an opportunity to take some of burden off of the 24-year-old, who limped to a .174/.230/.300 batting line last year.
Hicks, 26, received his first big league call-up last year and recorded just two hits in a tiny sample of 34 plate appearances. Over parts of two seasons at the Triple-A level, the University of Virginia product has slashed .253/.295/.366 and hit eight home runs in 432 plate appearances.
Shocker!
Dipoto’s personal catcher
Lol
Will Zunino be the starter though
He’ll probably have to earn it.
to be seen after/during spring training…
Hicks is a pretty good catcher who has a decent bat for a catcher. The M’s may lose him. But Iannetta is a good signing, with a .350 lifetime OBP, and gives Zunino some development time with the bat.
Hicks’ bat does not project well at the big league level
Did you read the part about Hicks? He’s a 26-yr old with a .253/.295/.366 line in >400 AAA PA. That wouldn’t be a decent line in the bigs; even for a Catcher. For an old-for-level hitter, it makes him a borderline non-prospect.
JDP seems to be making simple, smart moves. Nothing flash. Hisashi Iwakuma would be the next box to tick. Then the fun begins….
Zunino is a bust.
24 is too young to definitely be called a bust.
He also didn’t have playing time because he could not throw out base runners
So they replace Zunino with… an older Zunino? Interesting.
… a defensively adept older catcher whose career on-base percentage is 99 points higher than Mike Zunino’s.
This gives the not-yet 25-year-old Zunino a chance to develop at Triple A where he should have been two years ago.
Agreed, though always thought Ianetta was more balanced than anything, a pretty solid catcher until last season. Remember how highly the Rockies thought of him early on? He was regarded as one of the better catchers around the league, all around for several seasons.
Pretty much a shocker he signed for a split deal like this after only 1 poor season when guys like David Ross continue to get MLB deals at higher dollars and his defensive skills have vanished, plus is nearly half a dozen years older.
Ianetta should easily claim the starting job in Seattle this year, little competition.
Ms will def be better this yr
Unless cano really does ask for a trade
Even that could make them better. Save money, move Marte to 2B, and sign a SS. I’d be okay with Cano gone. Sets them up to be better off in the long run.
You are not trading Cano with that contract. You would have to take a bad contract back(Ellsbury) and still eat a ton of money. You badly overpaid him to get him to go there and gave him 10 years. You are stuck with him.
this guy never swings
So what? It would be a pleasure to see a player with discipline which is a contrast to what I’ve been seeing in Zunino, who thinks that every pitch is hittable.
Huge upgrade defensively and if he has a good season he has great potential offensively, he’s got pop and gets on base, Montero has become a bust and zunino needs serious development, good signing
Montero is done catching.
Ianetta will most likely serve as a backup and a probable mentor to the young zunnino. Ianetta is a veteran player who could help zunnino develop his skills. Of course he’s no Molina or posey but he does bring a lot to the table. Good move for the M’s. I was hoping the braves wouldve went after ianetta. Oh well…
Cano requesting a trade, GOOD! Maybe there is some team looking for someone to hit a soft .280 and never get dirty. Not daydreaming on base paths and maybe keeping track of how many outs, not a lot to ask for 24 million.
I
Not true, Cano isn’t asking to be traded
A bunch of divisional cannibalism. Good luck with all of that.