10:43am: The deal is actually for $1.5MM and also comes with $100K in available incentives, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets.
10:28am: The Marlins have agreed to a one-year, $1MM deal with free agent catcher Jeff Mathis, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro reports on Twitter. Mathis will remain in Miami, where he’s spent the past three seasons.
Mathis, who is entering his age-33 campaign, has already logged 11 big league seasons. He saw far less action last year (32 games) than he has for most of that stretch, but the Fish obviously value his presence as a reserve backstop and veteran leader.
It’s long been apparent that Mathis is a sub-par hitter, and that likely won’t change. Mathis has slashed just .184/.248/.282 in his 554 plate appearances with the Marlins, which is only marginally worse than his career batting line.
But Mathis is valued primarily for his handling of pitchers and glovework behind the dish. He’s still rated as a strong framer, for example, and is well thought of for his blocking and throwing abilities.
Oh Thank god, said every Angels fan ever. Thought this was our “Big Splash Blast from the Past” headed our way….
…nothing to see here.
I can breathe again!
At least we finally did something, and I’m personally glad to have Mathis back. I trust him behind the plate. Still don’t get why we gave away Sam Dyson, when we already have a bad bullpen, for Telis. My only guess is that it was b/c he sort of looks like prince fielder in appearance. But I should probably stop walking into the mistake of thinking of us as a baseball organization
Painful signing for a Marlin fan.
Doesn’t this signing put the Marlins over the salary cap?
Does he keep getting signed because he is so handsome? He quite literally may be the worst hitter of all time.
http://www.sbnation.com/2010/8/28/1655991/jeff-mathis-stats-ops-worst-hitter-angels
This is the year Mathis breaks out. Expect numbers similar to 2002 Barry Bonds.
Yeah Mathis is terrible, however I do remember his game winning RBI double in the ALCS against the Yankees, but that was over 10 years ago lol.
That was in Game #3.
Scratch that, it was in 2009, six years ago, but Mathis is a Mendoza Line hitter, I wish the Angels would have gone after a better catcher this offseason, but Soto and Perez are what we have now.