4:10pm: The Pirates have announced the two-year extension and third-year club option via press release.
JAN. 19, 3:39pm: Stewart has passed his physical, and his deal will be announced soon, reports SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. Per Cotillo, Stewart will earn $3MM over the life of the deal. That includes salaries of $1.35MM in 2016, $1.4MM in 2017 and a $250K buyout on a $1.5MM option for the 2018 season (links to Twitter).
JAN. 14: The Pirates have reached agreement on a two-year extension with backstop Chris Stewart, according to a report from Robert Murray of Baseball Essential (Twitter link). The deal will reportedly also come with a club option for a third season.
MLBTR had projected Stewart to earn $1.6MM this season in his final year of arbitration eligibility. Instead of just taking a single-season payout, he’ll promise away one free agent season and leave another in the control of the Pirates.
Stewart, 33, has taken 1,060 plate appearances in parts of nine seasons in the majors. He’s settled in as a reserve for the Bucs over the last two years, slashing .292/.340/.336 (without a single home run or stolen base) in that period. He’s a highly-rated pitch framer and was charged with just one passed ball last year, though he’s caught less than a quarter of the baserunners who’ve tried to steal on him in Pittsburgh.
While the guaranteed salary has yet to be reported, it seems obvious with the move that Pittsburgh intends to utilize Stewart as its backup for at least the next two seasons. What remains unclear is whether the organization will be able to work out a multi-year arrangement with starter Francisco Cervelli, who had a breakout 2015 campaign and is also entering his final year of arbitration control.
Being nice to guys who are more than likely going to be future managers by paying them out as backups is the new undervalued market.
I wonder how good this pirates team is gonna be next year.
I doubt they win 98-99 games, but they have the best outfield in baseball and Cole-Liriano is a great 1-2. Not to mention Cervelli looks like a real good player.
Niese should benefit from a better infield defense behind him compared to the one he had with the Mets, however, Locke and Vogelsong can be scary.
Not to mention losing Walker and Bastardo are two role players they are likely gonna miss, as well as having no Kang for a month.
I am wondering if Diaz isn’t going to be looked at in 2017 as the starter with Stewart as the backup. Cervelli could have a large price tag based on market and performance. However the Pirates might not be willing to go very high due to his past injuries.
As long as Diaz hits ok this year in AAA, I think the Pirates plan is definitely for Cervelli to walk and Diaz to start in 2017. Not that I think it’ll happen but Cervelli could also be a good trade chip come July if the Pirates fall out of things.
Agreed. Thus why they wouldn’t do Morton & Diaz for Moreland.
They knew Cervelli will be one and done on the Bucs.
that and Moreland isn’t much of an upgrade to what they already had. other than being left handed Moreland didn’t make all that much sense.
Chris is a quality backup catcher who i would trust to start if Cervelli can’t for some reason or other and if prospects fall through. If Diaz comes out strong i would expect them to let Cervelli go and go with Diaz next season and if Reese continues to progress well him in 2018 leaving them with the possibility of having two starting catchers in ’18 which would be great to restock the farm in trades through trades (assuming the pirates continue to do well and have lower draft picks)