DEC. 14: Mathis will earn $2MM in both 2017 and 2018, tweets Jack Magruder of FanRag Sports.
DEC. 2, 6:44pm: It’s a two-year, $4MM deal, according to reports from SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter) and Piecoro (Twitter link).
6:35pm: The Diamondbacks have agreed to a deal with free agent catcher Jeff Mathis, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports on Twitter. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic had just tweeted the connection between player and team.
Mathis will step into the fold as Welington Castillo departs, with the Diamondbacks electing to go with a less-costly, more defensively proficient option behind the dish. He’ll presumably share time in some manner with Chris Herrmann, who posted a big offensive season (albeit in a short sample) in 2016. Oscar Hernandez also remains an option on the 40-man.
Unlike Castillo, who is a shaky framer, Mathis has long been viewed as a strong gloveman. Both StatCorner and Baseball Prospectus rate him as one of the game’s better receivers at winning borderline strike calls for his pitchers.
Of course, Mathis also brings little to the table offensively. He’s a lifetime .197/.254/.308 hitter over his dozen seasons in the majors. Though his 63 OPS+ last year was his best mark since 2012, Arizona won’t expect much at the plate.
So Chris Herrman is the starter? With Mathis as the backup?
Cool, I actually love this tandem.
I can’t tell if you’re being serious, and I know you’re not an Arizona fan, but if you are serious, I would honestly love to hear your reasoning. Both those guys are terrible.
Herrmann played pretty well before the injury last year. There may be more moves to come but Herrmann may surprise us if he’s given a full opportunity
Yeah Ik, but he’s got about a full season’s worth of career action now, and it’s still pretty underwhelming. Maybe he truly broke out last year, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they got the Twins’ Herrmann moving forward.
Herrman’s batting line
.284/.352/.493 with a career high 6HR
16/44 BB/K ratio
Can play multiple positions to boot and is a plus defender behind the plate.
15/44 bb/k rate isn’t great. Especially in 166 ABs. That’s a 27% strikeout rate.
The bar is set pretty low for catchers though, so he’s probably okay
Not all players are good in a backup role, especially young players. When Herrmann plays everyday, he’s pretty good.
…and somewhere Mike Scioscia mopes, wishing it had been the Angels who signed Mathis.
Lol but he has Taylor ward (Mathis 2.0) in the minors
Haha. was gonna post the same. To be fair Ward is looking nice though.
Mathis has almost 2300 career plate appearances with a 49 wRc+. I know offense isn’t everything, especially for a catcher, but I can’t believe this guy continues to get roster spots.
Loved him on Angels
thought we saw AZ turn over a new leaf getting a good return for Segura, but i guess even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Idiot
Guessing Butcher had some input on who he wanted handling the pitching staff.
As a Marlins fan, I’m pretty disappointed by this. He gave us an important veteran presence behind the plate, contrasting with JT, but also serving as a mentor for him, and the pitching staff, and then obviously, he is good defensively behind the plate. He also had a better catcher ERA for a reason. I hope the Marlins arent planning on letting the prince fielder look-alike replace him in that role
Man marlins just rebuild
I don’t like Jeff Mathis.
He’s not fond of you, either.
He’ll have a good year in hitter friendly Chase field you watch.
Mathis must have nudes of the dbacks manager or something. It’s the only logical reason he’s still a major league catcher.
Agreed as a Marlins fan it was puzzling to see him be the back up catcher for so long. When jt couldn’t catch he was like having another pitchers spot.
Derek Norris sucks they said. No trade value they said. Seeing this guy’s stats makes me feel like the Padres should have got more for him.
Mathis is a premium defensive catcher, Norris is not.
GMs are taking a lot more notes of pitch framing, range, and arms these days. Those 6 strikes Mathis could steal equal to 2 total outs throughout a 27 out game. It’s highly valuable.
Well put. Also for both years of Mathis is $1M less than just this year of Castillo. You cannot look at the train wreck pitching stats the dbax had last year and not lay some blame on the catcher for those numbers. Hard to say what Castillo`s offensive numbers are truly worth if you feel he is giving back runs while receiving.
When a Catcher can’t hit – you can just say it’s a “throwback to the old times”.
Mathis is not a “premium defensive catcher” look at the metrics his glove does not make up for the lack of bat, not even close.