The Cardinals announced on Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of catcher Eric Fryer and placed injured left-hander Zach Duke on the 60-day disabled list to create a spot on the 40-man roster.
The 31-year-old Fryer batted .267/.336/.319 in 133 plate appearances as a backup between St. Louis and Pittsburgh last season and returned to the Redbirds on a minors pact this winter. With today’s move, Fryer has officially won a reserve spot with the Cardinals once again. He’ll serve as the backup to Yadier Molina in 2017 and could also function as a stopgap of sorts while highly touted catching prospect Carson Kelly continues to develop in the minors.
With Fryer’s addition to the Opening Day roster, the Cardinals are largely set on the position-player side of the equation, as can be seen on their depth chart at RosterResource.com. The veteran Fryer will be joined on the Cardinals’ bench by the likes of Matt Adams, Jedd Gyorko (who figures to platoon with Kolten Wong), Greg Garcia and Jose Martinez, who won the team’s reserve outfield role over the weekend.
Liked when we had fryer the first time. Never understood why they wanted to give him up over pena
For pena*
Probably because Pena was freshly signed and figured he would actually stay healthy. Too bad for Brayan that it just couldn’t work for him here.
IMO Fryer is as good as a backup as there is in the majors, not counting Carson Kelley or some other young prospect. I remember him starting the year last year going something like 8 for 8 or 9 for 9 or something like that. He was still batting 1000 several games into the season.
Meh he’s your run of the mill backup that’s had dreadful slash lines when he’s had more than 50 plate appearances
He’s a backup. He doesn’t have to have good slash lines. If he did, he wouldn’t be a backup.
This will be a completely different conversation in June.
I think Robinson Chirinos could start somewhere(when healthy). He’s a pretty darn good reserve… Plus he is a team guy, great attitude and fantastic in the community. He started catching just a little late in his career(better late than never).
Fryer’s fine. At most he is going to play one game a week anyway.