The Orioles have designated catcher Francisco Pena for assignment, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the roster by righty reliever Stefan Crichton.
Pena, 27, remained on the roster yesterday despite the fact that starting backstop Welington Castillo was activated from the disabled list. However, he survived only 24 hours, as the O’s understandably decided not to carry three catchers and deploy a six-man bullpen for more than a day. Though Baltimore may not relish the thought of losing Pena via outright waivers, he’s out of minor league options, thus making a DFA the only means by which the team can attempt to stash him back in Triple-A.
The son of five-time All-Star and four-time Gold-Glove-winning catcher Tony Pena, Francisco has totaled just 57 plate appearances in the Majors in parts of four seasons. He’s demonstrated a bit of power in that time, batting .241/.268/.407 with three homers, but he’s also punched out in nearly a third of his Major League plate appearances. The younger Pena is a career .249/.295/.452 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons.
Pena has halted 31 percent of stolen base attempts against him in Triple-A (plus a solid 5-for-9 showing in his limited big league time) and has drawn consistently above-average marks for his framing efforts in the minors (via Baseball Prospectus). That skill set could make him appealing to clubs, though his lack of minor league options means that any team to claim Pena on waivers or acquire him via trade will have to carry him on the 25-man roster.
It’s not every day you see a player with a 424 OPS get DFAed. Best of luck to Pena.
Just to clarify what he was saying, he meant OPS+
Its the stat that pretty much takes your offensive production and mixes in ballpark and what not. 100 is average so 424 is obviously well above.
Thanks for the clarification on the OPS = )
.424 OPS is very bad
Its ops . His actual ops is 2.000 so it is very good
Meant its ops plus they’re talking about
He also had a small number of at bats, that’s why it was so high. Plus they have no need to have 3 catchers on the roster
Knew this was going to happen. Teams won’t carry three catchers for very long.
Not surprising given the roster constraints, but he’s played well this year. Think he’ll probably get claimed. Seattle maybe as a minor upgrade over Gosewich?
FYI The link for Tony Pena links to the Tony Pena who played SS for the Royals
This move is understandable with Castillo being activated from the DL.
He played 3 games. 571 looks pretty, don’t get me wrong, but it was 3 games.
He’s a career 241 hitter with a 268 on base percentage and he’s out of minor league options.
Keep in mind, he cleared waivers just a few months ago.
While it wouldn’t be totally crazy to see Seattle grab him, I get the impression that he’s headed back to Norfolk. Just my two cents.
Oh I know, I certainly don’t expect there to be a massive bidding war, but he was also decent in Norfolk, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some team decide he’s slightly better than their current backup
He’s better than Kevin Plawecki…
Mariners should get him for as long as Zunino will be down in AAA.