5:25pm: The D-backs have now announced the signing.
3:45pm: Rosenthal tweets that Avila has already passed his physical, making the deal official. The D-backs have yet to announce the signing, though, which will require a corresponding 40-man roster move.
Jan. 31, 1:19pm: Avila will receive a two-year contract worth $8.25MM, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (via Twitter). Another $250K per season will be available to Avila in incentives, according to Heyman.
Jan. 30, 6:44pm: The two sides have a deal, pending a physical, Jon Heyman of FanRag tweets.
6:36pm: The Diamondbacks are nearing an agreement with free agent catcher Alex Avila, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports on Twitter. Terms are unknown, but MLBTR predicted a two-year, $16MM contract for Avila at the outset of free agency.
The 31-year-old Avila will add an offensively capable backstop to an Arizona club whose catchers batted a paltry .219/.306/.404 last season. That was with a very good performance from Chris Iannetta, who joined the NL West rival Rockies in free agency, leaving the Diamondbacks with Jeff Mathis and Chris Herrmann as their top options. Mathis, the team’s likely starter prior to the Avila agreement, is known for his defensive prowess. However, his bat has never come close to keeping up with his work behind the plate.
[RELATED: Updated D-backs Depth Chart]
Unlike Mathis, defense is not Avila’s calling card – in fact, he was among the game’s worst pitch framers in 2017, according to both Baseball Prospectus and StatCorner. But the lefty-swinger did his best to make up for it at the plate, where he slashed an outstanding .264/.387/.447 with 14 home runs and a .183 ISO in 376 plate appearances divided between the Tigers and Cubs. Avila’s numbers dropped off after the Cubs acquired him prior to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline (.274/.394/.475 versus .239/.369/.380), though he still offered the North Siders above-average offensive production relative to his position.
While Avila managed a hard-to-sustain .382 batting average on balls in play last season and struck out in 31.9 percent of PAs, he helped his cause significantly with scorching contact. Among those with at least 300 PAs, Avila ranked second in the majors in hard-hit rate (48.7 percent, compared to a career mark of 36.6). And out of 387 hitters who put at least 100 balls in play, he finished tied for 18th in average exit velocity (90.4 mph) and tied for 21st in barrels per PA (7.4). Consequently, he posted a tremendous xwOBA (.395) that easily outpaced his still-high wOBA (.368).
Last year’s offensive outburst was Avila’s most impressive showing since 2011, when the then-Tiger earned his lone All-Star nod, but success with the bat isn’t anything new for the lifetime .243/.351/.401 hitter. He comes with notable platoon splits, though, having held his own against right-handed pitching (.250/.362/.426) while failing to present a threat versus southpaws (.212/.306/.305) since debuting in 2009. He also brings durability concerns, having gone on the disabled list several times in his career, including twice during a 57-game season with the White Sox in 2016.
After his lone campaign with the ChiSox, Avila returned to the Tigers last winter for a $2MM guarantee. Avila’s sure to do better this time around, but it’ll be interesting to see how much the Diamondbacks will guarantee him. With an estimated $122MM-plus in commitments at the moment, the D-backs are known to have limited payroll flexibility, which is seemingly standing in the way of a reunion with free agent slugger J.D. Martinez – Avila’s former teammate in Detroit – and may lead to cost-cutting trades (they could deal $7.5MM left-hander Patrick Corbin, for instance). The club has only opened a season beyond the $100MM mark twice, including when it spent a franchise-record $112MM-plus in 2014.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
The stove is warming
Please stop with this…
Can’t handle the heat?
the stove was never hot since this fa class is weak.
5 big names followed by 10 who should or will retire and a bunch of .200 hitters.
If my name was Lucas Duda I’d be very offended by that comment.
But it’s not so you can go on living your life in peace
That’s pretty silly. A couple of weeks ago, ESPN did a fully 25 man roster of unsigned free agents and their projected WAR and compared them to playoff teams (can’t remember if that was last year’s actual playoff teams or the projected standings for this year). The free agents hung in there for a wild card berth. It’s not a great class compared to next year – and you never know which one of those guys won’t even make it to free agency – but it’s not terrible either. Certainly not just 5 good players, 10 hangers on, and a bunch of guys who hit like grandma.
Problem is that next year’s FA class could contend for a WS…
I find that exercise to be mildly interesting but also pretty silly.
The relevant comparison for a free agent class is to other free agent classes. That exercise lacks the context of other methods of comparing free agents, such as the total projected WAR of the top 20 players in the class, the number of players projected for 3+ WAR, the age of the top players, etc,
Second, at free agent asking prices that team would also logically have something like the highest 25-man Opening Day payroll in MLB history.
Third, with aging curves, and multi-year free agent deals, we’d also expect that team to get progressively worse every year after 2018, but still stay just as expensive. What teams fear about the top 20 or 30 names in free agency is rarely the first year of a contract. With the way that contracts are structured, the expectation is that the players will, relatively speaking, overproduce versus their salaries in early years but then underperform in later years.
Tbh we need to Get rid of all the .200 hitters they are bad players
No babe stove not hot. Skra pop pop
Cmon cereal. You and I would both probly be ecstatic if he replaced Romine as Yanks’ backup Catcher. (Even though Romine shows grit, he can’t hit)
Chris herrmann about to catch the dfa
Doubtful. It’s more likely that John Ryan Murphy is the odd man out.
yeah 2 old twins catchers we dumped on AZ
Good move, pending contract details
I’m predicting 2 year $12 million.
Mlbtr predicted 2 yrs $16m, you were $4m off
I don’t know why you got 4 down-votes Lol
That was a reasonable guess
I concur.^^
(just for note, I put this comment when the story was only a sentence about Avila and D’backs nearing agreement)
Xabial, yes sometimes I joke around on here, but I was serious. I don’t think that amount is an unreasonable guess. Some players sign for more than MLBTR predicts, some less.
Also, I didn’t look up the MLBTR prediction by the way. I went with a little less because earlier this offseason Avila said something along the lines of he would be willing to be a backup for a playoff team, although doesn’t look like he will be a backup in ARI.
2/8 plus incentives and optout
I am a huge Avila fan and loved his comeback last year, but 2/16 seemed very high to me. I think it will be 2/8-10.
16 milion for 2 years is pretty high. Maybe 10 million for 2 years. Hes defense is okay but not the best arm.
I said 2/8 not 2/16 which is basically what it is
2/13.5 or 2/15 with a team option and 2 MM buyout
2/15 would be literally identical to the contract Castillo received from the White Sox, except the buyout on Castillo’s team option is $500K not $2M 😛
I’m guessing it’s a two year deal worth 8.25 MM
Yah now they need martinez
Who is gonna trade for Greinke? Apparently you aren’t a fan of the team because they’ve said several times they need to clear payroll space if they’re gonna sign JD Martinez.
if you package robbie ray and yasmany tomas together, the phils will gladly take on the latter’s entire bad contract. that saves AZ like 50million ish? i forget Tomas’ exact details but I know it’s getting more expensive and he isnt getting any better. Would this give you payroll flexibility to get JDM?
THE Phillies would probably do that if Robby ray isn’t included but the man is a young controllable future ace. Highly doubt he’s going anywhere. As a Phillies fan, I’d do that deal for not that great of prospects
Robbie Ray has ELECTRIC stuff and I was sad to see Detroit deal him away. AZ has a real GEM in Ray and any team would like to have this version of a pitcher who has found his potential and has the confidence now to go out there and do it. He would be worth an organizations top 10 prospect and more.
What are the odds that it’s a deal that makes the Rockies regret signing Iannetta so early?
depends on how much value teams place on pitch framing, Iannetta middle of the road, Avila one of the worst
When MLB goes electronic strike zone will catchers still pitch frame?
Electronic strikes should not be permitted in baseball. Would ruin the pitcher adjustment with a umpire strikezone. Should be managed by people and not by a machine. Redicoulous.
They will not go to an electronic stike zone in the next decade. They are so worried about bringing baseball back to youth where already parents and coaches complain a ridiculous amount. Additionally, as replacement level players and prospects become more relevant how do teams evaluate AAA players much less lower minor leaguers/college/high school players based on a their performance that’s based around human element zones they are used to pitching to which are more oval shaped than the rule books strict rectangle shape zone that is still more of a square slightly wider than the plate.
sfgiants49ers: redicoulous is spelled ridiculous and you said “a umpire” when it should be “an umpire” and strike zone is two words, not one. And to think it would ruin the pitcher adjustment with an umpire strike zone is naive. Hitters and pitchers both would get to know their strike zones fast enough. A level playing field.
So what? Get a life ! Fn grammar police !
FU brucewayne. Stop swearing at people. And drop the Batman crap with your posts. Its stupid.
Hey idiot! It’s my real name! I don’t hide behind my posts with a fake name like you! What’s stupid is you trying to tell everybody about all their grammar mistakes! They don’t care. It just makes you look like the ass that you are!
By the way, talk about swearing , maybe you should take your own advice
Oh yea! Drop the Ty Cobb crap with your posts. It’s stupid! See! It goes both ways. At least I use my real name
High-tech stats may have him as a poor pitch framer, and he does seem to allow a bunch of passed balls, but pitchers love the guy. He sure seems to know how to manage a pitching staff.
When did a catcher’s defense become rated primarily by pitch framing? Pitch framing varies from year to year at such wide swings, many question its validity. Avila is excellent at blocking balls in the dirt, throws well, and calls a good game, all of which should be valued higher than pitch framing.
I agree. The catcher pitcher relationship on a personal level is far greater and maybe the only one in the game left where comfort is more valuable than an already questionable ranking system. If a whole staff and pen have nothing but good things to say about a catcher it should weigh more heavily than perhaps someone that plays a different position. The pitcher(s) catcher relationship is still the most vital and maybe only one left in a team sport that is so reliant now on individual computer based grades.
Probablt not. He’s making $3-$4m a year and he’s hitting in Coors which is a familiar environment. Seems like a good gamble. Also feel like Wolters is a solid back-up super utility.
Near zero. Rox got Iannetta super cheap (likely cheaper than Avila), and he’s probably the better overall player.
He’s gunna hit 25 bombs in that lineup.
The big free agents were waiting for this big move to happen before signing
Big fan of this guy. Underrated, considering the offense that comes from his position. In my biased opinion, comeback player of the year, candidate (Just stay healthy)
Awful defender
That’s where I believe he will make a comeback, provided he plays full season. I’m very bullish on Avila. (Please don’t down-vote me saying hope/believe Avila makes a rebound 😉 )
Poor pitch framer, but good blocker, thrower, and game-caller. Fans might focus solely on framing and ignore everything else a player does on the field, but front offices sure do seem to care whether a guy can hit and otherwise field his position. All that other stuff has value too, you know, despite how much fans try to ignore it.
Nope. Also poor thrower (negative rSB, same level as Nick Hundley) and poor blocker.
Be that as it may, BP WARP includes all of those other aspects of catcher defense except for game-calling, and his total fielding runs (including pitch-framing) have been somewhere between bad and horrendous each of the past 4 seasons – http://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/card/58899/alex-avila
It’s also true that he hit well in 2017, but that’s been the outlier season of his career to the point that Steamer forecasts him for a 99 wRC+ in 2018 compared to his 124 wRC+ in 2017.
I think that this is a logical signing by the Diamondbacks for 2/$8.25 million, but I think there are clear reasons that a team wasn’t going to offer him 2 / $16 million. Going by BP WARP, he was a replacement level or below player in both 2015 and 2016 before performing at a higher level in 2017. He’s also 31. He doesn’t have the mileage of innings caught of a lot of catchers that old, but he does have a fairly lengthy injury history including some issues that you’d worry could recur for a catcher (multiple hamstring injuries, multiple concussions / head injuries).
Pitch framing is one of the worst things to happen to baseball.
Watching some noodle arm swinging a wet newspaper because he’s really super good at moving his glove a half an inch and fooling a 60 year old man standing behind him is not good for the entertainment value of the game. Catchers who can hit are good for it.
God, I’m sorry, I guess catchers are supposed to be great hitters? I missed that, apparently. You can’t disregard pitch framing, it’s a huge part of the role catchers play. They lead the pitching staff, and one way to prevent runs is to… catching on? pitch framing.
Pitch Framing = Lying
….and MLB “Celebrates It”…….(what’s wrong with this picture…???)
Oh god
Pitch framing will be a thing of the past when not if they implement a automated strike zone
I can’t wait. I hope it’s in our lifetime.
“The subjectivity of the strike zone, is one of the most beautiful things about baseball”
Is one of the most Troll responses, for being against an electronic strike zone (even if you actually believe that)
Some “human” is probably still going to be calibrating the machine’s strike zone for each batter. I bet players would still find ways to complain about the zones in certain ballparks.
Rather it be consistently inaccurate rather than the same pitch placement be a ball/strike for the same batter.
yea, but wouldnt it be so awesome to see Carlos Gomez tossed from a game for arguing with a robot umpire? rise of the machines, man, i can’t wait.
Not sure why Alex didn’t sign with the Tigers so he could be traded to a contender by the end of the year.
bc they aren’t giving 16 million to a catcher when they are basically tanking. One bad injury early in the season or if he regressed then they get stuck paying the contract.
He’s still not speaking to his dad bc he traded him to the Cubs last year. The holidays were awkward
Why would he be mad at his dad for sending him to a playoff team? His dad did him a favor.
JOKE
jōk
noun
A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make some people laugh and is not meant to be taken seriously.
His dad made it pretty known, a reunion was unlikely, and he has to put his ‘dad role’ aside, with job. Both sides will do what’s best for them, although I have to admit, pretty cool for him to play on a team with his dad as GM
I don’t think it was possible unless he takes massive discount lol
To put it into perspective, Al Avila signed his son, Alex Avila to a one year $2M deal last off-season.
But he just got a two year deal with the Dbacks. Has his value changed that much after 2017? don’t think so.
His value went way up due to having his best offensive year in a long time in ’17.
And still wasn’t valued that highly around the league to warrant more than a 2 year deal.. despite the great offensive #’s, eveyone here is picking on his defense.
Btw, he did it in 311 AB, 112 games, 78 at C.
(19 at First, 8 at DH)
everyone* here
Alex will have teams wary because of his history of concussions. No long term gambles here.
Players will be taking a 50% haircut at this point and might even accept Bitcoins
Thanks for the laugh!
Hmm, it looks like the D-Backs have a perfect platoon situation between Avila and Mathis.
Realmuto ir grandal pick one nats.
Or Lucroy
Lucroy has been trending down and doesnt seem like much of an upgrade over Weiters at this point. I still think the Nats can get JTR without having to include Robles and I think it gets done.
Kind of thought they would get Lucroy
I had Avila with Oakland. A’s let me down!
Guess they’re going to stick with Bruce Maxwell, but I don’t know how good of a decision that is.
A bit pricey for a backup catcher with concussion issues.
What would it take for st. Louis to trade for greinke?
Hell
And No!
Bighiggy there’s no way St.Louis would take on that deal. They’d have to trade half of the roster to pay that ridiculous contract.
Gonna be pissed if they get CarGo too
Avila may not have been a great pitch framer, but he did throw out 31% of runners trying to steal on him (league average being 27%)
2 for less than 10 for him is a steal. Even if he reverts to what he was before last year that’s a bargain. Would be nice if the A’s would get someone who hasn’t been arrested as a catcher
“TODAY: Avila will receive a two-year contract worth $8.25MM”
I’m assuming both from context and the above discussion that the player received a contract for two years @$8.25M per year. I have to assume this as the lede above is misleading if not downright inaccurate.
Uh, no.
Besides, we don’t have all the information yet, that is all we know. It may have an option, or something.
Two questions:
1. Did I accurately copy/paste the lede from this piece? (Hint, it’s still up there.)
2. Is that lede accurate?
If the answers to those questions are “yes” and “no” respectively—and they are—I have no idea wtf you even thought you were correcting here. Care to give it another shot?
2years worth 8.25 million is pretty clear unless English is not your native language. Lead not lede BTW
22222pete…….I agree that it is clear he rec’d 2 years for a total of $8.25MM, but he is right about “lede”….”: the introductory section of a news story that is intended to entice the reader to read the full story ” although “lead” is also used.
I believe the lede is used in Canada
“I believe the lede is used in Canada”.
Actually it was an revived obsolete spelling brought back by US journalists and printers. It was resurrected to differentiate between the lead in to a story and the lead metal strip used to separate lines of type
Ok! Thanks! I thought it was French! Guess I just don’t use Wikipedia all that much huh?
Neither do I, just happens to be one of many trivial facts I know. I presented it is a polite way to avoid a snarky response but this is the internet…..foolish me.
It’s 8.25 for BOTH years!
Nats should have signed him instead of Matt Adams….
……..That’s about half of what I expected
If he only got 4M per Lucroy is screwed. Brewers offer Lucroy 3yr/16M!
8.25 Mil isn’t a bad deal for him.
Avila had surveyed the Tigers right field during Tiger Fest and immediately knew the field would be up to no good. His signing with Arizona is positive and represents the likelihood of a pennant. He did not succumb to being a Tiger garden hire.
Why the hell didn’t the Cubs sign him??!!!
2 years at 8 mill is nothing.
Why would they let him go? Makes no sense to me, especially since Avila said after the season he was willing to sign as a backup with a contending team.
Huge missed opportunity.
He was great with the Cubs as a backup and an off the bench bat with high obp