The Rockies announced Friday that they’ve acquired veteran catcher Drew Butera and cash from the Royals in exchange for minor league left-hander Jerry Vasto.
Butera, 35, has been the primary backup to Kansas City mainstay Salvador Perez for the past three seasons and will bring nine years of MLB experience to the Rockies’ roster. He’s hitting .188/.259/.289 through 166 plate appearances this season and is a lifetime .201/.258/.298 batter between the Royals, Angels, Dodgers and Twins.
While he’s clearly never been much of a threat with the bat, Butera has a strong defensive reputation, even if his performance in 2018 has been more questionable in that regard. He’s prevented 30 percent of stolen-base attempts against him in his career but has seen that number plummet to 13 percent in 2018. He’s been a quality pitch-framer in the past as well, but Baseball Prospectus grades his efforts in that regard to be below average this season.
Butera inked a two-year, $3.8MM contract with the Royals prior to the 2017 season and will be a free agent following the current campaign. He’s earning $2.3MM this year and is still owed about $381K of that sum through the end of the year. He becomes the latest backup catcher to swap hands in the past 48 hours, as each of Rene Rivera, Chris Stewart, Bobby Wilson and Chris Gimenez have also changed hands with teams looking to add veteran catching help in advance of expanded September rosters.
Vasto, 26, made his MLB debut with the Rockies earlier this year but appeared in just one game and tossed only two-thirds of an inning. He was hit hard in his first season of Triple-A duty in 2017 but has turned in considerably more promising results in 2018: a 3.16 ERA, 10.7 K/9, 4.4 BB/9, 0.73 HR/9 and a 43.5 percent ground-ball rate in 37 innings. He’ll give the Royals a controllable left-handed option for their bullpen. Because his contract was only selected this season, he comes with the added bonus of having multiple minor league options remaining beyond the 2018 campaign.
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Wow the market for no-bat backup catchers is hot
It always is. Offense is starting to become secondary for catchers
My only thought on this is…why? Preparing for subsequent trades?
No offense including this in a Rockies thread. But it is a shame that ball clubs go out and get these players in August when they have 10 or more options(guessing) within their respective organizations. Trade deals are fun for us to discuss and anticipate. But for me it takes away from the game. What the heck have they been doing with their minor league players all year long? To me, it’s not much different than ‘buying’ a pennant. Use what you’ve already got.
Right? Im sure there is someone in the Rockies farm that can bat .188 and catch. Doesnt make sense why they use more resources to obtain a guy when they probably already have someone better. Oh well, guess it just serves as emergency depth but I am with you that it seems silly
Experience means something though, especially in a pennant race and in October. Butera has been there on a championship team before so his experience is vastly more valuable to the Rockies than whatever their AAA catchers could provide
Yeah, I thought of that. I think it would be worth something if he had experience playing well on a championship team but I guess just having him in the clubhouse can potentially send a positive ripple effect whereas having a giddy rookie might send a negative ripple effect throughout the clubhouse
Let me first say that I don’t really see Vasto turning into a great asset…BUT I also don’t see why it makes sense for the Rockies to trade a major league ready bullpen guy (who throws left-handed and has been able to pitch in the PCL) just for a subpar catcher.
You could throw the names of Drew Butera and a bunch of other backup catchers into a hat and expect pretty much the same level of contribution from any of them. Why give up something that has any chance of being valuable when other teams got similar guys for just a little cash?
Might be about the Dodgers. Butera caught a few of their pitchers for a couple seasons; especially their better weapons.
That’s a fair advantage to add for minimal cost
Anyone else remember when he was great offensively in 2016?