Pirates catcher Ryan Lavarnway has elected free agency after clearing outright waivers, reports MLB.com’s Adam Berry (Twitter link). The 31-year-old veteran spent the 2018 season with Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis and received a call to the Majors in September, going 4-for-6 with a double in pinch-hitting duties down the stretch.
Once a well-regarded prospect with the Red Sox, Lavarnway has bounced around the league over the past few seasons, seeing occasional time in the Majors but spending considerably more time in Triple-A. He’s a career .208/.268/.326 hitter in 426 MLB plate appearances and a .276/.366/.431 hitter in 1865 PAs at the Triple-A level. He figures to have interest as a depth option in minor league free agency this winter and will likely get an invite to come to Spring Training with a team in 2019.
“Yet another victim of Nutting’s wallet” – Yinzers
… Blake Swihart.
Looking back, the Sox have had some catchers with unusual last names.
I don’t mind the snide Yinzer references but until the Pirates sign an actual major league free agent it’s going to be more of the same responses. They signed the same amount of major league free agents last year as the Cleveland browns had wins. They have cut bait with Kang and Harrison and Mercer comes off the books. There is money there to improve this team and until it’s done you will see stupid yinzer comments.
The thing is no matter what they’ll have stupid comments, it could be a great signing and the player start off struggling and be like “see I told you this wouldn’t work out what a waste of money this team doesn’t want to win” and they could do nothing and the fans will be like “see we don’t spend money on the team we aren’t committed to winning” it’s the same BS until the team itself starts to win is when the fans will come out. It sucks but it’s true small market teams only win through trades and developing their own players and the Pirates will forever be haunted by dumb baseball fans unless the league implements a league wide salary cap.
Wonder if Lavarnway could help the Brewers?
Maybe….can’t assume SuperKratz will duplicate last year because he never has before.
I’ll always know him as the guy that was batting behind Adrian Gonzalez in game 162 vs Orioles in 2011. Orioles walked Gonzalez almost every at bat to get to him, and it worked out. Curse of the Andino! Greatest regular season day in history. 9/28/2011
I was hoping that he would stay with the Buccos but Jacob Stallings is blocking his path as the third catcher.
He did win one game this year with a walkoff hit.
His Pirate career evidently ends with a 0.667 batting average.That isn’t bad.