1:05pm: McCann will receive $2.5MM on a one-year deal, per Fancred’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).
12:51pm: The White Sox have agreed to terms with free-agent catcher James McCann, pending a physical, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). The 28-year-old, who was non-tendered by the Tigers earlier this month, will remain in the AL Central after spending the entirety of his career in the Detroit organization to this point. He’s represented by the Ballengee Group.
As recently as the 2017 season, McCann served as the Tigers’ primary catcher and hit .253/.318/.415 with a career-high 13 home runs. However, his offense cratered in 2018 (.220/.267/.314, eight home runs in 457 plate appearances), and his once-excellent numbers against left-handed pitching were particularly concerning. In 109 PAs against southpaws last year, McCann hit just .176/.229/.284.
On the defensive side of the coin, McCann has continually been sensational in terms of controlling the running game. He’s registered at least a 30 percent caught-stealing rate in each of his four full big league seasons, including a 36 percent mark in 2018 and an overall rate of 37 percent. He’s been well below-average in terms of pitch framing across the past two seasons, though, and has struggled similarly in terms of blocking balls in the dirt.
Presumably, he’ll give the White Sox an option to step into the void created by the trade of Omar Narvaez to the Mariners (in exchange for Alex Colome). Veteran Welington Castillo is still atop Chicago’s depth chart behind the plate, making McCann the favorite to serve as his backup. Certainly, further offseason maneuvering can change that fact, and it’s of course worth noting that it’s not yet clear whether McCann received a guaranteed one-year deal or is headed to Spring Training as a non-roster invitee.
Major league contract?
With Castillo as the only catcher on the MLB roster, I would guess as much.
Given their catching depth, even if it isn’t it will be soon.
great job love this guy
Sox continue to undervalue framing and blocking in comparsion to the more successful orgs.
stop gap solution
That’s because they’re still in the dumps on analytics and everything else like 90% of all the other teams, Don Cooper especially has no clue about pitching anymore.
Tell that to Tommy Kahnle, Anthony Swarzak, Tyler Clippard, etc.
That’s why Jose Quintana became so much more effective after he moved to the north side and why all the Cubs fans are so happy with the trade…(???)
Jose Quintana was pretty good for the Cubs down the stretch in 2017 after they acquired him from the Sox at the trade deadline (baseball-reference.com/players/q/quintjo01.shtml). That was when Chris Bosio was still their pitching coach and before their genius manager decided to dump him in favor of his pal Jim Hickey who also departed following this past season.
That being said, “Q” had his best days on the South Side and maybe can rejoin his former club in the next offseason or two depending on what the Cubs do with his 2020 $11.5MM team option.
I like Quintana, but not what they gave up for him.
This is what nonsense looks like, kids.
BREAKING NEWS!
MLB has decided to put off banning shifts in favor of robo-umps in 2019. This will not only make pitch-framing an obsolete stat but those new clunky arbiters behind the plate will provide assistance to less athletic catchers in blocking errant pitches.
Yes! As an example you only need to look north and see how well Willson Contreras’ -12.8 framing metric impacted their 95 win season. If it wasn’t for that they might have won the World Series again!
replacing a bad defender who can kind of hit with a bad defender who can kind of hit. classic.
Guaranteed major league salary, $2.5mil, for a guy the rebuilding Tigers didn’t want. Bet my life the story out of Chicago will be about his leadership. Which Avila said was overrated last year.
“he was really good at controlling the running game for the tigers. this is going to translate because runners go against catchers and definitely not pitchers” – Hahn, probably.
Renteria can’t wait to make him bunt all the time.
I believe it was baseball’s smartest man and the world’s most consistent scapegoater, Theo Epstein, who said that as he dispatched Miguel Montero to protect his pitchers.
I thought McCann was a pretty decent defensive catcher.
He’s a good defender you moron
Of course, the White Sox also received a relief pitcher who can “kind of close” for that “bad defender who can kind of hit” while also replacing him with another “bad defender who can kind of hit” for just cash. Got all that?
Boring
For now, James McCann looks to be the backup catcher for Wellington Castillo in 2019. At the very least these two will give the White Sox a respectable combo at the catching position this season.
This still doesn’t preclude a more impacting acquisition from occurring like signing FA Yasmani Grandal or perhaps a long-shot trade for J.T. Realmuto. There’s plenty of offseason left and no guarantee that Castillo will be #1 on opening day if the White Sox can net a bigger fish. Castillo might even provide some bait for a bigger catch!
Narvaez is better than McCann
Alex Colome plus James McCann is better than Omar Narvaez.
trading omar narvaez for alex colome – solid move
replacing omar narvaez’s spot with a worse, more expensive version of omar narvaez – not a solid move.
If you didn’t comprehend my first formula try this time honored one out instead: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
The White Sox might not been done “adding” yet either!
It’s $2.5M for 1 year – a year in which the payroll will be criminally low (barring a Harper or Machado signing). Why do you care about how “expensive” he is?
That’s what I don’t get… teams are paying $10MM per to 6-7th inning relievers. What’s $2.5M for a backup catcher who had a ~.750 OPS just two years ago?
Yes!
We are all elated James caught on with the White Sox following in Lance Parrish and Alex Avila footsteps.. The Sox are known for making a pitch for the men who handle the Tiger flamethrowers. This should help the fan base and save the Sox tons of baseballs. Plus the hitting ability of James will increase in Chicago, because it is his kind of town.
Lance Parrish caught on with the Chisox?? Joe – just the facts, man!
If this doesn’t persuade Harper and Manny to join up, nothing will.
You’re probably joking but I strongly believe Harper is going to the Sox. And I really hope he does. Keeps him away from the Nl, makes the Sox better obviously, and to a less important extent he can be another Chicago icon like his buddy Bryant.
Seriously people were on here saying “$8 million was too much money for a backup catcher if you sign Yasmani Grandal.” Well now if you sign Grandal and trade away Welington Castillo, that means you will have a $2.5 million backup.
The good news here is they are less likely to be the sucker who wastes considerable money on Grandal. If they pull off signing one of the 2 FA stars, they can then be creative accelerating bold moves/trades for other stars in their prime with plenty of trade chips.
The good news is that the White Sox have the financial wherewithal to do all of the above. I don’t see where signing 30-year old Yasmani Grandal to a sensible FA deal (this site pegged him at 4 yrs/$64MM) is waste of anything other than a 2nd round pick next June and maybe a 3rd rounder if they are fortunate enough to ink Bryce Harper.
Grandal would provide a veteran presence, one who is perhaps the preeminent pitch framer in MLB which would surely help a young power pitching staff with some command concerns over that time frame. Grandal is also a switch-hitter who can hit some, averaging 21 HR’s and a .341 OBP over his past 5 full seasons in the pitcher-friendly venues of the Dodgers and Padres. Even Paulie should appreciate that although he might balk at his PB numbers.
Catchers like Grandal don’t fall off of trees. It’s not like the top White Sox prospects are teeming with defensive skills either.
Have a look at his postseason stats 2015-2018 and see how poor they are. Sample size issue 1 go around ok but 4 is a pattern. There’s exceptions of course, but be leery of players whose obp during regular season is also heavily reliant/padded by walks and don’t hit for decent average. There are a lot of them that do almost all their damage against bum pitchers and get paid. These are the guys who are pricey FAs fans cry about as bad money right away once they see them up close more/get worse with age. If you are in big games also easy outs against the top tier arms you see in crunch time. Batting avg is broadly being scoffed at as no longer all that important, but if you are not solid at putting the ball in play, have fun with HR/BB only guys in meaningful games. Playoff starters and good bullpens don’t issue many freebies and salivate at this profile of hitter. Defense won’t argue-but you don’t pay the kind of money someone will pay him for that.
McCann had strong numbers the 2nd half of 2017. That off season he and his wife had twins and there were complications. He came into 2018 thicker in body mass and he got off to a terrible start, had nagging injuries and never got back on track. It was just a tough year. Imho (as a Tigers fan) he is a good candidate for a much improved bounce-back 2019. Solid guy, I wish him the best.
Not a thrilling move by any means but he’s only a back up and signed for one year, folks. Try to stay calm and hope it’s just a precursor to something better.
Idk what Maldonado signs for but whatever it is it would have been worth it. This move makes zero sense.
wouldn’t it make more sense to have just kept Narvaez and signed a reliever in FA. McCann is a backup but not a good one.
Narvaez plus “$9m reliever” (maybe Ottavino?) is pretty much equal to Colome/McCann….wonder if the Sox just wanting to part with Narvaez was the main goal. Sell high and move on.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense for the White Sox to invest too many dollars and years into a top-notch FA setup man or closer. Colome came cheaply and is under fairly affordable arbitration control for two more seasons. Meanwhile, one of the White Sox organizational strengths is in their right-handed power arms who profile in those roles including Ian Hamilton, Zack Burdi, Tyler Johnson and Jose Ruiz. They may also have a failed starter or two who might eventually wind up at the back end of their future bullpen.
Who can be an affordable backup C while (finally!) helping prevent other teams from stealing at will against CWS? McCann cann.
Perfect bridge to Barnabus, i.e. Collins.
This move is just a sound move for a veteran back up. What I don’t understand and what has never seem to make sense is why the White Sox simply let Kevan Smith go for nothing easy on in the off season. He seemed to actually handle the pitchers well and had a good bat when given the chance. The White Sox must have had some concern about his handling of pitchers to just let him walk.