The Indians have agreed to a $1,137,500 deal with recently acquired backstop Kevin Plawecki, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports (via Twitter). He had been projected by MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz to earn $1.3MM.
Plawecki, 27, reached arb eligibility this year as a Super Two player. That means he’ll still be controllable for three more campaigns to come by the Cleveland organization.
The recent swap that delivered Plawecki to the Indians was designed to fill the void created when the club shipped out Yan Gomes at the outset of the offseason. In the aggregate, the team will save just under $6MM in its catching unit, which also features Roberto Perez and Eric Haase.
Plawecki is something of an offensive-oriented backstop, though he’s hardly a world-beating hitter. Since the start of the 2017 season, he has hit at a roughly league-average .225/.330/.379 rate. Defensively, he grades well at blocking pitches in the dirt but isn’t much loved by pitch-framing metrics.
Despite his limitations on the field, the one-time top prospect seems to be a nice value at his current price tag, which explains why he was targeted by the budget-conscious Indians. His earning power over the following three seasons will be driven by his playing time and performance, of course, so the Cleveland club will enjoy ample flexibility in the years to come.
As always, you can keep up to date with arbitration numbers with MLBTR’s Arbitration Database.
Ho hum
I wonder whether it’s tougher for a team to go to arb against a brand new player (making that his first real exposure to them), or against a player they’ve had a relationship with for a few years…
Depends on whether the player with the relationship is Trevor Bauer.
Lmao the guy is buns.
Hehehehe….
Probably not as much
Someone they brought up and the club goes low on might create stain
A player they traded with no history might submit number then have a long conversation to get to know them and take stats their plans for the them and try to establish a good relationship
Isn’t it great when a guy can be successful at the plate less than 25% of the time is rewarded with a $1.13 million contract due mainly to the fact that he plays the position in baseball with the fewest number of “stars”.
It seems like the best route to the “show” is to be either a catcher or a left handed pitcher.
Depends on how you define success. I look at his line and say he’s successful 33% of the time.
They’re all overpaid.
Jeff Francouer earned just under 30 million dollars to put up a career WAR of 6
Well, ballplayers work in an industry that is awash in cash with only a very few people who can perform at the required level. Even bench-type players have a rare skill level in comparison to the huge percentage of the workforce.
That is a prescription for very high salaries.
Francouer may have only had a career WAR of 6, but given the realities of baseball economics, he wasn’t particularly overpaid.
Frustrating, I know.
Oh, you watched that Jon Bois video too?
WAR totaling 6.9 first 3 seasons with a bounce back year in 2011 totalling 3.2. Smart fans know WAR is a misleading stat, but nevertheless this is part of the reason why he cashed in. He also had talent and some hoped he’d turn into a star. Obviously that did not happen.
Ah, Kevin “Novelty Dong” Plawecki, the kinkiest catcher in the MLB.
For those who don’t remember:
nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/mets-kevin-pl…