The Orioles have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent catcher Carlos Perez, tweets Bob Nightengale of USA Today. He’ll be invited to Major League Spring Training and would earn a $650K base salary upon making the big league roster.
Perez, 28, appeared in 20 games for the Rangers and another eight for the Braves in 2018, hitting a combined .143/.178/.214 in a tiny sample of 75 plate appearances. Perez has never hit much in the Majors, though last year’s struggles were a new low point in terms of his offensive output; he’s a lifetime .215/.257/.319 hitter in 670 PAs — all of which came with the Angels with the exception of last year’s brief stints in Atlanta and Texas.
For all of his offensive deficiencies, Perez is a gifted defender behind the plate. He’s thrown out a terrific 38 percent of attempted base thieves in his MLB career and a similarly strong 36 percent in parts of 11 minor league seasons. He’s also regularly received average or better grades for his framing and pitch blocking abilities, per Baseball Prospectus.
Chance Sisco, Austin Wynns and Andrew Susac are the only catchers on the Orioles’ 40-man roster, and none of that trio has proven himself capable of producing at the game’s top level just yet. While there’s hope that Sisco, long one of the game’s top catching prospects, will take that step forward in the near future, it’s also not a surprise to see Baltimore add some defensive-minded insurance on the cheap, given the uncertainty that permeates the catching corps at present.
Elias and Zaidi must be working together. Both are doing the exact same thing… NOTHING!
There’s not much to do. Yankees Red Sox Rays are better than the Orioles who until Davis Trumbo come off the books should look to build the farm, sign low cost veteran looking to flip at the deadline.
Giants are in a similar yet heavier boat. Gotta get Cueto samardjza belt longoria melancon contract off the books. In the mean time Dodgers and Rockies are top of the division and giants should build the farm sign low cost veteran looking to flip at a deadline. If you make a run great but bumgarner Crawford Smith Watson should be dealt at some point to restock the farm.
Giants have plenty of money. They can afford to keep Shark and Cueto, Melancon showed he can be a solid middle reliever last year. They need to be making low-risk high-reward moves kind of similar to how they got Alen Hanson, Derek Rodriguez. Only move ive seen is the Callahan signing, which is mildly exciting but we need about 10 of those. Watson and Smith need to go, Crawford and Posey need to stay and Bumgarner will either be traded at the deadline or signed to an extension. You can’t sell low on Belt because of his contract, you have to either eat all of the money to get decent prospects or hope he gets hot and trade him at the deadline. I’m fine with Longoria staying because he’s proven to produce and be a 2-3 WAR player. He’s overpaid but at least he’s doing something.
To be clear, yes I’d love if Farhan finds away to trade the contracts away, but that doesn’t seem very likely and the giants aren’t doomed if they eat the money. They aren’t small-mid market, and they can’t sell low on Posey or Crawford soley to eat money. Posey/Crawford have way more value to the giants symbolically than they do to a contender production-wise.
Trumbo has one year left on his deal for $13.5 with part of it deferred which is noise in the grand scheme of things. They aren’t signing free agents because they aren’t close so if makes little sense to spend this year.
Good player for a rebuilding club. Could really help a young pitching staff as the veteran back up.
Absolutely. Sisco still holds promise and Wynn’s has at times looked very good behind the plate. Curious to see how they develop under the new leadership. Nice low risk move that fits in well with where the club is at and what it needs.
The Cubs never sign backup Catchers worth a damn. They better hope Contreras and Caritini stay healthy all year again. Nobody at Iowa deserves any playing time at Catcher, even as a backup.
Most catchers worth getting ate not content to sit in AAA
If their biggest worry is the third string catcher, they’re in good shape