The Athletics have inked Cameron Rupp to a minor league deal, as was first noted on MLB.com’s transactions page. It doesn’t appear that there was a formal announcement from the organization, but Rupp has already logged a pair of games with Triple-A Las Vegas. He was released from a minor league pact with the Tigers last week.
Rupp, 30, hit .254/.329/.366 in 79 plate appearances with Detroit’s Triple-A affiliate but is best known for a five-season stretch with the Phillies from 2013-17. Rupp hit a combined .234/.298/.407 with 39 home runs, 57 doubles and a pair of triples through 1127 plate appearances in his time with the Phils, serving as their primary backstop for the final two seasons of his tenure there.
While Rupp has some pop in his bat, as evidenced by a career .173 ISO (slugging minus batting average), he’s been too strikeout prone at the dish (28.7 percent). Behind the plate, he’s thwarted 31 percent of stolen-base attempts against him in his career, which is slightly above the league average, while drawing questionable framing marks — particularly in 2017.
The Athletics have received perhaps surprising production from 31-year-old Josh Phegley behind the plate this season (.282/.313/.491), which has led to Phegley receiving considerably more playing time than veteran Nick Hundley. The 35-year-old Hundley inked a minor league contract this winter and broke camp with the A’s this season, but he’s hitting just .200/.228/.327 through his first 57 plate appearances.
The signing of Rupp comes not long after the A’s received some unwelcome news on top catching prospect Sean Murphy, who suffered a torn meniscus that required surgical repair (as initially reported by The Atheltic’s Melissa Lockard, on Twitter). That procedure should sideline Murphy into mid-June, if not longer, so Rupp will team up with Beau Taylor to hand catching duty in Vegas for the time being. Offseason signee Chris Herrmann is also recovering from knee surgery — his coming back in March — thus further depleting the organization’s depth at catcher.
Rupper was always a decent backstop, I felt. Still think his best moment was his catch from Goeddel and Suarexz barreled into him.
Best of luck to the “Ruppster
that really was a hell of a play.
Thats how baseball should be played. I still say the “posey” play was his fault and it changed the game forever.
I’m a Giants fan and clearly remember watching that play live. I remember thinkin, No Way Cousins tests Schierholz from that shallow in the OF. Nate came up with a poor throw, Posey never had hood footwork on plays at the plate. This time was no different. Bummer. That rule hurts the game more than it helps the catcher.
Really good take from a Giants fan. I’m in Orioles fan from Santa Cruz surrounded by Giants fans you pretty much share the same sentiment it sucks that it happened but it was still Buster’s fault and he should actually know better because he’s a really good catcher.
Sean Murphy worries me, he’s had a major injury each season so far…
No need to be worried, they’re mostly bad luck injuries. Bad slide broke his first hamate bone, HBP broke his other hamate bone and we don’t have much information about this injury other than it happened.
Otherwise he hasn’t really sprained anything, he hasn’t pulled a hamstring, he hasn’t had any back issues.
But he did tear something and needed surgery for it. That’s gotta be some cause for concern.
Hamate injury treatment is removal, so re-injury isn’t a concern. As for the knee, anyone can catch their cleat on the edge of the grass, just ask Matt Shoemaker who tore right through his ACL turning while making a play. Murphy only damaged some cartilage. If your point was to say “he’s injury prone”, well, no.
if my point would have been that he’s injury prone, then I would have said that, I just think he has bad luck, which looks to be a yearly thing….every year, including right before he was drafted, he’s missed at least 8 weeks…how does that bode well for the future, especially for a catcher of his caliber?
Whoever sarcastically said that Cameron Rupp would be signed by the A’s can eat their heart out.
Farhan Zaidi breaks 20+ years of no A’s/Giants trades in 4, 3, 2 …
Yeah, the probably DFA’s whoever he traded for in a week after picking up someone else off the waiver wire.
The dude needs to go back the Dodgers’ front office where he can concentrate on fantasy football while Andrew Friedman runs everything.