The Giants announced Thursday that they’ve acquired catcher Francisco Pena from the Cardinals in exchange for cash. Pena, who was not on the St. Louis 40-man roster, will report to Triple-A Sacramento.
San Francisco recently brought veteran backstop Stephen Vogt from Sacramento up to the big leagues, so Pena will step into the spot that had previously been occupied by Vogt. In six games for Triple-A Memphis so far in 2019, Pena has batted .333/.429/.611 with a homer in 21 plate appearances, although that type of production shouldn’t be expected moving forward. Pena is a career .216/.249/.311 hitter at the MLB level and owns a .253/.298/.455 slash in just under 1400 PAs at the Triple-A level. Pena, 29, has caught 32 percent of would-be base thieves at the Triple-A level in his career and has generally received positive marks for pitch framing, though he did struggle in that regard both in the Majors and the minors with the Cards last season.
Stockpiling depth behind the plate has been a clear priority for new Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi in the first year of his tenure with his new organization. Under Zaidi, the Giants have signed or acquired Vogt, Pena, Erik Kratz, Tom Murphy and Rene Rivera, although the latter two are no longer in the organization. (Murphy was traded to the Mariners, while Rivera was released and signed with the Mets on a minor league deal.)
Trying to control the trade markets for catchers?
Monopolise it.
That might work if any of the catchers they’ve been acquiring had any real trade value. They don’t.
Right. These guys are a dime a dozen.
Well, apparently they do because they just traded for one
“In exchange for cash” is MLB code for nothing, since often money is never actually sent. From what I’ve read, there’s sort of an understanding between teams that these type of transactions usually balance themselves out. And if there is any money being sent, it isn’t much. So unless these catchers are being traded for prospects or other MLB-caliber players, they really don’t have any trade value.
I’m pretty sure money actually gets sent; if it didn’t, there wouldn’t be any reason for a team to do anything other than put him on waivers.
The Indians paid $100,000 for Esmil Rogers a few years ago, for instance. Then they traded him to Toronto that offseason, but that’s a different story.
Could be that by “trading” the acquiring team also acquired the contract. Placing on waivers the current team would still be responsible for the contract
Unless they get claimed, I mean. If there was enough interest in a player that he’d be claimed, it would eliminate the need to make a trade for nothing.
Still behind Arizona
And Arizona is still behind San Diego
Meh
It’s a stupid thing
Not ideal having 4 catchers on the 40 man
Why does MLBTR keep closing the comment sections on posts? I am talking about the the Addison Russell post.
Yeah that’s weird. Like when the Larry Baer thing came out the comments were closed but then a later post on the same subject was open.
I am only guessing but I have two theories:
1. They don’t want to upset MLB by creating a place where aggressive responses can be picked up and then reported on by other sites saying things like “Users on MLBTR have stated that X should be beaten to a pulp”. Even though these comments are NOT by MLBTR they would be associated with the comment and some might misunderstand that the comment was made by MLBTR and not a user.
2. The subject matter can cause extreme reactions from people so they are waiting for feelings to calm down a little.
For the record I’m not sure about either of these, I’m just taking wild guesses.
It’s because every time they have left the comments open on such subjects a large majority of posters cannot conduct themselves in a civil manner. It becomes so bad the writers would have to spend the day playing moderator. It’s not worth it.
Cat Mando is correct. Some of the MLBTR writers have answered this question in the past. They don’t have the time, resources or inclination to moderate the large quantity of comments on those type of threads that violate their commenting policies. I’d like to be able to comment on some of those threads myself, but having seen some of the inappropriate comments in the past on threads where social or political issues creep into the subject matter, I understand and respect their decision to close certain threads.
They don’t allow any discerning comments regarding Russell. Apparently being an abusive woman beating coward isn’t something the writers at mlbtr want people to discuss.
Lol Zabbial you really must not have seen the Russell posts before they started shutting them down. It wasn’t Russell bashing that led to closing the comments, it was victim blaming among a minority of commentors and the giant s***storm that would cause in the comment section
Same reason we can’t downvote on anything. Happy 2019 everyone! Feelings for everyone!
WHY.
…still think they should “feed” the catcher’s equipment to Panda…..
He was the catcher prior to posey
Nope. Never played Catcher in the bigs.
Yes he did. 11 games in 2008 and 3 in 2009. He came up as a catcher.
He could really fill the plate.
Dude had an insane CS% in the minors. If only he could block a pitch.
He was signed as a Catcher. But, Posey didn’t replace him. He played more at 1st and 3rd his first two seasons then any other position.
@bobtillman
don’t you mean ‘clean the plate’??
He wasn’t THE catcher but he did catch a little. Fella named Bengie was THE catcher before posey
This just in.
John Ryan Murphy to the Giants. Also Chris Stewart
Unless they have magic “change a catcher into a quality outfielder” potion, they are crazy.
The new motto. “Home of third catchers and 4th outfielders”.
And they have three guys who’s strongest position is first base. WOW
Pena is a good defensive catcher. Over the past 2 years he’s developed into a good hitter too. He filled in well for Molina in his absence last season. The Giants should be glad to get him.
He didn’t hit at all when filled in for Molina. He has a pitcher’s ops.
His defense also sucked last season.
You’re correct on all counts except the content of your post. Below average would be too lofty a descriptor for the quality of his D.
They are going To trade Buster Posey to build up the farm.
Then each SP will have his own personal catcher.
Posey isn’t exactly full of trade value anymore. Expensive, with zero pop.
10 doubles on the year already. Solid behind the plate still and can play 1st perhaps in a platoon. Aging catcher with injury history will bring his appeal down but if the Giants eat a year’s salary that would make their return reasonable. Buster would be value at 2.5 years at $45 million ish.
Posey is not worth $18 mil per season
Maybe if you worry about the salary cap otherwise any team can deem him worthy.
Cash? This probably says more about the Giants prospects than it does for the Cards’ need for money.
Just a guess, Posey will be full time first baseman very soon with Belt either moving to OF or traded.
Giants would have to eat a healthy chunk of Belt’s contract to move him. They’ll have to do it sooner or later, so it might as well be while he’s healthy.
This move almost makes perfect sense. Nobody is taking Posey’s starting job behind the dish until bart comes up, Kratz sucks and needs to get DFAd (I’m thinking it’s soon), vogt gets some reps to prove he’s healthy enough to playbackup, and Pena is injury depth.
But why why why are we blocking Aramis Garcia again? Let’s see what the kids got! They aren’t getting any younger
they must be shopping Garcia, no other explanation that I can think of. He’s got trade value, unlike many other position players on the Giant’s 40 man
funny they didnt keep Murphy, yet he’s actually produced thus far.
Cameron maybin has as well since getting to the yanks.
Will Zaidi be able to trade Buster and MadBum before the deadline? I think…yes!!!
Buster has a full no-trade clause; he isn’t going anywhere.
Maybe he’d waive it to go to…Boston!
The Giants won’t even ask him; he still has Joey Bart to mentor.
If the Giants can just average one more run per game and Bumgarner pitch every other day the dewdgers are in trouble.
Unbelievable smh. Why????
Is ziaidi trying to do Witt catchers what the dodgers used to do with relievers just get them all and see what sticks
Excellent move. For a team with the best GM looking to address their outfield in a season where they’re looking to win it all, this is exactly the move they needed to make.
Any thoughts on where Madison Bumgarner will be traded?
There’s a lot of assumption that Zaidi is “ignoring the obvious” regarding an offensive outfielder, yet assume these other moves do not play into the that very notion, just simply incrementally.
The Giants must be desperate for catching depth to want Pena. They better hope Posey stays healthy.
Makes no sense. If they really wanted a catcher, how about Nick Hundley. Big Mac winner, super teammate and just as good or better than any of these. Does Farhan have ADD?
nothing for nothing leaves nothing