The Rockies have won their arbitration hearing against catcher Tony Wolters, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter). He’d been seeking $2.475MM but will instead receive $1.9MM for the 2020 campaign (as reflected in MLBTR’s 2020 Arbitration Tracker).
It’s the second year of arbitration for the 27-year-old Wolters, who earned $960K in 2019 and will be eligible twice more as a Super Two player. The light-hitting backstop is known far more for his defensive abilities than his bat, although he improved over his 2018 production substantially this past season (.170/.292/.286 in 2018; .262/.337/.329 in 2019).
In parts of four MLB seasons, all with the Rockies, Wolters has managed just a .239/.327/.324 output in 1123 trips to the plate. Offensive production from the catcher position — or a lack thereof — has been a problem for the Rockies for the past several years, but they appear content to proceed with Wolters and one of Dom Nunez, Elias Diaz or Drew Butera serving as the primary options behind the plate after a quiet offseason.
The Rockies’ win over Wolters further tips the 2020 scales in favor of teams, who have gone a perfect 4-for-4 in hearings against players. In addition to Wolters/Rockies case, the Braves have topped Shane Greene, the Dodgers have won over Joc Pederson and the Twins have bested Jose Berrios.
How the heck is this dude still in the majors
The light-hitting backstop is known far more for his defensive abilities than his bat, although he improved over his 2018 production substantially this past season (.170/.292/.286 in 2018; .262/.337/.329 in 2019).
.262/.337 with defense? Most teams will take that kind of stat line from catcher.
If you’re good at defense you’ll stick around a while in the MLB.
I’d rather have garver
Yeah I’m not buying that teams are looking at the overall numbers and putting much stock in them. He’s about a league averageish C/slightly below at home and horrendous away from the hitters paradise that is Coors. Def will get you a ways, but it’s certainly a valid question. You can handle a def first C to some extent, especially if you have a potent lineup, but the Rockies have a bunch of holes in their lineup and Wolters leaves a lot to be desired.
Because he’s the only catcher on the Rockies
Lol
that should make Arenado happy
Just looked at his stats…. 1 home run all season while playing in COORS??
See first comment
The Rockies finally won something, probably the only thing they will win this year. will they finish 3rd,4th or last? I would guess 3rd because giants will be bad, worse than last year and the lowly Padres may be still less than 500 so Rockie may be in third.
I’m a Rockies fan (for the moment), and I think the Padres are going to challenge the D-Backs for second, actually.
cHamPiOnsHiP!
Rox needed to sign Cole and Strasburg.
I wonder if this will count as one of the 94 wins this year?