The Tigers announced that they’ve signed catcher Dustin Garneau to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training. Garneau, a client of agent Marc Kligman, will compete for a spot alongside Jake Rogers, Grayson Greiner and Eric Haase. The deal includes multiple opt outs, but Garneau will earn a $1MM salary if he earns a spot with the Tigers, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.
Garneau, 33, had a solid season between the Angels and A’s in 2019 but struggled with his third AL West club, the Astros, in 2020. This past season, Garneau served as the backup to Martin Maldonado and limped to a .158/.273/.279 batting line in an admittedly minuscule sample of 46 plate appearances.
Defensively, he’s caught 37 percent of would-be base thieves in the minors and 33 percent in the Majors. And after a poor start to his career in terms of pitch framing, Garneau has rated a bit above average in each of his past few MLB efforts.
Garneau has never received a particularly long look in the Majors, as his career-high in plate appearances came back in 2017 when he tallied 126 trips to the dish between Colorado and Oakland. He’s a career .202/.288/.338 hitter in 427 Major League plate appearances but a .260/.335/.500 hitter in parts of six Triple-A seasons.
This will open the free agent floodgates
I had to do a double take, thought it said StoolMVP…crappy, I know
Awesome another catcher that can’t hit
The first big name to sign. Nice.
YES… couldn’t get McCann or JT, might as well take the next best.
How many “next’s” do you have to go before you get to Garneau?
Avila must of had a lot of competition to get this guy.
surprised he didnt just bring back his son.
He still may bring his son back….. the more the Merrier (Christmas)!
A slap in the face to all Tiger fans.
Why? Its just a depth signing. Who plays in Toledo not a major concern.
Considering the competition, we should be happy with the two catchers who have the highest caught-stealing rate. Victor Diaz is a hitting machine. Re-sign Schoop & Cron. This team needs to push its best prospects (Greene, Torkelson, Mize, Skubal, Manning, Burrows, et al). To bad re: Faedo, my favorite. Team may have found a gem in that pitching coach. Step on those infielders—somebody has to decide that he wants a job.
Don’t forget about Paredes. The dude is mashing in winter ball. Still young but not too far off.
Victor Reyes, not Diaz? And who are these catchers with the highest caught-stealing rate?
WoRlD sErIeS hErE wE cOmE
Could you all show a tad more respect? We’re all on this site because we’d love to do this guy’s job. He’s got 9 more ML home runs than I’m going to get. And you guys?
I was more of a line drive, stolen base threat during my time in the ML
I feel so ashamed… no, no I don’t really.
Up the Toffees!
I think we found Dustin’s MBLTR burner account ^^^.
The only difference between me and Garneau is talent. I thought the Tigers would at least give me a Participation Trophy; they told me they’d give me a trophy if I DIDN’T participate.
Maybe one of us is Rey Ordonez? I wouldn’t put it past him.
Wow….a real splash. Merry Christmas Al…
You could’ve had Grullon.. but, you chose Garneau? WTH Avila.
Grullon would have required a 40-man spot. Garneau is the guy you keep in AAA and bring up if somebody gets hurt.
And in the Tigers case, bring him up if you trade your #1 catcher at the deadline.
When you give opportunities to players like Greiner, who after 3 seasons failed to prove competency, you need to move on. Greiner doesn’t belong on anyone’s 40 man roster. I would be thrilled if they signed a guy like Casali (which is nothing for any other fan to be thrilled about). But, when he Non-tenders a guy like McCann after what he’s shown and keeps Greiner after what he’s shown, it contradicts everything this rebuild and moving forward stands for. I don’t know nor am I saying Grullon is better than Greiner, but the point of the rebuild is moving forward not remaining stagnant. Grullon’s not only younger, but cheaper.. which is what Al’s motive was this entire rebuild. For what it’s worth, I’m a huge believer in the next man up philosophy during a rebuild. Tigers are an absolute disaster behind the dish.
I like the idea of bringing back Casali for a season. The Tigers don’t have a real catching prospect in their system besides Dirk Diggler (Dillon Dingler). Everyone else is just a stopgap.
Number 1 catcher? The Tigers have one?? They have nothing. The two biggest problems are in the front office: AA and C.I. It has been made clear that the front office has absolutely ZERO INTEREST in spending, getting a competent training and conditioning staff. Let alone make any good signings, or trades. Daddy’s boy likes his money in the bank. Not on the field.
Besides, AA is not the right man for the job..any job in baseball.
Signing a sub-200 catcher.. really, Al? Don’t we already have 3 of those?
Chris, just sell the team. Let a real fan of the game buy the team and put together a winner.
I could not agree more ImperialTiger.
He was good enough for the Astros!
Kind of weird the Brewers didn’t get him. I thought their whole mission was to buy all the catchers, and then force teams without a catcher to trade with them.
This is a great signing for the Tigers… low risk and low cost, but high upside and a great backup option.
High upside?? He’s 33 and hits like an average AAA catcher. His upside is that he might be a decent backup at the MLB level.
A fine depth signing, but very limited upside.
Garneau is a decent player, but I hope the Tigers are not done at C. Unless Garneau shows some miraculous improvement, he will likely be a AAAA catcher, which the Tigers already have in Greiner and Haase (plus perhaps Rogers as well).
Gruß,
BSHH
Garneau is a serviceable backup Catcher. The problem is the Tigers don’t have a serviceable starter behind the plate.
Or at any other spot on the field. AA has gotten nothing from any of the trades, been even worse at signing free agents, and so far, cant even seem to pick the right top drafts. AA is lost. And, CI will not even give him directions.
In the sarcastic words of Peggy Bundy: Thanks Al.
He can’t catch; he can’t hit. At least he’s not 32 anymore.
Nothing to see here, just a system depth guy. The spring invite is a courtesy.
I hope Garny will be able to keep his streak alive of never having attempted a stolen base!
Garny, know thyself!
Great!! Now we have another worthless 5+ era pitcher. Should go great with the 4 catchers that cant hit. Nice, Al. Real nice. 3.25m pissed away. Wtf is wrong with him? Ross, mohre, nova and countless others and millions upon millions thrown away on pitchers that can’t even get through a full season.. some of them couldn’t even get through a 60 game season!!! Don’t we have enough pitchers that can’t get through the 3rd inning!!??