The Mariners selected catcher Andrew Knapp onto the big league roster before tonight’s matchup with the Orioles. Fellow backstop Luis Torrens is headed to the 10-day injured list with left shoulder inflammation. Seattle already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster.
Knapp signed a minor league contract with the M’s last month. He’s played at Triple-A Tacoma since then, putting up only a .198/.250/.432 line in 22 games. The switch-hitting backstop also didn’t provide much offense during a brief early-season run with the Pirates, and he’s coming off a .152/.215/.214 showing over 159 plate appearances with the Phillies last year. Aside from an excellent 33-game stretch with Philadelphia in 2020, Knapp has been a below-average offensive player. He owns a .210/.310/.315 line in parts of six MLB seasons.
Despite those struggles at the plate, the 30-year-old gets the call to add some depth behind the dish. Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times tweets that Torrens was injured during yesterday’s fracas between the Mariners and Angels — one which resulted in the handing down of 12 suspensions. Torrens wasn’t among the players disciplined, but he’ll have his own brawl-induced absence from the playing field.
Seattle has already been without Tom Murphy, and Torrens’ injury left Cal Raleigh as the only healthy catcher on the 40-man roster. The M’s had no alternative but to add a #2 option, and they’ll turn to the veteran Knapp in that role. The club didn’t provide a recovery timetable for Torrens, who is hitting .222/.280/.241 on the season.
A day late. All the fun happened yesterday, Andrew…
Arguably best left handed contact hitter
In baseball
Knapp has always said and done the right thing. Never heard a bad word about him and the staff loved to throw to him…THAT IS how he stuck around so long…His offense was, well his offense. As a lifer, wish him the best….
To patch together their catching for the remainder of the season the Mariners have chosen to take a KNAPP !!
The Tom Murphy injury has killed Seattle this year. He’s only been able to play 14 games so far this season. When he gets hot, he can put on an offensive show at the plate and Seattle desperately needs all the offense they can get right now.
Cal Raleigh has provided plenty of offense the last few weeks.
Very few catchers can claim to be offensive minded.. What I don’t get is how a lot of them get pass over for this very reason. Which also has me wondering these catchers are having these problems, do they not get enough help with it?