The Tigers are in agreement on a minor league contract with Andrew Knapp, as first reported by Complete Baseball News. Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press further reports that Knapp’s minor league deal contains an invite to Major League Spring Training. Knapp is repped by Apex Baseball.
The 2022 season was a rough one for Knapp, who posted just a .128/.239/.154 batting line while splitting time between the Pirates, Mariners and Giants. That came in a tiny sample of just 46 plate appearances, however, and his combined .245/.313/.486 output in 230 Triple-A plate appearances between the Mariners and Giants was far better. Current Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris was still with the Giants as their general manager when Knapp signed a minor league deal with San Francisco last July.
Knapp, a former second-round pick (Phillies, 2013), has racked up more than five years of big league service while spending parts of six seasons in the Majors. He’s a career .209/.310/.313 hitter in the big leagues and a .257/.328/.415 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons. Knapp has struggled with a 19% caught-stealing rate and sub-par framing metrics in the Majors, but he’s nabbed 31% of those who’ve attempted to steal against him in the minors — including a strong 8-for-18 showing (44%) in Triple-A Sacramento in 2022.
The Tigers currently have Eric Haase and Jake Rogers as their primary catching options, though Haase has struggled defensively himself and Rogers missed the 2022 season due to Tommy John surgery. Detroit also picked up Mario Feliciano off waivers from the Brewers last month and is still hopeful that 2020 second-round pick Dillon Dingler can force his way into the picture eventually. Dingler hit .238/.333/.419 (107 wRC+) in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting in 2022.
Tigers winning the off-season
So what’s the asking price for 2022 Gold Glove Award winner Austin Meadows? What are the Tigers needs?
Position players, any and every.
Everything…all positions…
The Tigers need Aaron Judge; they need him very badly actually. This may seem like a joke, but it is absolutely true.
Gruß,
BSHH
2022 Gold Glove winner?
Meadows was hurt 90% of last season. He had 0 hr & 11 rbi. So, we gotta hang onto him cuz he’ll probably rebuild some of the worth he lost, if he stays healthy. And like the other guy said, the Tigers offense is atrocious and they’ve done nothing this winter. So they need everything. Especially rebounds from Meadows and Baez.
I hope the underperforming players improve next season. If not, they may approach 100 losses in 2023.
Mets got nothing on all these Tiger’s signings
Ya, lol. We Tiger fans still remember what it’s like to spend money though and have Verlander and Scherzer, etc. Our Owner died & his son won’t spend.
That’s because the Mets have no $
They can offer him a nap during day games.
Caught Knapping.
Lol! This just makes me happy that Knapp is not returning to the Bucs, at least for now 🙂
I liked Knapp early on = saw him in the upper minors quite a bit even before he hit Philly. His defense was quite solid and the pitchers seemed to like working with him. Smart dude (as all catchers are…it is a law of baseball); he just never managed to tighten up that swing…too long for a guy without the elite bat speed. Just another AAAA option that should hang around for a few more years at this point. But useful…
“Smart dude (as all catchers are…it is a law of baseball)”
Gary Sanchez is smiling.
The exceptions only prove the rule…; )
Got our guy who can control the strike zone!
Can’t wait to see this team in the spring !
Catching depth is valuable for a team. But I wonder why Knapp chose the Tigers – he will probably end up behind Dingler and Feliciano in the pecking order (plus also behind Haase and Rogers, of course – and there were some rumors that the Tigers wanted to sign a FA C as well). Thus Knapp better have an opt-out in his contract…
Gruß,
BSHH
2 reasons, he either had no other options, or he had bad agent advice. Not an offensive guy or a defensive guy. His hitting numbers will only get worse too in comerica since the tigers have the largest park.
Great! Another 4A player. Tigers just keep on adding them up. How this is supposed to benefit the ML affiliate?
Rogers is made of glass and who knows if he starts the season with the team. Wouldn’t you want some insurance? Feliciano is more intriguing than Knapp at this point but depth at AAA as a backup plan for Haase and Rogers is not a bad thing. Catchers are often late bloomers.
Great! Tigers adding another 4A player to the organization. How is this supposed to help our ML affiliate?
Well, having a 4AAA player come cover injuries to Haase or Rogers as backup is better than calling up Dingler who is nowhere near ready and exposing him too soon like happened to Tork last year. This yearis a write off before it starts. Someone has to play.
Tigers will be “laying low” stocking up on high, young, top rated draft picks,
signing international free agents, “buying low” young players who have been blocked or not given the opportunity to excel at he big league level., making “smart trades” etc.
They did that under the previous Dombrowski Front Office discovering players like JD Martinez, Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Curtis Granderson, Eugenio Suarez, Willy Adames, Doug, Fister, Anibal Sanchez and many more.
The Tigers would be foolish to give up foundational pieces like Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene who are “untouchables”.
The Tigers can “jumpstart” their Rebuild with these trade pieces at the trade deadline when they are healthy and producing. The Tigers can probably get more for each trade piece in separate deals.
OF Austin Meadows (for multiple Top 100 young position players/prospects
RHSP Spencer Turnbull (same as above)
Closer Gregory Soto (same as above)
2B Schoop (same as above)
SS Javier Baez (same as above)
Matt Manning or Tarik Skubal (same as above)
The Detroit Tigers have a lot of great young pitching and much more on the farm and in the pipeline. They would do well by dealing at least 1 young starter with big upside and huge value from their stockpile of starters.
No, the Tigers will not be packaging 2 or 3 of their top young prospects/young players with huge upside for a few years of CF Brian Reynolds or any similar ludicrous deals.
The Tigers need teams to send them multiple young players and prospects back in deals. They need to be on the receiving end of players coming back for one impact player and not the other way around that just creates more holes on their team.
All I kept hearing, last season, is how Dingler is going to be the Tigers’ catcher of the future.
Dingler was a CF in HS and college @ Ohio St. who converted to catcher.
If he hits at the big league level, he could play catcher or any of the OF positions.
Yes he is and don’t forget Rogers played SS,3B, and OF in college…..he also led the minors and majors every yr hes played ball in CSB%. Guy is averaging something close to 50% CSB in his career. Also had an OPS over .800 at every stop in Minors and had OPS over .800 in MLB his last year. He could easily breakout this year. Remember he was selected over w smith and s murphy on all star teams, fall leagues and futures game selections every step of the way in the minors. He’s that caliber if not better. Fingers crossed!