10:13am: Plawecki will make $1.5MM if he makes the club, reports Rob Bradford of WEEI.
8:25am: The Pirates announced that they have signed catcher Kevin Plawecki to a minor league deal, as well as announcing their previously-reported deal with left-hander Caleb Smith. Both players will be in major league camp as non-roster invitees.
Plawecki, who turns 32 later this month, has appeared in each of the past eight MLB seasons, largely in a backup catcher role. His 79 games played with the Mets in 2018 are the most he’s tallied in a single major league season. He’s been primarily with the Red Sox for the past three seasons, faring quite well in the first two while backing up Christian Vázquez. Over 2020 and 2021, Plawecki got into 88 games and hit .305/.364/.414. His defense and framing were considered to be around league average as well.
Unfortunately, he took a step back in 2022, hitting .217/.287/.287 in 61 games for the Sox. As the season was winding down in September and the club was sliding out of the playoff race, they decided to give their playing time to younger backstops like Reese McGuire and Connor Wong, designating Plawecki for assignment.
Though Plawecki wasn’t having a great season, he appears to have a strong reputation as a veteran leader. It reportedly didn’t go down very well in the Boston clubhouse when he was let go, with players like Rich Hill and Nathan Eovaldi going on the record to comment on Plawecki’s intangible value to the team. After becoming a free agent, he was signed by an out-of-contention Rangers club, with then-interim manager Tony Beasley highlighting those same leadership qualities at the time.
Plawecki and the Pirates make a good pairing on a couple of levels. As a rebuilding team, the roster skews young and those leadership qualities should prove to be useful in spring and perhaps during the regular season as well. Plawecki will be reunited with Hill, who signed with the Pirates earlier this offseason and spoke so highly of Plawecki last year.
Adding a veteran catcher also makes sense for more straightforward baseball reasons, as the club could use some extra depth there. They only have two catchers on their 40-man roster right now, one of whom is prospect Endy Rodriguez. The young backstop reached Triple-A last year, but only for six games and will likely spend a bit more time there, especially at the beginning of the season. The only other catching option on the roster is Austin Hedges, who was signed in December and figures to get the bulk of the playing time in the bigs.
Assuming Rodriguez begins the year in the minors, the Bucs will need another catcher to pair with Hedges. Plawecki will be in camp trying to win that job, alongside other non-roster invitees such as Tyler Heineman and Jason Delay.
Would of thought he could of at least gotten a Major League deal. Especially from the Pirates. Decent backup.
I think they would have, but they are playing coconut shuffle with their prospects so they don’t have to DFA someone.
Agreed. Not great at throwing out runners but otherwise decent behind the plate. Moreover, while not much power, he’s a very good contact and situational hitter. Very important this year should small ball return. He can bunt, hit the opposite way and/or hit and run.
dewey – Agreed, Kevin is a solid backup.
Looking on Roster Resource at Kevin’s competition for the backup catcher position, he looks to have a pretty good shot.
I definitely agree!! He will win out against Heineman and Delay.
It makes it appear that Rich Hill and Nathan Eovaldi’s outspokenness could be the reason they were not offer contracts by the RedSox! Chaim Bloom has easily become the most hated man in baseball.
Spitball- I thought the Red Sox and Yankee GM’s got that moniker by default every year?
Uncle – I’d say Cohen is the new George Steinbrenner, which means he owns that moniker all by himself.
Spitball: No. The reason Hill and Eovaldi were let go is that they are a high risk for injury.
Total innings pitched since 2020
Hill 321.2
Eovaldi 340
Sale 10.1
Paxton 21.2
Kluber 245
So you’re saying that Boston kept Sale and Paxton because they are well rested?
No they kept Sale and Paxton because they were under contract. Hill and Eovaldi were both injury prone and free agents.So I guess by your logic they should keep even more injury prone guys?
Add a couple of Minor Leaguers to that list. Jay Groome and Thad Ward are both injury prone, and they were two of the first SP prospects Bloom moved on from, as well.
So you’re saying that Boston kept Sale and Paxton because they are well rested?
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They’re under contract, you nimrod.
Joe, be nice…
Truth – The truth is a very large percentage of good players could be classified as injury risks.
Look at the list of top players signed this offseason:
Judge
Correa
Rodon
deGrom
Verlander
The list goes on and on.
suit – That may be true about Hill, but not about Eovaldi.
The Red Sox offered Nate a multi-year contract this offseason, remember?
Fever: I vaguely remember that now that you mention it. We never heard what the offer to Eovaldi was, did we? I guess we can assume it was less than he got from the Rangers. I am happy they moved on from Eovaldi. If he is not a high risk for injury, is he a medium risk for injury? I think we can agree he is not a low risk for injury.
suit – Correct, no dollar amount was reported. Only that it was a multi-year offer.
Yes of course I’d say medium risk, but Paxton is an uber-high risk and that didn’t stop Bloom from giving him a guaranteed $14M luxury tax salary.
I think it’s difficult for us as fans to gauge how much risk with Nate because we don’t have access to his medicals, but considering the contract Texas gave him I’d say it’s likely his medicals look good.
How about the fact Rich Hill was terriblelast year and Eovaldi is just too much money for what he is worth?
The fact that Rich Hill is even worth discussing here is ridiculous. He is nowhere near the level of anyone else and is too old.
Time will tell. Kluber vs. Eovaldi contract terms and production will be interesting to examine.
In his height, Kluber was a bona fide ace. Eovaldi was never at the same level. Not saying Kluber can return to that stage, but he’s solid. If he’s healthy, he will be good.
I’m confused, I thought the Pirates were a minor league team.
Troll
The Pirate have 2 playoff wins in 30 years, I wouldn’t call it trolling.
Trolling still
Still a pretty degrading comment. There’s a difference between bad major league clubs and minor league clubs, especially in the context you brought it up.
Both are NRIs; both will make the MLB roster.
Pirates just love depth catchers.
Yes but until this signing they had no depth whatsoever until Davis is ready
That’s a strange comment considering Endy Rodriguez is ahead of Davis on all of the 2023 prospect lists, and he’s already on the 40-man so is expected to arrive in Pittsburgh before Henry.
LordD99 and fre5hwind I have an auction league fantasy baseball need people to join are you both interested?
No, not really, I don’t do fantasy with randoms, sorry no offense.
Yes bad idea to do something with someone you don’t know. Especially if money is concerned. Not saying it’s not on the up and up. Just had business
You know, personal concerns, and you never know what’s there intentions, plus there’s no fun doing it with people you don’t know, no plan.
Than
I agree
Second try at a response. Thanks for the invite, but I cut my fantasy league participation down to one league several years back. I’ve been running that one for 20+ years, so the other league members would be upset it I quit that one!
Pirates trying to take some headlines and attention away from the Super Bowl.
You can do a lot worse than Plawecki. He should be on a major league roster.
If he can make the team this year and in 2024…….
Two more seasons to get full 10 year pension benefits
Two more seasons to get a career -1.2 WAR up to Zero
He has the most Boston last name ever
Kevin plawecki is a troubled individual.I hope he can make the team
“Leader” or just nice guy?
It reportedly didn’t go down very well in the Boston clubhouse when he was let go, with players like Rich Hill and Nathan Eovaldi going on the record to comment on Plawecki’s intangible value to the team.
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Some of that annoyed the crap out of me, along with JD. They all complained, but none of them did their jobs. Hill about ‘okay’, but JD & Eovaldi combined for 2.6 bWAR for $36M. If their combined WAR was closer to 8, we’d have been in the race, and then maybe no one get graded.
Plus the fl side to doing things the way Bloom did is it gave Plawecki a chance to catch on with another team and show he had something left to offer. He wasn’t going to get playing time down the stretch in Boston. Bloom let him move on.
You’re right though about the veterans on the team complaining last year. If they had collectively done their jobs the team would have been playing meaningful games late. They didn’t and the team wasn’t. Hence the roster moves.
Most of the blame should go to the media! “Are you upset about how Plawecki was treated?” What are the players supposed to say, “No, so what it they let him go”….
A lot of Boston media goes look for negative stories, and that drives me crazy. They have the most negative media in the entire MLB!!!
Following Hill to Pittsburgh… I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes the team and is Hill’s personal catcher
The Pirates may have the best defensive catching duo in Baseball if Plawecki makes the team but whoof is it going to ugly offensively
Not sure about that. Plawecki is ok receiving the ball but he struggled to throw out anyone prior to bigger bases and slightly less distance between them. I doubt he manages to catch one runner trying to steal in 2023.
Based on the Baseball Prospectus ranking of catcher defense, Austin Hedges and Tyler Heineman might be among the best defensive catching duos, but Plawecki took a step back defensively in 2022. Maybe the fact that his hitting suffered as well could indicate that he played through an injury or two.
He must not want to run the laundry cart as much
Loading up on catchers again. Not a bad idea. Edny continues his performance though, the pirate will have a hard time finding an excuse to keep him down. With that type of performance. but to also be fair to the pirates.. he jumped from high A to triple a last year in short order. giving him a good 30 games or so at triple A minimum would be a good idea.