The Nationals have signed catcher Luis Torrens to a minor league deal, the club announced. Washington also confirmed its previously reported signing of designated hitter Franmil Reyes to a non-roster pact.
Torrens joins his third organization of 2023. He opened the year with the Cubs on a minor league deal and cracked the Opening Day roster. Working as a third catcher, he appeared in 13 games and hit 22 times before being designated for assignment. The Cubs traded Torrens to the Orioles for cash but he spent just a few days in Baltimore prior to being DFA for a second time. After going unclaimed on waivers, he chose minor league free agency and heads to Washington.
It’s a sensible depth add for the Nats. Washington saw veteran backstop Kevin Plawecki opt out of a minor league deal earlier in the week. Torrens will take his spot as a veteran catcher at Triple-A Rochester. He has appeared in parts of six MLB seasons. Torrens’ best year came with the Mariners in 2021, when he hit .243/.299/.431 with 15 home runs in a career-high 378 plate appearances. He stumbled to a .225/.283/.298 showing in 57 games the next year, though, leading Seattle to run him through waivers twice.
Public defensive metrics have pegged Torrens as a below-average pitch framer and blocker. His career 21.7% caught stealing rate is a few percentage points below par, though he cut down an excellent 32.1% of basestealers last season.
The Nationals have three catchers on the 40-man roster. Israel Pineda has spent the entire year on the minor league injured list with a broken finger, leaving Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams as their only healthy backstops. Ruiz, whom the Nats signed to a $50MM extension over the winter, is entrenched as the starter. The 26-year-old Adams has played just seven times as the backup, hitting .192/.250/.346 in 29 plate appearances. Adams still has a minor league option year remaining, so Washington could eventually turn to another #2 backstop if they’d like to get him more consistent reps in Triple-A.
Good to see him land somewhere where he may actually get to play. The man can hit left handed pitching.
2nd castaway the Nats have signed today.
If you cast the net wide enough you may land a fish you don’t need to throw back. Both have had some degree of success, and it really hasn’t cost them anything.
Good luck to Luis in Washington! This seems like a solid landing spot for him. I imagine he’ll get some MLB reps at some point this season.
And the Padres are sticking with .150 Nola and .170 Sullivan???? They should have snapped to bring Torrens back.
Is Campusano hurt or does the Pads org just hate him to not give him ABs over those two?
He’s hurt but supposedly they don’t like him because he has “communication problems” whatever that means. Maybe he is refusing to learn English or something. (Although I’m not sure if that is an enforceable requirement, even though it would be helpful.)
ISOAB- Campusano was born in Georgia and speaks perfect English. He doesn’t have an accent and is easier to understand than many other people from the south.
Thank you. I didn’t know what to make of that comment “communication issues.” I shouldn’t have speculated. Must be something else they’re not seeing eye to eye on.
I’ve heard strange comments about Campusano and why he’s out of favor in SD as well. The comments are always vague, non specific and subtle. I attribute that to mean he’s a behavioral head case. Not to shade or disparage Campusano without knowing him, but that’s what those type of “team sources” comments have meant in the past.
No problem, just wanted to clear that up. I’ve heard he fell out of favor, too, and was never quite sure why that was. It makes me want to take a deeper dive.