The Rangers have released veteran catcher Kevin Plawecki from their Triple-A affiliate, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He’ll head back to the market and perhaps latch on with a new organization seeking catching depth in advance of the Sept. 1 deadline for postseason eligibility.
Texas originally acquired Plawecki, 32, from the Padres in exchange for cash on July 28. It was a logical depth addition at the time, as Jonah Heim had just hit the injured list with a wrist strain that might have required surgery. Heim has since returned from the injured list, however, and Texas further bolstered its catching depth just days after adding Plawecki. Defensive standout Austin Hedges was acquired from the Pirates and was already on the 40-man roster. With Heim healthy enough to play and Hedges joining him and Mitch Garver as catching options on the big league roster (plus prospect Sam Huff in Triple-A), there’s no clear path to the big leagues for Plawecki.
Plawecki only appeared in 10 games with Triple-A Round Rock but hit well, batting .294/.400/.325 in 40 trips to the plate. He’s also spent time with the Triple-A affiliates for the Nats and Padres in 2023, batting a combined .272/.349/.389 in 269 trips to the plate. He’s yet to appear in the Majors this season after logging at least 24 games in each of the past eight big league seasons.
Selected by the Mets with the 35th overall pick in the 2012 draft, Plawecki is a career .235/.313/.341 hitter in 1426 plate appearances. He’s operated mostly as a backup in the big leagues, never topping 277 plate appearances in a given season. Plawecki has never excelled at controlling the running game (career 19% caught-stealing rate) but has drawn above-average marks for his framing and pitch blocking, per Statcast.
Well, there goes the five-catchers depth.
Finally! Good riddance! Texas has way too many defensive specialist catchers anyways.
He’s not a defensive specialist. While he frames well, everyone including their mothers ran on him in Boston. That said, his bat warrants a backup role.
When a player is released how do they try to get top level reps in to stay ready?
they latch on with another team…. to be eligable for a post season roster he needs to be signed by Sept 1, so maybe another team with playoff hopes grabs him and throws him on the 40 man as the 3rd catching option. Really he has 2 weeks that he can pray that the 60 catchers on big league rosters get hurt so he can have a job…. that is sort of the life of a guy where there are 60 jobs (starter and backup) and he is about the 90th best option (if AAA was just the next 60 best guys, he would have a job, but he is 32 and just organizational depth at this point).
Thanks
Back to El Paso…we could do worse.
Not if you’re Marty Robbins