The Cubs have released veteran catcher Yan Gomes, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That was the expected outcome after he was designated for assignment last week. He’s now a free agent and can sign with any club.
Gomes is a veteran with over a thousand games in the majors and a 37th birthday coming up next month. He has spent most of that as a solid defender behind the plate with some inconsistent but potent offense. He doesn’t draw a lot of walks and can be strikeout prone, but he’s generally been a reliable source of double-digit home runs whenever he gets regular playing time.
Going into the 2022 season, the Cubs signed him to a two-year deal with a $13MM guarantee and a $6MM club option for 2024. His first season with the Cubs was a bit of a disappointment but he hit 10 home runs last year and slashed .267/.315/.408 for a wRC+ of 95. That means he was 5% below league average overall but that’s a strong result for a catcher.
The Cubs picked up the option for 2024 but the results from Gomes took a nosedive. In 96 plate appearances with the Cubs this year, he slashed .154/.179/.242. He walked just 2.1% of the time while getting punched out at a massive 37.5% clip and the defensive metrics soured on him as well.
The club was also seeing significant struggles from youngster Miguel Amaya, turning the catching position into a black hole on the roster. Amaya is just 25 years old and has five years of club control beyond this one, so the Cubs weren’t likely to give up on him based on a few rough months, but he has exhausted his option years and can’t be sent down to the minors. That left Gomes squeezed off the roster with a few months left on his contract.
No other club was going to acquire Gomes based on how rough he’s been this year, as doing so would involve absorbing what’s left of his salary, just over $3MM. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment, so the Cubs have released him, which leaves them on the hook for the remainder of that money.
Any of the other clubs can now sign him while only paying him the prorated version of the major league minimum salary, with that amount subtracted from what the Cubs pay. Despite his rough season, perhaps that will spur some team to take a low-cost chance on him based on his track record. He has 137 career home runs and a .246/.295/.412 slash line overall, with that translating to an 89 wRC+.
Too bad, they come and they gomes
Hither and Yan they Gomes.
Saying Yan Gomes is like saying Rahnuld McDonuld
I wish he had made a better go of it this season.
There’s a common denominator with the clubhouse… new skipper.
Any team that still has the padres on their schedule should pick him up. He kills us.
Agree
Sign him to play against the Padres. Instant offense.
Maybe Yan can cook.
Martin Yan:knife:Yan Gomes:bat-first catcher::
Yan is cooked.
It would be more helpful if Yan could take a wok…
This team was built for greatness for many years . Too much money spent on a manager who has taken this team into the cellar. I’m in a twilight zone thinking this must be the 1970’s when the cubs just sucked. No one went to the games and the north side was a dump. No black cats this year . No Bartmans either . Bring back Theo and let me see one more World Series before I die. Cub fans will foolishly continue to pack the stands. SMH
Yeah those pesky fans supporting their team and wanting to go to a ball game…
“This team was built for greatness for many years .”
That was the mid-2010’s. Those “years” are long gone and thankfully, only one WS to show for it.
May 12 the cubs were 7 1/2 games ahead of the Cards. Now the Cards are 4 games ahead of them. Cards have won more Central Divisions than the rest of the league has added together. They are the king of the Central. Tired of listening about the cubs anyway shouldn’t have to hear a peep out of those fans the rest of this year. But hey ya had one good year out of the last 120.
TheMed
King of the central? Brewers traded away Corbin Burnes and lost Brandon Woodruff and Devin William to injury, and they are way ahead of the dirty birds.
And yet you’re forgetting the other starting pitchers that are gone for the year. The Brewers have lost 3/5’s of their starting rotation this year and that’s NOT counting Burnes OR Woodruff.
BUT….
They added by subtraction….a manager now on the northside of Chicago…
Sure, to start, Miley, Gasser and Hall during this season. I just mentioned the three elite stars in Burnes, Woodruff and Devin Williams out from the start.
Don’t get me wrong, the dirty birds have a great history in past decades, but the Brewers are winning the division and their last “elite” starter, fastball Freddy, is slightly below his usual.
The season isn’t over yet dumb dumb. They were at one time 7 1/2 games behind the cubs now 4 1/2,games ahead of them. Now how their sites on the brewers with 2/3 of there starting outfield on the DL most of the year. Don’t ever count out the St Louis Cardinals after all they’ve won more central division titles than the other clubs put together
And yet “Themed” continues to troll every Cub post on here. And still can’t come up with an original thought.
I am ok with what the Cubs rolled out this year, it just hasn’t worked.
Hopefully, Shaw can be ready next year, though he hasn’t impressed enough yet. Morel can move to DH. They can sign Jansen or Diaz at catcher. Sign AJ Minter and Andrew Kittredge for bullpen. I am assuming that Belli will not opt-out, but with just a little improvement, he might, but then maybe the Cubs just add another year onto his present deal, still with opt-outs. PCA is looking more and more like a fourth outfielder with elite defense and quality base-running skills. Caissie has only played 2 out of 67 games at CF. So Caissie, Suzuki and Happ cover three corner outfield slots. Maybe Tauchman is back for another year in CF unless PCA advances.
I still think the Cubs have a good roster, it’s just Counsell isn’t doing a very good job and line up construction, which blows my mind because Ross actually laid a pretty decent blueprint that just needed some tweaking.
The bullpen struggles are inexplicable, even if a bullpen isn’t good they still should not be blowing games the way they have, especially with the arms they have. Again, I’m not saying the bullpen is good but usage has been terrible. They have plenty of good arms, with good stuff, and different looks. It shouldn’t be bad.
If you’re tired of hearing about them, then what are you doing here? Nobody needs you around here anyway. Cardinals may be good but their fans are low class scum.
I’m going to have to come to a cardinal fans defense here because typically when I catch games in St. Louis, the fans are great. Online fans are not cut from the same cloth, truth be told, they probably don’t even watch games.
Only 24 more guys to release, oh yeah, plus Pres. of Baseball Ops and GM.
He’s changing his name to Johnny Gomez and making a resurgent comeback
Gomes meet Morticia
well played, @Manny
Gomes with the win(d).
I like Craig a great guy very good baseball knowledge met him many times loved talking baseball with him… but I just don’t think he’s a great manager his offenses are always weak he’s a station to station manager nothing wrong with that but look at the brewers offense now leads the league in stolen bases they bunt Craig will never bunt….he will not let a starter go thru the order 3 times so he has a bullpen spent by august…love him as a person just think he’s overrated as a manager
He bunted three consecutive times with the bases loaded in a game a couple of weeks ago. And who wants a manager that bunts anyway? He’s not the problem. The GM is thr problem. He’s infatuated with numbers which is fine to an extent. But he’s also stubborn and slow to react. And the Cubs farm is overrated IMO. They are deep but no stars. And no one to call up-to help fix this mess.
I don’t think the farm is overrated but I do think they lack impact bats. Our position players are just well rounded guys, Caissie has the potential to be an impact bat, Alcantara, PCA, Shaw, to me, just project to be very useful players similar to Happ, Nico, Swanson. Really good players, guys who at the end of the year will have solid counting stats but they are not impact middle of the order bats.
Out of options and still has five years of club control, YIKES.
One of the dumber mlb rules. Option years start when guys are put on the 40 man roster. Amaya was both young when he was put on the 40 man and he had Tommy John’s which delayed his development
Keep your chin up, Yan.