The Mariners have announced that catcher Nick Raposo has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma. He had been designated for assignment earlier in the week when the club acquired infielder Miles Mastrobuoni.
Raposo, 27 in June, still hasn’t made his major league debut. The Cardinals added him to their roster in June of last year when both Willson Contreras and Iván Herrera were injured. But Raposo never got into a game and was later put on waivers, getting claimed by the Blue Jays in August. He was kept on optional assignment for the rest of the year and the Jays put him back on waivers in December, with the M’s putting in a claim at that time.
He has a combined batting line of .241/.321/.387 over his four minor league seasons. That production translates to a wRC+ of 85, indicating he’s been 15% below average overall. Catchers normally come in about 10% below the league-wide mean, so that’s not bad production for a backstop. Baseball Prospectus has given him solid marks for his defense.
The M’s have a clear #1 catcher in Cal Raleigh, with Mitch Garver likely to be the backup. They recently acquired Blake Hunt to add some depth and now Raposo will be sticking around to give them some more depth in a non-roster capacity.
Let’s gooooo!
Gotta feel for these guys! He would be a good #3 catcher somewhere. Cards are loaded at catcher, but I hope he find a home.