December 16th: The Mariners announced today that they have signed Knizner to a one-year deal. The CAA Sports client will make $1MM, per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com.
December 12th: The Mariners are in conversations with free agent catcher Andrew Knizner on a deal, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. If they reach agreement on a big league contract, he’d be in line to back up Cal Raleigh.
Knizner spent the second half of the 2025 season with the Giants. He’d begun the season in Triple-A with the Nationals but was released in the middle of May. He signed a minor league deal with San Francisco and jumped onto the MLB roster a few weeks later. Knizner spent the rest of the season working behind Patrick Bailey. The presence of a two-time Gold Glove winner blocked him from getting much playing time, though he had a brief run as the starting catcher when Bailey missed a week and a half with a neck strain.
The 30-year-old Knizner (31 in February) started 28 of his 32 appearances behind the dish. He stepped to the plate 88 times and hit .221/.299/.299 with one home run. Knizner has played parts of seven MLB seasons between the Cardinals, Rangers and Giants. He owns a .211/.281/.316 batting line in a little under 1000 career plate appearances. The former seventh-round pick has a much better .292/.387/.443 mark across 583 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level.
Knizner has caught more than 2200 major league innings. His early-career defensive grades weren’t great, as public metrics weren’t favorable on his pitch framing. He has rated closer to average in that regard over the past two seasons, though his blocking hasn’t been as strong. His arm strength is middling, and he has thrown out a below-average 16.4% of baserunners in the last four years.
San Francisco opted not to tender Knizner a contract for his final year of arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected him for a modest $1.3MM salary, but the Giants want to leave the door open for rookie Jesus Rodriguez to win the backup job in camp. Seattle doesn’t have a second catcher on their 40-man roster. Mitch Garver hit free agency and they traded rookie Harry Ford for lefty reliever Jose A. Ferrer last week.
Knizner has five-plus years of MLB service and cannot be sent to the minors without his consent. If he signed a big league deal, he’d enter camp as the presumed #2 catcher. The Mariners will probably continue looking for depth options via waivers or minor league free agency to push him for that spot, but it’s not a position to which they need to devote many resources. Raleigh will be in the lineup almost every day at either catcher or designated hitter. He started 119 games and logged 1072 innings behind the plate this past season. Only J.T. Realmuto and William Contreras took a heavier workload.
Guess this means no more Garver?
Garver is a free agent.
Yeah but mariners were rumored to be interested in bringing him back
Main job for a Mariners backup catcher is just to wear the “Raleigh” cap
I wanted Danny Jansen but the Rangers just signed him to a $14.5M two year contract to be a platoon player. Knizner seems like a bargain. He hasn’t had 100 AB’s in two years.
he’s no “bargain” can’t hit & he’s not good at throwing out runners
Hope so. Knizner isn’t much better, but I’m kinda over watching Garver watch strike 3.
Knizner is a perfect example of a quality backup catcher!
He doesn’t have the offensive tools, but he is a solid defender and gets praised for such things as being a great teammate and handling a pitching staff.
I like this signing for the M’s!
HIs ceiling is slightly below average for a back up. Hardly a solid defender. I’d wager he is not on the opening roster.
his prospect scouting report reads “If Knizer could catch…” and “middling throwing arm”.
I know players can improve but that’s not encouraging.
From a cardinals fan…he was known as a great teammate and the pitching staff loved him…a great back up
He rates as a below average defender. The exact opposite of what you want out of a backup catcher. Over and under on how long he lasts?
I like this I would rather have him instead of garver
Absolutely man. Garver wasn’t the best at framing or even throwing out runners. All we need is a backup to let cal rest from behind plate 1 game per week. I figured that 25 games. Thats all we need a backup C for. Cal will okay 155 games a year (injury avoiding-knock in wood). Let CAL dh 1x a week and everyone is happy.
Cal caught 119 games last year and they were looking to reduce that.
I don;t think this Knizner should be in a contender’s line up 40-50 games a year. This seems more like a #3 safety net signing but I fear he’s the plan as #2.
Danny Jansen still out there.
Jansen is not still out there.
mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/rangers-to-sign-danny-j…
he’s not out there & it’s clear that the M’s had no intention of spending even $5M on a backup catcher.
At least garver is able to be a somewhat capable hitter at times
Knizner may also cost much less than Garver. I have seen $4-$6 million a year floated for Garver and that is insane.
The whole Garver experiment has been a miserable failure.
That is a fact
Garver is a free agent.
Also true
A true backup Catcher. Knizner won’t offer much at the plate but is decent behind it. Doesn’t break the bank and knows he’s not going to play every day. Good signing
He’s not decent behind it. Below average defender.
Me. Knizner and Mr. Knoop, have a knish.
Takes a lot of third strikes, hence the silent K.
Pronunciation: \KIZZ-ner\
baseball-reference.com/players/k/kniznan01.shtml
Can I have a Knish?
Only if you’re knice and knot knaughty, you knefarious knave.
Should only be a minor league deal. That said, its a backup catcher. And Cal catches A LOT.
Yes but Cal catches a lot precisely because they didn’t have any decent alternatives. Resting him frequently or playing him at DH would probably be better than repeating the ‘play Cal until he grinds down into the dirt’ strategy
I would actually prefer the Mariners played without a Catcher on the days Cal needs rest than pay Garver anything. He literally stole $28M from the M’s.
“literally stole”
People freak out when they don’t spend anything in FA, but also are disappointed when they spend anything in FA because it isn’t worth it.
Okay Dana Brown. The Mariners are almost done with their staff, do you want to flip to 5th place behind the Angels?
The Mariners are acting quick, giving the Rangers, A’s, Angels, and Astros pressure. But I also think they have suprises up their sleeve.
Rangers catcher to Mariners catcher.
Grunt Grunt grunt
I don’t think you will have to worry about the Astros coming anywhere close to the angels anytime soon
Do you mean the Angels coming close to the Astros?
“Astros coming anywhere close to the Angels”, that sounds like the Astros are worse than LAA.
Not every move is about the Astros. Also the Astros are broke this offseason and trying to think outside the box for solutions (trading paredes, meyers etc) Astros probably finish second in the division and miss out of on the playoffs. Next season should be better for them.
Well yeah the Mariners have a sane GM.
Yup James Click should have never been treated like that
The Mariners have a cracked farm system and the Astros have a joke for a farm. Sure they might have underranked prospects but it’s still a joke. Astros never get prospects that make it to T100.
I think the Mariners are done and the teams have something to look at.
My favorite thing about this is Knizner is not going to be looked at as someone that needs to be wedged into the DH role. $4m+ for Garver means they’d feel compelled to try to get more than “weekly catcher” value from him.
More opportunity for better bats at DH.
Yeah this might mean they are going for polanco
This is exactly what the Mariners needed behind Cal Raleigh. Harry Ford has the potential to be better than a backup, but he was never going to be more than that in Seattle. Now the M’s have a potentially good bullpen guy and have the backup catcher position covered. They did it exactly right.
Pittsburgh or Kansas City made the mistake of trying to convert their star catching prospects into outfielders and it went predictably horribly. Converting a catcher to any other position takes away is main value. 95% of the time, the bat of a catcher is not nearly as impressive when you put him in right field or first base.
Agree
Hopes it’s a minor league deal as his past is not impressive.
He’s a backup catcher for Cal Raleigh. If he was good enough to catch 60-80 games this season and signed with Seattle where he knows he’ll only catch 40, that would be a problem. It will be a 1-2M major league deal.
My only reaction is “who?” Desoite watching hundreds of games a year, being in a fantasy league and following several sites religiously on line, my short term memory fails me on most of the backups and some of the starters around the league. I can still remember every player from every team in the 1970s despite only having baseball on TV one game a week and the Sporting News box’s ores and baseball cards. Hopefully Knizner will contribute to the Mariners dominance of the AL West in 2026.
Maybe Raleigh DH’s more in 2026 for the Mariners to get at bats to 2 backup catchers while resting Cal.
Yes, I recall “no passed balls throughout the entire 2025 season” and the 2024 Gold Glove.
*platinum glove
Not sure what this guy provides other than a warm body. His bat is certainly awful. I know catcher defense is hard to quantify but the statistics seem to view him as average at best. I would prefer this guy as a #3 catcher in AAA. We would be screwed if Cal got injured and Knizner was given more playing time.
No way they are putting this guy on the 40 man and he will be a minor league deal. I still think they sign one of the other vets as the back up.
Disagree, dbd. This is the backup catcher. It’s what he is, and he’ll be paid like one. If Cal is out for any length of time, the M’s will be out of it, no matter who replaces him. Now the team needs to find a (Donovan) infielder. If Polo signs, btw, I’m still looking to make a move for Donovan. Or, wait it out and after the Jays sign Tucker, put the chips in on Bo Bichette and either play him or JP at 2B.
Bo would need to play 2b. His glove is as bad as it gets. He should never play SS.
I like this a lot! Better than signing Garver.
Smart move. We don’t need to be paying big bucks for a backup catcher. He is going to do most of his work in the bullpen.
There goes my predictions entry, up in flames.
I always thought that the way the Cardinals used Knizner, they just screwed him up. Knizner hit pretty well in the minors for them, but he got to the majors and just sat behind Yadi Molina, barely playing as Molina took a LOT of innings. He is a back up catcher only and hopefully he does well enough to stay on the roster.
Figured the Rays would sign him since he hits close to .200.
Zunino is retired else he’d probably be signing another deal with the Rays.
They are leaving plenty of room for Luke Stevenson to advance. He torn up A ball at Modesto and should start the year in Everett. I would expect him to end the season in Tacoma.
Kind of hoped for Heim- who could shoulder a bigger role if Cal misses any time. He’s been a workhorse but injuries are a fact of life & Ms are expected to carry the division again…
I never liked Knizner because of his name. The Kn is annoying, it’s like knot but not. It’s not like knot.
Knizner backing up Raleigh reminds me of Garrappolo backing up Brady.
*Garoppolo
Jerry said they would add a bat within a week. And technically, he has done so!
Maybe garver wouldn’t have been so bad after all