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Logan Porter

Giants Re-Sign Logan Porter To Minor League Deal

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The Giants announced that catcher Logan Porter re-signed on a minor league contract. San Francisco had designated him for assignment when they called up Sergio Alcántara to add infield depth as they navigated a few injuries on the dirt. Porter evidently cleared waivers, refused an outright assignment, then signed a new contract.

Porter, who turns 30 later this week, signed a minor league deal early in the offseason. He has spent the bulk of the season at Triple-A Sacramento but was called up for a week in June while Patrick Bailey was sidelined by a neck strain. The Giants optioned Porter as soon as Bailey returned but had kept him on the 40-man roster until last week’s DFA.

The righty-hitting Porter went 1-7 with a walk in four MLB games. Those were his first appearances since he played in 11 games for the Royals two years ago. Porter has spent parts of four seasons in Triple-A. He’s a .249/.365/.396 hitter with 29 homers in more than 1000 career plate appearances at that level. That includes a .222/.354/.310 slash over 193 trips to the dish with Sacramento this year.

Bailey and Andrew Knizner are the only catchers on the 40-man roster. Tom Murphy has been on the 60-day injured list all season. Bailey and Knizner will continue as Bob Melvin’s catching duo for the time being. An injury to either player would necessitate selecting another backstop onto the 40-man. Porter would likely be the first man up in that scenario. Sam Huff and Max Stassi are both on the Triple-A injured list.

Giants Select Sergio Alcantara

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The Giants selected infielder Sergio Alcántara onto the roster for tonight’s series finale in Arizona. Outfielder Daniel Johnson was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento, while catcher Logan Porter was designated for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

Alcántara, 29 next week, is a switch-hitting middle infielder. If he gets into a game, it’d be his first big league appearance in three years. He has tallied just over 500 MLB plate appearances between four teams. He’s a .209/.281/.343 career hitter. His overall Triple-A track record is a bit better, though that hasn’t been the case this year. Alcántara has yet to hit his first home run of the season and is batting .206/.319/.252 across 256 trips to the plate with Sacramento.

It’s likely this is a brief call for Alcántara. Shayna Rubin of The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Tyler Fitzgerald has experienced minor back soreness, leading the Giants to look for short-term insurance on the infield. Fitzgerald is in tonight’s starting lineup against Arizona righty Brandon Pfaadt, but it appears they want Alcántara on hand in case Fitzgerald needs to come out of the game. Alcántara is out of options, so the Giants would need to run him through waivers once they decide to take him off the big league roster.

The sequence squeezes Porter off the 40-man roster. The 29-year-old catcher had made five appearances in mid-June, going 1-7 with a walk. He backed up Andrew Knizner for a week while Patrick Bailey was injured and was optioned back out once Bailey returned. Porter has hit .222/.354/.310 in 48 Triple-A games this year. He’s likely to land on the waiver wire in the next few days and could elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.

Giants Select Logan Porter, Designate Osleivis Basabe For Assignment

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The Giants have selected catcher Logan Porter to their roster. Fellow backstop Patrick Bailey goes on the 10-day injured list with a neck strain, retroactive to June 8. Infielder Osleivis Basabe has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to relay the moves.

It doesn’t appear as though Bailey is facing a lengthy absence. He was initially in Tuesday’s lineup but was scratched due to neck spasms. Not even half an hour before this news dropped, Bailey wasn’t sure if he would actually be going on the IL or not, per Slusser. Manager Bob Melvin also said they were hoping to have Bailey in the lineup by tomorrow, per Slusser. Instead, it seems the club has decided to give Bailey some time to rest up. Since the move has been backdated by three days, he could be back in a week.

Bailey is one of the best defensive catchers in the game but has struggled badly at the plate this season. In 180 plate appearances, he has a .185/.246/.272 batting line and 46 wRC+. The Giants will surely miss his glovework but it’s possible the lineup will get a boost.

Suddenly, the club’s catching corps looks totally different from earlier in the year. Bailey was sharing the position with Sam Huff for most of the season but the Giants swapped in Andrew Knizner for Huff a week ago. Huff was outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento but the club has opted to select Porter instead of bringing Huff back.

Porter, 29, has just 38 major league plate appearances. He hit .194/.324/.323 in those trips to the plate, which came with the 2023 Royals. He has put up good offensive numbers at the Triple-A level but has been inconsistent. He slashed .301/.452/.451 for a 148 wRC+ in 2022 but that dropped to a .232/.339/.377 line and 80 wRC+ in 2023. Last year, he bounced back with a .267/.370/.453 showing and 113 wRC+ but he’s down to a .237/.350/.319 line and 89 wRC+ this year.

He may not get much playing time. Knizner has 296 big league games under his belt and doesn’t have great offensive numbers, with a .208/.277/.314 line. However, he was hitting .378/.512/.520 in the minors this year before getting called up. Between that and his experience, he might get a bit more trust to handle things for Bailey’s absence. The fact that Knizner has had a one-week headstart in working with the Giants’ pitching staff should only help. Porter has a full slate of options and can easily be sent back down to Sacramento when Bailey returns.

Basabe, 24, was acquired from the Rays in an offseason cash deal. He has played 53 Triple-A games this year with a tepid .242/.287/.352 line and 69 wRC+. He was once a notable prospect thanks to some big numbers in the lower levels. However, his bat has cratered since reaching the top rung of the minor league ladder. In 213 Triple-A games, he has a .269/.319/.381 line, as well as a .218/.277/.310 showing in his 94 major league plate appearances.

He’ll now head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Giants could take five days to explore trade possibilities. Basabe can be optioned for the rest of this year but will be out of options in 2026. If the Giants pass him through outright waivers, he could stick with the club as non-roster depth.

Photo courtesy of Rick Scuteri, Imagn Images

Poll: Giants Backup Catcher

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Entering Spring Training, there was some belief that veteran catcher Tom Murphy’s job backing up Patrick Bailey in San Francisco wasn’t entirely assured even in of the $4.25MM guaranteed remaining on his contract with the Giants. The door has opened for other alternatives even more since then, as the club announced yesterday that Murphy will miss multiple weeks with a herniated disc in his mid-back.

While Murphy is still tentatively expected to be available at some point in the first half, his availability for the start of the season is in serious doubt. With the club’s incumbent likely to miss at least the start of the season due to injury, the Giants have little choice but to seriously consider the number of alternative options currently in camp with them. The club has four catchers in camp aside from Bailey and Murphy as things stand: Sam Huff, Max Stassi, Logan Porter, and Adrian Sugastey. Sugastey is just 22 years old and slashed a meager .210/.241/.304 at Double-A last season, leaving him extremely unlikely to be called up to the majors until he’s had more time to develop. Huff, Stassi, and Porter all appear to be legitimate contenders for the job, however.

To the extent that there’s a favorite for the job, it seems that status would fall to Huff now that Murphy is out of commission. Unlike the other options in camp with the club, Huff is already on the 40-man roster after being plucked off waivers from the Rangers shortly after the new year. A former consensus top-100 prospect, Huff was a seventh-round pick by the Rangers in 2016 who blossomed into an intriguing bat-first catcher during his time in the minor leagues. Above-average offense isn’t necessarily a must from a club’s backup catcher, but given Bailey’s light-hitting, defense-first profile it’s easy to see why the Giants might be attracted to Huff as a potential complement.

A career .263/.334/.480 hitter across all levels of the minors, Huff has 78 games in the big leagues under his belt across four seasons with Texas. Unfortunately, that big league playing time has been something of a mixed bag. While he’s posted a solid 112 wRC+ in 214 career MLB plate appearances, he’s struck out at a massive 33.6% clip and largely been buoyed by a .353 BABIP that seems unlikely to be sustainable. Huff has generally been regarded as a below-average defender behind the plate as well despite a strong throwing arm and decent framing ability. That lack of defensive excellence puts more pressure on Huff’s bat, and it can be difficult for a high-strikeout profile like Huff’s to offer consistent production in a bench role.

Those potential question marks surrounding Huff could open the door for Stassi to take the job. The most experienced catcher in the backup mix for the Giants (even including Murphy), the soon to be 34-year-old has participated in parts of 10 MLB seasons, including a three-year run of regular at-bats with the Angels from 2020 to 2022. While the 2020 and ’21 seasons saw Stassi briefly break out offensively with a solid 113 wRC+, Stassi is mostly a glove-first catcher; he hit just .180/.267/.303 across 102 games in 2022 and has a career wRC+ of just 83. With +20 framing runs since the start of the 2018 season according to Statcast, however, Stassi makes up for his lack of offense with excellent defense that could pair with Bailey to give the Giants the best defensive tandem behind the plate in the sport.

Stassi comes with his own flaws, however. Most notably, he hasn’t played in the big leagues since 2022 due to a combination of family considerations and injuries. At nearly 34 years old, Stassi has reached the age where many catchers start to struggle to stay effective due to the toll the position takes on the body, and that concern is exacerbated for Stassi in particular due to both his checkered recent history and the fact that he regressed both offensively and defensively during the 2022 campaign.

Of course, that regression may have also had something to do with his career-high workload that year, an issue that would not come up in 2025 should he serve as Bailey’s backup. On the other hand, Stassi offers little upside, with even a solid rebound from his 2022 season likely ending with him being a below-average hitter. Huff offers significantly more upside, both due to the potential of his bat and because he has less than two years of MLB service time under his belt at this point, allowing him to be controlled through the end of the 2029 season.

Porter, meanwhile, stands as less likely to earn the job than either Huff or Stassi but also represents something of a middle ground between the two. The 29-year-old is the least experienced of the trio at the big league level, having appeared in just 11 games with the Royals back in 2023. With that being said, he has a reputation as a strong defender and pairs that with a bat that showed some life at Triple-A last year, where he slashed a combined .267/.370/.453 (114 wRC+) in 73 across the Royals, Mets, and Giants organizations. Given his lack of big league experience, Porter could be controlled long-term and even optioned to the minor leagues if added to the 40-man roster, while Huff is out of options and Stassi has enough service time to decline an optional assignment.

Assuming Murphy begins the season on the injured list, which catcher should the Giants pair with Bailey? Is Huff’s former top prospect status and offensive upside worth the lackluster defense and potential contact issues? Should the club gamble on Stassi’s track record of MLB success despite his long layoff from big league games and worrying signals in his 2022 campaign? Or should the club take a chance on Porter despite his minimal big league experience? Have your say in the poll below:

Giants, Logan Porter Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Giants and catcher Logan Porter have agreed to a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training, according to Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 on X. The backstop is represented by Gaeta Sports Management.

Porter, 29, was briefly in the Giants’ organization last year. He started 2024 in the Royals organization on a minor league pact but was flipped to the Giants in June for cash considerations. After about a month of struggles, he opted out of that deal. He then briefly landed a spot on the Mets’ 40-man roster but was kept on optional assignment and later outrighted.

He has a sliver of major league experience, hitting .194/.324/.323 in 38 plate appearances for the Royals in 2023. He has produced some interesting minor league numbers, though not consistently. He split 2022 between Double-A and Triple-A, producing a robust combined slash line of .301/.442/.476, leading to a 145 wRC+. In 2023, despite getting called up to the majors, his minor league performance fell. He hit .232/.339/.377 in Triple-A for an 83 wRC+.

His 2024 started out strong, as he had a .319/.428/.575 batting line and 159 wRC+ through his first 138 Triple-A plate appearances. But his bat wilted as soon as he was traded away from the Royals, as he slashed .224/.318/.351 the rest of the way for a 74 wRC+ between the Triple-A affiliates of the Giants and Mets. Baseball Prospectus gives him solid grades for his minor league defense, so he can be a solid contributor at the times when the bat is producing.

The Giants have Patrick Bailey as their primary catcher but the backup spot is more open. They signed Tom Murphy to a two-year deal going into 2024 but a left knee sprain limited him to just 13 games this year. His current status is unclear but he told Shayna Rubin of the San Francisco Chronicle in August that he was still in pain and seemed uncertain about the path ahead. Blake Sabol is also on the 40-man roster but he was mostly kept in the minors this year despite Murphy’s injury, so perhaps the club views him more as a depth piece.

Perhaps there’s a path there for Porter to get back to the big leagues, depending on how the offseason progresses for the Giants. If he makes it onto the roster, Porter has a full slate of options and just a handful of service days, meaning he can be cheaply retained well into the future.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/6/24

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The frenzy of moves before the trade deadline always has ripple effects of players being nudged out of their roster spots. 15 players were designated for assignment on deadline day and several in the days leading up to it as well. That has led to many recent waiver claims, with the Marlins claiming seven different players in the past two weeks. But they can’t claim them all, so here’s a round-up of some guys who passed through unclaimed recently.

As a reminder, players can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency if they have a previous career outright or at least three years of major league service time. Players need at least five years of service to both elect free agency and keep their salary intact.

  • The Diamondbacks released Miguel Castro, according to his transactions tracker on MLB.com. The righty signed with the Snakes heading into 2023 on a one-year deal with a vesting option for 2024. He reached 60 appearances last year and locked in a $5MM salary for himself in 2024. Unfortunately, his results have tailed off as he has a 5.93 ERA this year. That has come in just 11 appearances as he missed close to three months with a shoulder strain. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and keep all of his money. Another club could now sign him and pay him just the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster with that amount subtracted from what Arizona pays. He has a career 4.20 ERA in 419 appearances with the Blue Jays, Rockies, Orioles, Mets, Yankees and Diamondbacks.
  • The Pirates sent Ryder Ryan outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. This is his second career outright and he therefore has the right to elect free agency, though it’s not yet clear if he’s chosen to do so. The righty has an ERA of 5.00 in his 18 major league innings. He has thrown 27 1/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 4.61 ERA, 15.5% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 48.8% ground ball rate.
  • The Mets sent catcher Logan Porter outright to Triple-A Syracuse, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. It’s his first career outright and he has just a few days of service time, so he’ll have to accept the assignment. The backstop was signed just a couple of weeks prior to the deadline after opting out of his minor league deal with the Giants, which had been acquired from the Royals. He was hitting .319/.428/.575 for the Royals’ Triple-A club before the Giants acquired him, but then his results tapered off. The Mets were still intrigued enough to give him a 40-man spot but the other 29 clubs passed on the chance to grab him off waivers.
  • The Dodgers sent left-hander Nick Ramirez outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has previous career outrights and therefore has the right to elect free agency. Acquired from the Yankees in early April, he spent most of the year on optional assignment. He logged 11 1/3 big league innings over seven appearances with a 6.35 ERA. In his 23 Triple-A innings since the trade, he had a 2.35 ERA, 20.9% strikeout rate, 3.3% walk rate and 54.5% ground ball rate.
  • The Braves have sent right-hander Darius Vines outright to Double-A Mississippi, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. This is his first career outright and he doesn’t have the necessary service time to elect free agency. He has a 5.82 ERA in 34 big league innings between last year and this year. His 2024 output at Triple-A includes 77 innings over 14 starts with a 5.14 ERA, 16.6% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 40.3% ground ball rate.
  • The Cardinals sent right-hander Jacob Bosiokovic outright to Triple-A Memphis, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The righty had his contract selected at the end of June, his first time added to a big league roster, but was optioned a few days later without getting into a game. That means this is his first outright and he doesn’t have the necessary service time to elect free agency. He has 43 1/3 innings at Triple-A this year with a 4.15 ERA, 28.9% strikeout rate, 13.4% walk rate and 45.3% ground ball rate.

Mets Acquire Huascar Brazoban From Marlins

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The Mets acquired reliever Huascar Brazoban from the division-rival Marlins. Infield prospect Wilfredo Lara went back to Miami.

Brazoban wasn’t the subject of much trade speculation until today. He emerged as a late target for teams seeking relief help amidst a quietly strong season. Brazoban has tossed 30 2/3 innings through 20 appearances. He’s allowing only 2.93 earned runs per nine while striking out 27.2% of batters faced. Brazoban is getting grounders half the time opponents do make contact while limiting his walk rate to a solid 8.8% clip.

A native of the Dominican Republic, Brazoban has pitched in Miami for the past three seasons. He spent a decade in pro ball before getting his first major league look. Brazoban pitched in the Colorado system and spent some time in independent ball. It wasn’t until 2022 that he got a big league opportunity, shortly before his 33rd birthday.

Since he got such a late start to his MLB career, Brazoban is in an odd spot. He’s under team control for another four seasons beyond this one and won’t even qualify for arbitration for two seasons. The Marlins were under no financial pressure to move him, but he’s also very unlikely to be pitching at this level the next time Miami makes an effort to compete. The Fish fielded offers on a number of their relievers and ultimately cashed Brazoban in for a future asset.

Lara, 20, is a right-handed hitting infielder out of the Dominican Republic. He’s hitting .244/.349/.343 across 332 plate appearances in High-A this season. He’s drawing walks at a robust 12% clip while striking out 22.6% of the time. He’s a low-level developmental flier for the Fish.

The Mets designated catcher Logan Porter  to open a spot on their 40-man roster for Brazoban. New York signed him to a split contract a couple weeks ago. They’ve kept him in Triple-A on optional assignment. Porter’s major league experience comprises 11 games with the Royals last season.

Christina De Nicola of MLB.com first reported the Mets were acquiring Brazoban. Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase reported Miami was getting Lara in return.

Mets Designate Cole Sulser For Assignment

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The Mets have designated right-handed reliever Cole Sulser for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to catcher Logan Porter, whose previously reported split major league deal is now official. Porter, who still has multiple minor league option years remaining, has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse.

Sulser, 34, signed a minor league deal over the winter and pitched 4 2/3 innings for the Mets back in April and May. He allowed five runs on six hits and three walks with seven punchouts during that short stint. He’s spent the majority of the season in Triple-A, where he’s posted a sparkling 1.48 earned run average in 30 1/3 frames. Excellent as that mark has been, however, Sulser has also walked 13.2% of his opponents and benefited massively from a .182 average on balls in play. Even with a sharp 28.1% strikeout rate and huge 56.7% grounder rate, it’s fair to expect a good bit of ERA regression.

For one season with the Orioles, Sulser looked to have broken out as a quality big league reliever. He pitched 63 1/3 innings for Baltimore in 2021 and turned in a 2.70 ERA, 28.4% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 41.3% ground-ball rate. Traded to the Marlins alongside Tanner Scott the following offseason, Sulser hit an immediate wall. From 2022-24, he’s pitched 44 MLB innings between the Fish, D-backs and Mets but limped to a 5.93 ERA. He’s still fanned just over a quarter of his opponents, but Sulser has done so with an 11.3% walk rate and with immense susceptibility to home runs (1.84 HR/9). He’s also seen a heater that averaged 93.2 mph back in ’21 dip to an average of 91.9 mph this year (both figures via Statcast).

The Mets will either trade Sulser, release him or place him on outright waivers within the next five days. Waivers would be an additional 48-hour process from the point at which he’s placed. Within a week’s time, he’ll know the outcome of his DFA.

Mets To Sign Logan Porter To Major League Deal

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The Mets and catcher Logan Porter are in agreement on a major league deal, according to Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 on X. The deal for the Gaeta Sports Management client is pending a physical. Porter has options and won’t necessarily be added to the active roster, but it appears he’ll get a 40-man spot. The Mets will need to open a spot there to make the move official.

Porter, 29, spent most of his career with the Royals until recently. An undrafted free agent signed by Kansas City in 2018, he got a brief look in the majors last year, getting into 13 games. He was non-tendered at season’s end and re-signed with the Royals on a minor league deal.

He was acquired by the Giants about a month ago in a cash deal, but he triggered an opt-out clause on Tuesday. The Giants could have kept him by adding him to their roster but it appears they let him go and now the Mets will be the ones to give him that roster spot.

Porter hit just .194/.324/.323 in the majors last year, though in a brief sample of 38 plate appearances. His work on the farm has been far more impressive, as he has slashed .277/.401/.466 in his 1,766 minor league plate appearances. That translates to a 131 wRC+, indicating he’s been 31% better than league average.

That includes a line of .293/.390/.500 and a 127 wRC+ this year, though in uneven fashion. He hit .319/.428/.575 with the Royals but then put up a line of .253/.329/.387 after being traded to the Giants. However, that latter line was in just 85 plate appearances and the overall work appears to have been good enough to interest his new club.

The Mets currently have a tandem of Francisco Alvarez and Luis Torrens handling their catching duties at the major league level. Alvarez was one of the top prospects in baseball not too long ago and has handled himself well in the majors thus far, having hit .231/.305/.450 in his career for a 110 wRC+ with strong defensive grades as well. Torrens joined the club six weeks ago and has been killing it in that time, with a line of .283/.333/.547 and 149 wRC+ since becoming a Met. That’s far better than his career line of .231/.292/.367 but the Mets will probably ride the hot hand for as long as they can.

But those two are the only catchers on the 40-man roster. Once Porter’s deal becomes official, they will have some optionable depth on hand if either Alvarez or Torrens suffer an injury. Porter has a full slate of options and only a handful of service days, meaning he could be a long-term piece for the Mets if he holds onto his roster spot. Porter also has some first base and third base experience, which could help him carve out a utility role at some point down the line as long as he keeps hitting.

Giants’ Logan Porter Triggers Opt-Out Clause

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Catcher Logan Porter has triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Giants, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC-2. San Francisco has 48 hours to either add Porter to its 40-man roster or trade him to another team that will do so. He’ll become a free agent if neither happens.

Porter, 29, made his big league debut with the Royals in 2023 but appeared in only 11 games and took 38 plate appearances. He hit .194/.323/.324 in that brief cup of coffee. He became a free agent at season’s end, and Kansas City re-signed him to a minor league deal over the winter. However, he was traded to the Giants earlier this season in exchange for cash or a player to be named later.

While Porter’s small-sample numbers in the bigs last year aren’t going to turn any heads, he’s slashing a combined .293/.390/.500 in 223 plate appearances between the Triple-A affiliates for the Royals and Giants. He’s also nabbed a solid 26% of runners who’ve tried to steal against him (11-for-43). In parts of three Triple-A seasons, Porter is a .260/.373/.424 hitter with a 24.6% strikeout rate and a huge 14.6% walk rate.

The Giants don’t have a dire need for catching help in the majors, not with former first-round pick Patrick Bailey in the midst of a breakout year. Bailey debuted in 2023 and quickly established himself as perhaps the game’s premier defender behind the dish but did so while posting a tepid .233/.285/.359 batting line. This year, he’s erupted with a .283/.354/.430 slash that checks in 25% better than league-average, by measure of wRC+. That massive step forward has cemented Bailey as the franchise’s catcher of the future.

Backing up Bailey is veteran Curt Casali, who’s in his second stint with the team. The 35-year-old isn’t hitting much, just .220/.350/.260 in 61 plate appearances, so it’s at least possible the Giants could look at Porter as a potential upgrade. If not, the opt-out clause ensures that the league’s other 29 clubs will have the chance to bring him aboard. Even if no club is interested in putting Porter directly onto its 40-man roster, there’s still value in taking the opt-out and exploring opportunities. A team with a less-entrenched starting catcher or a club that’s planning to trade away some big league catching help could offer Porter a more realistic path to the big leagues on a new minor league contract.

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