Looking to leave no stone unturned heading into Spring Training, the Pittsburgh Pirates brought in another catcher, signing six-year major league veteran Kevin Plawecki to a minor league deal.
Whereas Austin Hedges has been mostly a negative producing offensively during his career, Plawecki has had some years in which he was a better than league average hitter. This comes over a small sample, as the most games he’s played in a season is 79 (posted a 92 wRC+).
That now gives the Pirates five non-roster catchers that will be attending training camp this spring.
When Tyler Heineman re-signed with the Pirates on a minor league contract, it was long suspected that he had the inside track on winning the backup spot after playing in 69 games last year after coming over from the Toronto Blue Jays.
Now it looks like things are slowly turning into a legitimate competition. Since we know that Endy Rodriguez, the other catcher on the 40-man roster, is going to start the year in the minors, here’s another quick rundown of the non-roster players.
Tyler Heineman – Even with bringing in Plawecki, I’d say Heineman is still the running favorite to grab the backup spot. Analytically speaking, he was one of the best defensive catchers in the majors last year, which could give the Pirates one of the best duos (defensively) in baseball.
Kevin Plawecki – Heineman and Hedges were two of the best in baseball framing pitches at the bottom of the zone, something I talked about before how that could benefit the Pirates’ pitching staff.
Double
Pretty solid day at the office for Kevin Plawecki.
Plawecki wasn’t at the same level defensively as Hedges and Heineman, but he was among the best overall at framing the top of the zone.
He did finish in the positive (+1) when it comes to framing runs saved on Baseball Savant, while finishing with an -10 defensive runs saved on Fangraphs. While he never hit for much power, it took an even bigger step back last year, finishing with just nine extra-base hits (one home run) in 186 plate appearances.
He has a $1.5 million salary to kick in if he makes the major league team, so that will be interesting to watch.
Jason Delay – Seems like he’s mostly been forgotten at this point, but Heineman wasn’t the only reason the Pirates finished among the best defensively at the catcher position. He’s another, like Plawecki, that is strong framing up in the zone, but also didn’t hit much in his opportunities in the majors last year.
Carter Bins – When he was acquired in the Tyler Anderson trade, he seemed like a very strong candidate to potentially catch on as a future backup catcher. Blake Sabol took the starting job from him in Altoona, and Bins was promoted when Henry Davis joined the team, becoming part of an even more crowded catcher crowd in Indianapolis. He’ll have to make more contact if he wants to jump back into that picture now.
Henry Davis – He’ll be in camp, but he’s missed a lot of time due to injuries and has some work to do behind the plate. It’ll be interesting to see how much work he actually gets at catcher in game situations, with so many others names fighting for playing time.
Highlight of the Day
Pirates Prospects Daily
By Tim Williams
**The Pirates signed Kevin Plawecki to a minor league deal.
**Missed yesterday? Anthony wrote about how the new additions should help the Pirates’ aggressive approach at the plate.
Song of the Day
