Bill Streicher USA TODAY Sports
When he returned from paternity leave in late April, the Miami Marlins designated catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia for assignment. After being unable to find a trade partner Saltalamacchia was released on Tuesday, and multiple teams have had reported interest in signing him once he cleared waivers.
According to Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, the Arizona Diamondbacks are expected to sign Saltalamacchia. Being able to avoid taking on the remainder of the inflated contract Miami signed him to is good, but I don’t see Saltalamacchia as a good fit for the Diamondbacks going forward.
Expectations were low heading into the season, but Arizona does not have a good situation behind the plate right now. Tuffy Gosewisch is not hitting (.208/.250/.208 slash-line so far this season), and depth is not good behind him with Jordan Pacheco as the primary second option right now. Gerald Laird (back) and Oscar Hernandez (hand) are on the disabled list, but if either or both were healthy they wouldn’t be great options. So Saltalamacchia is an upgrade based on a clear lack of functional options, but Arizona should be taking the long view this season and a 30-year old catcher doesn’t fit that model.
Throwing issues in spring training prompted the Diamondbacks to move top prospect Peter O’Brien from catcher to the outfield, and that is where he has mostly played in Triple-A so far this year. But it appears the organization still views O’Brien as a catcher long-term, assuming he gets past his throwing “yips”, and his bat seems to be close to major league-ready (.367 with eight home runs and 26 RBI with Triple-A Reno this year).
After hitting 25 home runs for the Boston Red Sox in 2012, Saltalamacchia hit that many in 2013 and 2014 combined, including 11 last year with Miami. Moving to a hitter-friendly home park again should help him recapture some of that power, but he adds nothing else offensively and Saltalamacchia is not considered to be a great defensive catcher.
Being able to sign him to a reasonable contract for the rest of 2015 makes adding Saltalamacchia a low-risk venture for the Diamondbacks, but I don’t see much upside in the move either. If for some reason Saltalamacchia is signed beyond the end of this season, while possibly blocking O’Brien’s path to the big leagues, the return on investment stands to diminish even more.
Brad Berreman is a Senior Writer at Rant Sports.com. Follow him on Twitter.
