https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/12/ ... ement.html

White Sox To Sign Martin Maldonado
By Anthony Franco | December 26, 2023 at 7:26pm CDT

The White Sox are in agreement with catcher Martín Maldonado on a one-year contract with an option for 2025, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (on X). Robert Murray of FanSided (X link) first reported the sides were near a deal. Financial terms for the MVP Sports Group client are still unreported.

Maldonado’s move to Chicago’s South Side officially ends a four-and-a-half-year run in Houston. It was clear the Astros were moving on from the 37-year-old when they inked Víctor Caratini to a two-year deal during the Winter Meetings. With Caratini on hand as an experienced option behind Yainer Diaz, Maldonado was left to look elsewhere.

A veteran of 13 big league campaigns, he’ll now join the sixth team of his MLB career. He reunites with former Houston teammate Korey Lee, whom the Astros traded to the Sox for reliever Kendall Graveman at this past summer’s deadline. The 25-year-old Lee hasn’t produced offensively in parts of two big league campaigns. He’s a highly-regarded defensive catcher, which is also Maldonado’s calling card.


Outside of the shortened 2020 campaign, Maldonado has never hit at an average level in the big leagues. He is one of the sport’s least impactful hitters overall. In more than 3700 career plate appearances, the right-handed batter owns a .207/.282/.349 line. He hasn’t approached the Mendoza line in three years, running a .183/.260/.333 slash going back to the start of 2021.

Among 226 hitters with at least 1000 plate appearances over that stretch, only Joey Gallo has a lower batting average. Maldonado has the worst on-base mark of the group, while he’s fifth from the bottom in slugging. That the Astros nevertheless relied on him as their #1 catcher on some of the best rosters in MLB speaks to how highly the coaches and pitching staff felt about his presence behind the plate.

For most of his career, Maldonado has indeed rated as an excellent defensive catcher. That was not the case last season. Statcast graded him as the worst pitch framer among qualified backstops. He only threw out 14% of attempted basestealers, roughly six percentage points below the league mark. That’s perhaps more a reflection of the Houston pitching staff than Maldonado, as Statcast ranked him 23rd among 81 catchers (minimum 10 throws) in average pop time to second base.

In any case, the greater appeal for Chicago’s front office and coaching staff is in Maldonado’s game-calling ability and work with a pitching staff. The White Sox are likely to cycle through a number of inexperienced pitchers in 2024. Dylan Cease is the staff ace, though it’s no sure thing he won’t be traded before Opening Day.

KBO returnee Erick Fedde is a lock for the season-opening rotation, while Michael Kopech is likely to get a rebound opportunity. Michael Soroka and Jared Shuster — each of whom was acquired from the Braves in the Aaron Bummer trade — could vie for spots. Rule 5 pick Shane Drohan will have to remain on the MLB roster or be waived and subsequently offered back to the Red Sox, while prospects Cristian Mena and Jake Eder could reach the big leagues at some point.

Maldonado will work with that pitching group. He can serve as a short-term bridge to catching prospect Edgar Quero, the headliner of last summer’s Lucas Giolito/Reynaldo López deal. The 20-year-old spent all of last season at Double-A. He could reach the majors late in the ’24 season while taking over as the primary option in 2025.

In the interim, it’s possible the Maldonado signing displaces one of the organization’s other catchers. Once the contract is finalized, the White Sox will have four catchers on the 40-man roster. It’s unlikely Chicago will move from Lee, leaving Carlos Pérez and Max Stassi potentially on the bubble. Pérez didn’t hit well in the majors or Triple-A last season. The White Sox just acquired Stassi from the Braves a couple weeks ago, but they’re not on the hook for money beyond the league minimum salary and didn’t surrender much (a player to be named later) to bring him in.

_________________
Sherman remarked, "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?" Grant looked up. "Yes," he replied, followed by a puff. "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."

Might as well put me in the batter's box.

He's not even great defensively any more. Typical white sox move

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Hopefully first time ever with fans with paper bags over their heads and chants of "sell the team" on an opening day.

He's still a good clubhouse guy who's good with the pitchers. He's probably a better manager than Pedro Grifol.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Leadership = can't hit.

That's great and everything but he's going to play baseball and that's a bad thing.

He hasn't been able to hit his entire career. His intangibles and ability to handle pitchers kept him employed by a WS team. That may not be sexy for those who admire the Dodgers way of losing, but I think intangibles are HUGE for a young or rebuilding team. You know he'll play slightly more than you will.

_________________
Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Looks like we have a different assessment of the risk/reward benefits. You're bringing in a guy who's cooked to handle a talentless pitching staff. It serves no purpose other than to yell,"look at us, we're building culture".

Just another flippable piece. Obviously they don't think that Quero is ready or that Lee is any good.

_________________
"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

It's a new era in regards to base stealing. Sure, nothing will get by him, but he's not going to throw guys out and he's going to have to fight Katz about attacking the strike zone.

Flip him for what? He's cooked. He hit under .200 in the best lineup in all of baseball. Hit .125 in the playoffs. You could hear the crowd groan when he came up. There's no perfume to put on this pig. Might be gone by the end of May.

These are the moves of a sleeping giant

The lineup for Soxfest just keeps getting more lit.

If he shows that he's still good defensively, someone in the playoff hunt will take him as a backup if one of their catchers gets hurt. Otherwise they'll just release him if he sucks. Same idea as Stassi.

_________________
"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Sure, they could move him in July for a low level, non prospect to save a little bit of money. Even if he's playing better than expected, he won't any actual value, just money savings.

If the White Sox off-season goal was to collect the worst offensive talent that will likely be in the lineup most days, they are well on their way to achieving that. Just need to build on that momentum now and find a RF who can't hit, but plays amazing defense and they should be set.

They threw us a curveball. Instead of trading for Salvador Perez, they found another old and broken down catcher to acquire.

The White Sox free agent group is below "journeyman" quality.

Why are you fighting it, Berb? You're a Sox fan deep inside. You've been living a lie, as a deeply closeted South Sider.

Framing stats are for pussies.

Ph@g vibe.

I'll find you a stat that says this guy doesn't suck, oh wait I wont.

He sucks but what does that have to do with a stat that wildly varies from year to year? The better stat would be an umpires' ranking of who gets fooled the most? Whoever catches most in front of the most fooled umpires gets the prize that year. I'm not saying it isn't a skill, but it's about the least important thing a catcher does...see Yasmani Grandal.

Tim Hill to the White Sox. Good dolphin must have a raging hard on.

GD’s penile state came to your mind when you saw that news?

_________________
Hawaii (fuck) You

Well, it is Caller Bob

_________________
2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Exactly....Grandal was "so great" at pitch framing. That got us a whole not of nothing.

_________________

Yeah. And throw my 78 year old broken body on the mound while they are at it. THIS IS THE WORST TEAM IN ALL OF BASEBALL NOW THAT A NEW TEAM WILL BE IN VEGAS. Don't go to the games. Fuck reinny.

_________________
An Ode to the Texas man who shot an Antifa terrorist:

Oh, he might have went on livin'
But he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the Ranger
With the big iron on his hip

_________________
"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Saw some Cease to Orioles chatter.

_________________
Elections have consequences.