Atlanta Braves sign free agent catcher Manny Piña to a two-year, $8 million contract
Who is Manny Piña?
Manny Piña is a 34-year-old catcher most recently with the NL Central champion Milwaukee Brewers. Primarily known for his defense, Piña hit .189/.293/.439 for Milwaukee in 2021 in 75 games (52 starts), socking a career-high 13 home runs.
According to Baseball Prospectus‘s Catcher Fielding Runs Above Average statistic, one of the better measures for rating catcher defense, Piña ranked 16th in the league, just one notch behind Atlanta starting catcher Travis d’Arnaud.
Piña originally signed as an amateur out of Venezuela with the Texas Rangers in 2005. Traded to the Kansas City in 2009, he made his major league debut on August 3, 2011 with the Royals. He tore the meniscus in the right knee playing Winter League ball that offseason and underwent surgery that cost him the first three months of 2012. He made it back to the majors for one game at the end of 2012, but re-injured the meniscus and once again missed the first half of the following season. He ended up not getting back to the majors until 2016, passing his way through the Mariners and Tigers organizations in the process.
Named the Player To Be Named Later in a trade that sent Francisco Rodriguez to Detroit, Piña played in 33 games for the Brewers in 2016 after being recalled after the trade deadline that saw starting catcher Jonathan Lucroy traded to the Texas Rangers. Piña split time after the trade, starting 33 games for the Brewers and cementing himself as a big leaguer. Piña has played in 404 games as a Milwaukee Brewer from 2016 to 2021 and his 6.4 fWAR during that period places his 8th all-time in fWAR for Brewers catchers. He had a hamstring injury in 2019 and another meniscus tear in his right knee in 2020 that limited his availability. He had two short IL stints in 2021, one at the end of April for a broken toe and another in September with a left oblique tightness, but overall his 208 plate appearances last season were his most since 2018.
Piña appeared in the 2021 NLDS series against the Atlanta Braves, getting 4 plate appearances without a hit, mostly in double-switches with starting catcher Omar Narváez.
The Deal
Piña’s 2-year deal is split between $3.5 million in 2022 and $4.5 million in 2023 for a total of $8 million in guaranteed salary. The deal does give Atlanta an option for $4 million in 2024.
Piña’s deal mirrors starting catcher Travis d’Arnaud’s 2-year contract extension which pays him $8 million over each of the next two seasons with a club option for 2024 also at $8 million. This means that the Braves will be able to roll out two different defensive stand-outs at the most important defensive position on the diamond for the next two seasons for an average of $12 million a season. In short, the deals work given the expected performance and salary.
The main variable here is health.
Final Thoughts
The first thing that many people likely thought upon the news of this deal — myself included — was that it may mean the end of William Contreras‘s time in the organization. The young catcher, a top 5 organizational prospect coming into the season, was pressed into starting in Atlanta when the major league club improbably lost both major league rostered catchers — Travis d’Arnaud and Alex Jackson — on the same day, May 1.
While Contreras enjoyed some initial success at the plate, defensive problems impacted the team through the dog days of the summer and eventually started impacting his offense. While Contreras struggled, so did the front office as the desperately tried to find a back-up catcher to replace young veteran Alex Jackson. They ran through the likes of Jeff Mathis, Kevan Smith, and Jonathan Lucroy before finally trading for Stephen Vogt shortly before the return of d’Arnaud. Then Vogt also was injured, forcing a return to the majors for Contreras. At one point the Braves even tried to get long-time catcher Tyler Flowers out of the front office assistant role he had all but retired to, but a chronically injured back forestalled an attempt at a comeback.
This is a scenario that any team would want to avoid, and seen through that prism, Piña’s signing makes a whole lot of sense. Contreras was forced from AA to the majors and was clearly not ready — and the team knew he wasn’t ready, but he was the only other catcher on the 40-man roster at the time.
So while having more depth at the major league level can potentially open up trade possibilities that could include Contreras — or top catching prospect Shea Langeliers — I would not necessarily expect a trade to naturally follow from this deal. This is probably a best case scenario for the club — Contreras and Langeliers sharing time at AAA Gwinnett all season, building a good rapport and/or friendly rivalry, working on weaknesses away from the pressures or expectations of the major leagues. Any short-term needs due to injury could possibly be filled by late 2021 waiver-wire pick-up Chadwick Tromp.
The more likely scenario, given the career history of both d’Arnaud and Piña, is that at some point in the next two seasons, one or both will have to miss a significant amount of time. At that point it will be up to Contreras or Langeliers to step up — hopefully after a significant amount of time honing their skills at the AAA level.
Leave a Reply