Believe it or not, the Blue Jays signed backup catcher Jeff Mathis to a two-year, $3 million extension with a $1.5 million option for 2015, the team announced Tuesday.
It’s a pretty amazing statement, given that, of the 461 players with at least 1,000 plate appearances the last eight seasons, Mathis has the game’s worst batting average, on-base percentage, OPS and OPS+ since he debuted in 2005. He’s a career .196/.256/.312 hitter with 32 homers and 158 RBI in 1,336 at-bats.
Now, Mathis has been better this year; he’s all of the way up to .215/.252/.415 with six homers in 135 at-bats. However, most of that success came early. Since May 6, he’s at .209/.220/.374 in 115 at-bats. Playing an expanded role with J.P. Arencibia hurt, he’s hitting .118 in 34 at-bats this month.
Of course, it’s not much money. $1.5 million per year is a pretty standard rate for a backup catcher. Mathis, though, is turning 30 next spring, and it’s not like he projects to take a big step forward. He figures to remain a disaster offensively, without being all that great defensively. He is throwing out baserunners at the best rate of his career this year (an impressive 39 percent), but he’s never been so good previously.
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1. Good cripple hitter Posted: August 16, 2012 at 11:31 AM (#4209651)Mathis hasn't been dreadful this year, the money doesn't really matter at all, and it certainly won't sink the Jays to have him be their backup catcher. At the same time, it's a really bland move that has almost no upside and gives Mathis a guaranteed roster spot for two to three years, and I cannot imagine that the market for Mathis or a similar backup catcher would've been all that strong in the offseason.
I had assumed that the plan was to have JP as the backup and D'arnaud as the starter in the next year or so. I guess having Mathis allows them to deal Arrencibia, but I don't see why they'd want to do that.
Chris Schneider says hello
BS did get a 2 year deal as a FA, and then got reupped for another year.
Mathis got 2 years prior to turning FA. Don't know which scenario is worse. :)
Name someone with a higher World Series OPS.
The Royals have a number of candidates for this: Bruce Chen, Jeff Francoeur, Ross Gload, Scott Elarton, Willie Bloomquist...
John McDonald? Tsuyoshi Wada? Yoslan Herrera? Aaron Miles?
This seems like Karma for the Napoli/Wells assault/trade.
I can never tell which of your conspiracy theories to take seriously. This one seems to have legs, though.
He played poorly under that contract, but he was one year removed from a 50 HR season, and will be a borderline HOFer. That's different from everyone else listed here, most of whom never even had a prime.
... Oh, he was a Cuban defector. That doesn't really count. And he actually got a three-year contract.
Back in the bad old days, the Pirates signed Mike Benjamin to a two-year deal not once but twice.
Over the first two years, he gave them 601 AB with a 69 OPS+, and they were so pleased with that, they gave him a $225k raise to re-up for two more years.
Yea, if he counts, Noel Arguelles is far worse. It doesn't look like he'll ever even reach the big leagues, and he's on a five year contract. I'm sure there are worse Cuban FA contracts than that.
I was going to say Gary Matthews, but he had an excellent year and a couple of average ones in his career. Meares topped out at average if you squint. Darren Dreifort is a contender, but he had a good year* in 1998.
*) As a reliever so it's not much, and it really wasn't very good for a reliever.
Then there was the three-year contract to Wil Cordero, whom they traded in July of the first year.
For 10-year deals, I'm going with Wayne Garland.
For infinitely long deals, Tim Wakefield is both the best and the worst.
Nah, I'd go with Babe Ruth as best and Bill Bergen for worst under the reserve clause, which Wakefield effectively brought back.
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