Clevelinks: Cleveland Indians Sign Catcher to Minor League Deal; Rule 5 Draft Preview

The Cleveland Indians Added Depth Behind the Plate

The Cleveland Indians signed catcher Anthony Recker to a minor league deal with an invite to spring training, as Jordan Bastian of MLB.com noted. Recker, 32, has played in parts of five seasons with the Oakland Athletics, the Chicago Cubs, and the New York Mets. Across that span, he posted a slash-line of .185/.260/.334 and amassed one win above replacement, according to FanGraphs.

In 2014, the catcher arguably had his best season. While he batted just .201, he slugged seven home runs in just 189 plate appearances. Matching this low-average, high-power output was a 33.9% strikeout rate. This ultimately amounted in weighted runs created plus of 76, which means that his offensive output was roughly 24% worse than a league-average player. He did, however, rate well defensively, with FanGraphs giving him a defensive value of 6.7 runs.

Recker will give the Indians some depth at a taxing position. Roberto Perez will back up the incumbent Yan Gomes, who missed time with a knee injury last year. Between Perez and Gomes, the Indians have a solid duo, but it is always good to have plenty of depth.

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In other news, since teams have already set the 40-man rosters, we can take a peek at who might be claimed in the upcoming draft. In this spirit, J.J. Cooper of Baseball America published a Rule 5 draft preview. Among the names listed of players who might be picked were three Cleveland Indians: Ronny Rodriguez, Eric Stamets, and Luis Lugo.

Ronny Rodriguez, 23, set high expectations in the power department when he slugged 11 home runs in just under 400 plate appearances during his first pro-season in 2011. He then continued smashing the ball in Double-A Akron the following season before stalling in ’13 and ’14. He finally regained some ground last year when he posted an isolated power (extra-base hits per at-bat) above .200 for the first time since 2011, but he only appeared in 72 games due to a broken hamate.

Eric Stamets, 24, is an above-average shortstop defensively but struggles offensively. Across his entire minor-league career, he has batted .257 with just 14 home runs. He does, however, run well, and he has swiped a total of 42 bases while being caught 13 times.

The final player listed, Luis Lugo, is a 21-year-old left-hander pitcher with four decent pitches. Despite the average or better offerings, Lugo has never really settled in as a pitcher. He has posted earned run averages above four in his past two seasons, but he did show some promise back in 2013. All in all, he has yet to progress beyond High-A, so it is unlikely that another team will carry him on their major league roster for all of 2016.

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