Atlanta Braves Agree to Sign Kurt Suzuki to One-Year Deal
The Atlanta Braves will add Kurt Suzuki to their mix at catcher, agreeing to sign the experienced backstop to a one-year major league contract.
The Atlanta Braves have not been shy about adding veterans this offseason as they continue their rebuilding process. The latest is catcher Kurt Suzuki. According to SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo, the Braves have agreed on a deal with the 33-year-old backstop. Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that the contract is a major league pact, and provides the financial details:
Source: Suzuki deal with #Braves will be one year, $1.5M with $2.5M in incentives.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 21, 2017
Suzki is coming off a very modest season with the Minnesota Twins, one in which he slashed .258/.301/.403 with eight home runs and 49 RBI in 106 games. However, that performance represented an improvement over a even weaker 2015 campaign which saw a .240/.296/.314 slash line, five homers and 50 RBI over 131 contests.
The 10-year vet has largely been a below average offensive force at the big league level, owner of a career .256/.311/.372 batting line. However, Suzuki has at times shown decent production for the catcher position. From 2009 to 2011 with the Oakland Athletics, he hit .252/.306/.392 while averaging 14 home runs and 68 RBI per season. He topped out at a .734 OPS with 15 homers and 88 RBI during the 2009 campaign.
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More recently, Suzuki earned the first and only All-Star nod of his career in 2014, his first year with the Twins. Though he managed just three long balls, he did slash .288/.345/.383 and knock in 61 runs over 131 games. The Braves will hope for numbers more like those Suzuki generated in 2014 or even 2016 rather than the 2015 version.
Fortunately, Atlanta won’t be depending on Suzuki to hold down the backstop post alone. 30-year-old Tyler Flowers is also expected to get a good chunk of playing time. The former Chicago White Sox catcher slashed .270/.357/.420 with eight home runs and 41 RBI in 83 games last year, his first with the Braves.
Defensively, Flowers has a definite edge over Suzuki in terms of pitch-framing ability. Flowers was ranked the 15th-best framer in the league last season by Baseball Prospectus. (Suzuki didn’t crack the top-100.) Other metrics didn’t particularly like either, however: Suzuki posted a -7 DRS (defensive runs saved) last year, and Flowers a -12. Both have had similar success gunning down base-stealers, at career clips of 24 percent (Suzuki) and 23 percent (Flowers).
While the Braves had occasionally been linked to free agent Matt Wieters, that always seemed on the unlikely side, and the addition of Suzuki definitely closes that door for good. (Where does Wieters end up now?) Atlanta still has Anthony Recker and Tuffy Gosewisch on the roster, and conceivably one or both would have to go in favor of the Flowers/Suzuki tandem. Rosenthal claims that the club will shop Recker in trades. The 33-year-old slashed .278/.394/.433 in 33 games last season.
