With the White Sox latest addition of Martin Maldonado, the 40-man roster has suddenly become crowded with four catchers. Once the deal becomes finalized one of those catchers may potentially be on the chopping block.
Since July, the White Sox front office has added three major league catchers. At the deadline, the soon-to-be-fired Rick Hahn sent Kendall Graveman to the Houston Astros in exchange for Korey Lee. Then a couple of weeks ago the recently hired Chris Getz added Max Stassi in a trade with the Braves. On Wednesday Getz added another veteran catcher by inking Martin Maldonado to a one-year deal with an option.
The White Sox also have 27-year-old Carlos Perez in-house. Perez appeared in 27 games last season, making him and Lee the only holdovers at the catcher position after Yasmani Grandal elected free agency. It is unlikely the White Sox move on from Lee. At the time of the trade, he was ranked the No. 5 prospect in the Astros organization as well as being ranked inside FanGraphs’ Top 100 prospects.
Lee showed some promise behind the plate last season but his offensive numbers were an eyesore. In 65 at-bats he was limited to a .077 batting average, one home run, three RBIs, and a .281 OPS. For his MLB career, he owns a .100 average with one home run, seven RBIs, and a .323 OPS in 90 at-bats. The sample size is very small but Lee isn’t just struggling, he looks lost at the plate.
He has swung at nearly half of the first pitches he has seen (45.8%) and owns a chase rate of 32.8%. Lee has gone down on strikes in 30.2% of his plate appearances while posting a 6.3 walk rate that is below the league average of 7.9%.
Things were not all bad for Lee last season. He handled himself well behind the plate posting an impressive 1.91 pop-time as well as two blocks above average.
At the age of 25, the White Sox still have some time to see what they have with Lee before determining if he can be a productive major league catcher long term.
Carlos Perez is at the biggest risk of getting displaced by the Maldonado signing. The 27-year-old catcher has appeared in just 34 MLB games over the last two seasons. In that small sample size, he owns a .209/.254/.343 slash line with one home run, and five RBIs. While his MLB opportunities were limited his Triple-A numbers did not do much to warrant a promotion.
Stassi could also been on the bubble. It was reported that the White Sox were interested in Maldonado even before they acquired Stassi. They also do not owe anything above the league minimum salary as part of their deal with the Braves.
He hasn’t played since 2022 after missing the entire 2023 campaign due to injury and family reasons. He is also a liability at the plate. Stassi is a career .212 hitter a career .212 hitter with a .656 OPS and 80 OPS+. In 2022 he ranked in the bottom three percent in the league in expected Slugging Percentage (.325), weighted On-Base Average(.258), and expected weight On Base Average (.266). He also ranked in the bottom six percent in expected Batting Average (.180) and bottom eight percent in strikeout percentage (29.9).
Stassi did post a 10.1 walk rate in 2021 and had one of the lowest chase rates in baseball in 2022. Stassi is also a capable defender boasting the second-best frame rate in baseball from 2018-2022 according to FanGraphs. While Maldonado may be considered a better defender, he was among the worst pitch-framers in baseball. Stassi also owns the third most Defensive Runs Saved (24) for catchers between 2018-2022 and had the fifth-best overall defensive rating (55.4).
Maldanado has been a below-average hitter throughout his career. But his experience behind the plate and working with a championship pitching staff is all valuable knowledge that can help in developing Egar Quero and Lee. Quero is just 20 years old and will still need time in the minor leagues.
Ultimately it will come down to how much faith the front office has in Lee. If they believe he can be a productive everyday catcher then it won’t hurt their pocketbooks to part ways with Stassi. If they don’t then Stassi could see a large portion of the catching duties next season.
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If they don’t then Stassi could see a large portion of the catching duties next season.