The Cubs have brought in another catcher, signing veteran Josh Phegley to a minor league deal, per Mark Gonzales. Phegley will presumably be getting a Spring Training invite to compete for a job on the bench, and then perhaps heading to AAA Iowa to open the season if there isn’t a spot or an injury ahead of him.
Most recently of the A’s, Phegley actually wound up appearing in a majority of their games last year, but that was more about circumstances than results. Phegley, a fine back-up type, mostly performed like a fine back-up:
Turning 32 shortly, Phegley is a below-average overall catcher (he mostly does everything “meh” by the metrics, and he’s not the prototypical exceptional defensive veteran back-up), and he’s obviously quite a bit below average at the plate. Of course, if you can get an 82 wRC+ out of your back-up catcher, that isn’t the worst thing in the world, and Phegley is being brought on as a third catcher.
A very nice plus? Phegley raked against lefties last year, hitting .284/.320/.526 with a 121 wRC+, and he’s always hit lefties much better than righties. Of course, you can do the mental math there and conclude (correctly) that he was absolutely brutal against righties last year, but there’s a reason he was available on a minor league deal.
Almost entirely regardless of anything that might have happened with Willson Contreras this offseason, I’ve been hoping the Cubs would sign a quality third catcher.
Sure, you want to have a capable catcher in place to pair with Victor Caratini if a crazy offer came in for Contreras that you couldn’t refuse, but there are a couple other reasons to want a good third catcher.
For one thing, catcher injuries are inevitable, and you’re absolutely going to have to use a third catcher at some point this season as your back-up. Taylor Davis had been that guy for a little while, but he’s headed out to join the Orioles. So, although the Cubs have P.J. Higgins and Jhonny Pereda as plausible third catcher options in a pinch, it’d still be nice to have a guy who’s worked with a big league staff before.
For another thing, although each now has plenty of big league experience – and a very robust catching-centric coaching staff – Contreras and Caratini are still developing players. Having a veteran around can always help at the margins. You never know what might come up in conversation or a bullpen that helps.
For still another thing, with rosters expanding to 26 and requiring 13 position players, there’s an extra spot available on the bench that would make it *plausible* to carry three catchers if you wanted to be able to use Caratini’s bat off the bench more often, and/or wanted to give Contreras a break from behind the plate for a day and start him somewhere else.
Anyway, that is all to say I was hoping the Cubs would sign a veteran catcher to a minor league deal, and now they have.