The Cardinals have made their first signing of the free agent season… catcher Brayan Peña.
#STLCards announce signing of free-agent catcher Brayan Pena to two-year deal.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) November 30, 2015
Here are 6 things you should know:
1) He’s going to replace Tony Cruz as the Cardinals backup catcher.
Cruz (presumably) leaves the only professional team he’s played for after 5 seasons. The Cardinals have until Wednesday PM to offer him a contract and have his salary set by an arbiter. That most likely won’t happen and Cruz will be free to sign with another team. He leaves the Cardinals after appearing in 259 games and accumulating a career oWAR of -1.5 and a dWAR of -0.4.
2) Peña comes from Cincinnati where he was pretty solid for the Reds in 2015.
In 2015 Peña appeared in 108 games (84 starts) posting a .273 BA w/ 91 hits and 17 doubles, good for an oWAR of 0.6. He was also reliable in the field as well. According to ESPN, Peña led the NL with a .999 fielding percentage, making one error in 715 chances. His dWAR was 0.3.
3) He’ll be making 5M/2 years (2.5M/yr).
Cruz banked 775K over the past season, so this is a much bigger investment in the backup catcher position. In the past, the Cardinals have headed into the season claiming that Yadier Molina would get more days off, which never really happened (outside of DL sints). It looks like the Cardinals are more serious about rest for Yadi in 2016.
4) Is Peña going to be OK being the backup?
Brayan Pena, on joining Cards: "I know my role. I understand my role. And I embrace my role. I know I have a Hall of Famer in front of me."
— Jenifer Langosch (@LangoschMLB) November 30, 2015
Yes. Even though he was the defacto starter for the Reds over half of 2015, he knows what his role is with the Cardinals. Baseball-Reference has projected Peña will get over 400 plate appearances in 2016 for the Cardinals, so he’ll still have a healthy dose of playing time.
5) What else?
Here are some splits from Derrick Goold:
Pena hit .273 with a .334 on-base percentage and a .324 slugging percentage in 333 at-bats. He had 18 RBIs and did not have a home run. Against righthanded pitching, the switch-hitter batted .295 with a 347 on-base percentage and a .700 OPS in 241 at-bats. That success from the left side of the plate increases the number of opportunities he could get to spell Molina.
That LH batting is going to be something to keep an eye on in 2016.
6) Any skeletons in the closet?
Hope you’re not a Rams fan harboring any resentment about Super Bowl XXXVI. Because he’s a honk for the Patriots:
https://twitter.com/cuban2727/status/668551531868868608
Hopefully he’s recovered from that loss in Denver last night. If you want, you can follow him on Twitter here.
Welcome to STL, Brayan. We’re all wishing you the very best of luck.
Photo: It’s Always Baseball Season
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