4. Rod Barajas 2012
In the days before Russell Martin and Francisco Cervelli, the Pirates had a lot of trouble finding steady play behind the plate. The most glaring example of this was the 2011 season, when the Pirates used seven catchers before settling on Michael McKenry.
The Pirates attempted to avoid this problem by signing veteran Rod Barajas before the 2012 season. Barajas was 36 years old, so it was fairly obvious he was going to be a stop gap until then top catching prospect Tony Sanchez was ready. He was signed for one year and $4 million.
Barajas simply put was not good at all for the 2012 Pirates. He slashed .206/.283/.343/, had an OPS+ of 73 and was worth -0.9 WAR. His offense was only the tip of the iceberg as Barajas was easily the worst defensive catcher in baseball during his lone season in Pittsburgh. He managed to only throw out SIX percent of would-be base-stealers, a startling 94 percent success rate. Pretty much everyone was running on Barajas. Usually when fans say they could steal on a catcher, they’re lying, but with Barajas behind the plate, it seemed believable. Thankfully the Pirates signed Russell Martin prior to the 2013 season and since then have been extremely deep and talented at the catcher position.
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