Braves add veteran Suzuki as backstop insurance
ATLANTA -- Instead of gambling on the possibility Tyler Flowers will remain healthy enough this season to negate the glaring weakness in their backup-catching department, the Braves made a slight upgrade on Saturday, when they agreed to terms on a one-year, $1.5 million contract with Kurt Suzuki.
A Major League source confirmed agreement on this deal, which is pending a physical. The team hasn't confirmed the contract. Suzuki could earn an additional $2.5 million in incentives that will be based on the amount of playing time he gets, as he will enter 2017 projected to serve as Atlanta's backup catcher.
While the Braves would have had interest in Wilson Ramos had he not suffered a significant right knee injury in late September, they never warmed to the possibility of seriously pursuing Matt Wieters as a free agent this offseason.
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Once Jason Castro signed with the Twins, the Braves stuck with their plan to use Flowers as the starting catcher and hope that either Anthony Recker or Tuffy Gosewisch would prove to be a serviceable backup.
Thoughts of using Recker or Gosewisch once every five days weren't as discomforting as the reality that one of them would become the starter if Flowers was sidelined for a significant period of time. Thus, the Braves opted to gain better insurance in the form of Suzuki, a 33-year-old veteran who has made 1,102 starts as a catcher over his 10-season big league career.
Recker and Gosewisch are a pair of 33-year-old Minor League journeymen who have combined to make 246 career starts in the Majors.
Suzuki has compiled a .683 OPS over 4,622 career plate appearances and he is coming off a season in which he batted .258 with eight home runs and a .704 OPS for the Twins.
Among the 24 catchers who logged at least 650 innings behind the plate in 2016, Flowers ranked last with a -1.1 defensive fWAR and Suzuki ranked 20th with a 3.8. Both have registered well in the framing department, but struggled recently against opposing basestealers.
In terms of caught stealing percentage, which doesn't account for pitcher pickoffs, Suzuki retired seven of 59 basestealers last season. His resulting 11.9 percent success rate was better than only those marks produced by Nick Hundley (seven of 64, 10.1 percent) and Flowers (two of 62, 3.2 percent).
Because Recker and Gosewisch both signed non-guaranteed contracts as arbitration-eligible players this season, the Braves have the option to release either of them during Spring Training at a fraction of their agreed-upon salary.
While there is a chance Recker and Gosewisch could both begin the season with Triple-A Gwinnett, it appears the Braves may be more intent on attempting to trade Recker -- who produced an .828 OPS over 112 plate appearances for Atlanta last season.
Mark Bowman has covered the Braves for MLB.com since 2001. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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