After signing catcher Travis d’Arnaud to a 2-year, $16 million contract, he has to be the primary catcher for the Atlanta Braves going forward.
The Atlanta Braves and Alex Anthopoulos were able to check one big box on Sunday as they signed free agent catcher Travis d’Arnaud to a 2-year, $16 million contract.
They now have their answer at catcher pairing d’Arnaud with Tyler Flowers who they “re-signed” for $4 million earlier this offseason.
But I don’t think you make a signing like this for d’Arnaud unless you expect him to be the team’s primary catcher.
d’Arnaud was considered by many to be the second-best free agent catcher available this offseason behind Yasmani Grandal.
It’s taken a while for the 30-year-old d’Arnaud to reach his potential.
He was a top prospect for the New York Mets ranking as high as the sixth-best prospect in all of baseball prior to the 2013 season by MLB.com.
In 2014 he was a 2.8 WAR player for the Mets when he hit .242 with 13 home runs and a .718 OPS. He also put up great defensive numbers that season as well with a 14.4 defensive WAR according to FanGraphs.
d’Arnaud was even better in 2015 hitting .268 with 12 home runs and a .825 OPS, but he was only able to play in 67 games that season.
In 2017 he played a career-high 112 games for the Mets and hit .244 with 16 home runs and a .735 OPS.
Tommy John surgery cost him almost all of the 2018 season.
But he was able to bounce back nicely in 2019 after going from the Mets to the Dodgers and then to the Rays.
In 92 games for Tampa, he hit .263 with 16 home runs to go along with a .782 OPS.
All that to say, injuries have certainly been the main cause for d’Arnaud not fulfilling his potential.
When he has been healthy, he’s been a very productive player both at the plate and behind it.
Assuming he remains healthy, the plan should be for d’Arnaud to catch close to 120 games for the Braves in 2020 with Flowers and Alex Jackson taking the rest of the starts.
But I also think d’Arnaud is going to spell Freddie Freeman at first base a few times throughout the season, meaning he could start close to 130 games next season.
If he can do that and stay healthy, I have little doubt he can be a 2-plus WAR player, which would make him a top 10 catcher in baseball.
I project him to play 130 games while hitting .250 with 18 home runs and a .750 OPS.
But I will admit, if he can stay healthy is a big ‘if.’
His defense has gone down over the last three seasons, but he also caught 76 games for a Rays team last year that had the best pitching staff in the American League.
I love the signing of d’Arnaud and he should be the primary catcher for the Braves going forward. Let me know what you think in the comments below.