It looks like the Pirates will pursue an additional catcher either via trade or free agency, while they also retained a player who finished 2019 on a positive note.
The Major League Baseball non-tender deadline was Monday night, and the Pirates non-tendered catcher Elias Diaz while agreeing to a contract with infielder Erik Gonzalez for the 2020 season.
The Diaz move wasn’t terribly surprising given the difficult year he experienced. They'll likely have to seek an external replacement because the Pirates really don’t have anyone else in their system to split time with Jacob Stallings.
Diaz struggled mightily this past season after showing some positive signs in 2018. After hitting 10 home runs in 252 at-bats with a 1.8 WAR (per Fangraphs) in 2018, Diaz hit just two home runs in 303 at-bats in 2019 with a WAR of minus-1.5. His batting average went from .286 to .241, his OPS from .792 to .603.
It was originally the plan to have Diaz back up Francisco Cervelli, but when Cervelli suffered continued concussion problems, Stallings was much more reliable and eventually took over as the Pirates’ No. 1 backstop.
Defensively, Diaz might’ve been the worst catcher in the league this past season. According to Fangraphs, he was last out of 113 catchers in such categories as Defensive Runs Above Average (minus-8) and Defensive Runs Saved (minus-23). Framing-wise, according to Baseball Prospectus, Diaz was also dead last.
Diaz was projected to make $1.4 million via the arbitration process. The Pirates clearly weren’t OK spending that money on a 29-year-old coming off a bad year.
Gonzalez is 28 and profiles as a solid utility infielder who found his bat late in the season. A broken collarbone caused problems for him early, but he had an 11-game hitting streak in September, during which he hit .322 with a .756 OPS.
Gonzalez also fared well against left-handed pitching, hitting .333 with an OPS of .735.
Acquired in a five-player trade with Cleveland in November 2018, Gonzalez should provide plenty of versatility in the infield, where he can give the Pirates a split at shortstop, second or third base.
Teams had until Monday at 8 p.m. to offer contracts to players who remain under team control but do not have a contract that covers the 2020 season.
The offers are not for a specific dollar amount, but rather a commitment to the player for next season. Players not offered a contract by the deadline are “non-tendered” and become free agents.
Players with at least three years of service time, but fewer than the six years required to reach free agency, are eligible to have their salary determined through the arbitration process. (So can players who fall just short of three years of service but rank in the top 22% among players with between two and three years and earned at least 86 days of service time in the previous season; they are known as Super Two players.)
If the team and player cannot agree on a salary before Jan. 10, the sides exchange desired salary figures. Those figures are based on how a player performed in comparison to other players with similar service time.
Players and teams can agree to terms prior to, and after, exchanging figures, but if they can’t agree, the sides present their case to a panel of three arbitrators between Feb. 3-21. The panel selects one salary or the other, a process that ensures both proposals are reasonable.
According to other arbitration projections from Matt Swartz at MLB Trade Rumors, Josh Bell could get $5.9 million; Keone Kela and Joe Musgrove $3.4 million; Adam Frazier $3.2 million; Trevor Williams $3.0 million; Jameson Taillon $2.3 million; Chad Kuhl $1.4 million; Michael Feliz $1.2 million; and Gonzalez $800,000.
First Published: December 3, 2019, 1:25 a.m.
