Blue Jays sign Cuban catcher Luis Gómez
1 month ago
The Blue Jays have made a transaction!
On Wednesday morning, Francys Romero reported that Cuban catcher Luis Gómez signed a minor league deal with the Jays. It’s worth noting that Romero later corrected himself and said there’s no bonus signing.
Romero notes that Gómez is great defensively and also points out that he played with Yariel Rodríguez in Cuba with the Ganaderos de Camaguey. The battery spent five seasons together from 2015-2020.
Last season, Gómez had a career-year, slashing .288/.349/.374 with a homer and seven doubles in 155 plate appearances. Moreover, he had an 8.4 BB% and a 9.7 K%. For his career, he’s slashing .246/.318/.341 with eight home runs in 531 plate appearances, along with 40 strikeouts and 77 plate appearances.
Interestingly, half of his home runs came in just one season, as he slashed .259/.333/.383 with four homers in 187 plate appearances during the 2020-21 season. However, his K% sat at 14.4%, which isn’t high by any means, but a big difference between his 2020-21 season and his 2022-23 season.
It’s also worth noting that during his last season in Cuba, Gómez played only 17 of his 47 games at catcher according to Baseball Reference. The majority of his playing time came at third base, as he played 23 games there, as well as an additional two games at first base.
Gómez will likely head to Triple-A Buffalo to be their backstop. Per their roster page, they have four catchers on the roster: Jose Ferrer, Payton Henry, Max McDowell, and Brian Serven. However, Ferrer is a prospect that was a late season call up while McDowell finished his season with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
If I had to guess, they’ll carry a three-man catching crew of Serven as the primary catcher, Gómez as the backup catcher, and Henry as the designated hitter/third catcher.
Either way, transactions are fun no matter the size!
As always, you can follow me on Twitter @Brennan_L_D.
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