Colorado Rockies: A look at three backup catchers on the free agent market

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Martin Maldonado

Martin Maldonado is the backup catcher for the Houston Astros and, in fact, he is starting today for the Astros in Game 3 of the ALCS.

The 33-year-old veteran is not known for his hitting skills as he has hit .213/.293/.378 between the Royals, Cubs, and Astros this season. He is best known for his defense as, according to Fangraphs, his pitch framing was above average (1.0 FRM) and he had 8 DRS, which is the same as Tony Wolters in about 50 less innings caught.

He has been above average in every single season that he has played in the majors (exception being his first season when he caught three innings). In the past three years, he even has 33 fDRS.

Contractually, he made $2.5 million this season and $3.9 million in 2018 so I would say that somewhere in between those two would get the job done.

Final Thoughts

There are going to be plenty of veteran catchers on the free agent market this offseason so if the Rockies want to go in a different direction than Nunez or resigning Drew Butera (which would not surprise me), Avila, Vogt, and Maldonado are just three potential options that the Rockies could get for a relatively low cost.

Also, all three could very well help develop some of the Rockies pitchers so it should be something that the Rockies should mull over in the coming weeks.