3:54pm: This agreement has now been announced.
2:22pm: The Rays are nearing agreement on a contract with backstop Mike Zunino, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). If finalized as expected, he’ll earn $4.5MM for the 2020 campaign and remain under control in the 2021 season with a $4.5MM club option.
Zunino was projected to earn $4.9MM via arbitration by MLBTR and contributor Matt Swartz. That was a big enough sum that it seemed possible he’d be non-tendered by the budget-conscious Tampa Bay organization. But with Travis d’Arnaud heading to Atlanta, the Rays decided to hang onto a known quantity to pair with Michael Perez behind the dish.
The arrangement that the sides have settled upon pays Zunino a bit less than might have been anticipated, though it’s well within the range of plausible outcomes for his arbitration case. He’ll avoid the risks of the open market. The club will be able to achieve value through the option if Zunino performs as hoped. The option year includes an escalator provision that allows Zunino to boost the potential salary by up to $750K based upon the number of plate appearances he takes in 2020, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter).
Zunino, 28, is a valued defender who has at times been quite productive with the bat. But he’s coming off of a forgettable 2019 offensive season. Zunino slashed just .165/.232/.312 over his 289 plate appearances, with the departing d’Arnaud taking more of the reps over the course of the season. It wasn’t long ago (2017) that Zunino rode a .355 batting average on balls in play to a .251/.331/.509 batting output. But he managed only a .220 BABIP in 2019. Statcast suggests the dip is the product of both misfortune (his .271 xwOBA dwarfed his .235 wOBA) and a performance downturn (36.9% hard-hit ratio, down from 46.9% in 2017).
the rays should have held onto Ramos as catcher during the 2018 season instead of getting nothing for him from the Mets.
sorry I meant traded to the Phillies for nothing.
He was a free agent to be
In that case your still incorrect. The Rays received cash and a player to he named later. It’s not enough but it’s clearly not nothing.
Ramos ended up suffering a hamstring strain before the trade deadline so that is why he was traded for a PTBNL/Cash.
d’Arnaud was a IL’s favorite roomie for a lot of his seasons with the Mets. He had a good 10-12wks with the Rays but his bat slowed near the end of the season & the playoffs. Zunino having a off year with the bat might end up working in the Rays favor the next 2 seasons
Ah Jeezuth Chwist the Cubs are bad
.165 ba gets you 4.5 mil$? YIKES
Yeah. I agree. Tyler Flowers only makes $4 mill and he is better and far more proven than Zunino. I think the Rays had to do this though. They wanted to re-sign darnaud but the Braves just scooped him up. At that point darnaud was the best available catcher on the market since Grandal is gone. They don’t seem like the type of team that is willing to trade great prospects to get a star catcher so if they didn’t take Zunino they would have just lost both their starting and back up catcher from last season with almost nowhere to turn in the free agent market. Even with this signing they are projected to get worse at catcher next season. The Rays forcing themselves to look for both a starting catcher and back up catcher in an incredibly thin catching market would have been a disaster. If the ChiSox were smart they would try and trade James McCann while the market for catchers is at his peak. Everyone knows he ibase a good defensive catcher and that he won’t be able to sustain this level of BABIP. McCann doesn’t walk or get on base at anything close to a good clip so he is due for a serious regression once he starts facing better pitchers that play for teams who will play at least average defense in terms of range against him. At this point though… Who else is better onf the market? Out of all these catcher needy playoff teams, at least one has to be willing to overpay for him right? I mean he was a starting all-star last season. Unless every team is willing to trade the farm for Wilson Contreras, trade a lot for the Mariners catcher and hope he actually learns how to catch or take on an absurd amount of money out of hope that Buster Posey invents his own time machine then McCann is the best bet. Even if every catcher needy potential playoff team is willing to do that then there will still be several suitors left without any of those three guys. Castro is the next best option and McCann has to be looked at as a better option than him. The ChiSox have to take advantage of this market. Maybe teams will be able to use the Grandal signing as leverage against them? Everyone already knows that McCann isn’t going to be their catcher next year.
You’re probably overestimating McCann’s value. Aside from last year, McCann has negative fwar over his entire career. He’s a replacement level catcher in most years. But in all years, last year included, he’s an awful defensive catcher. The Rays live and die by pitching, which is why they demand a good framing catcher. That isn’t McCann.
surprised they are holding onto him after last year. guess Grandal’s ripples are still being felt.
I’d love to feel Grandal’s ripples….
okay yeah i guess i worded that one bad.
Who’s nipples are being felt up now?
Ah, it’s been so long since I’ve had my ripples felt……
OTOH, it’s been so long since I could feel my ripples….
The only nipples worth feeling of any player is Bartolo Colon. At least that way you can pretend.
lmao
Rays front office does more calculations during evaluations than any of us could even fathom. They don’t miss on many things they do, his defense is hard to let go of when it is of this caliber, the bat can only go one way from here and having a nice platoon of him and an offensive minded catcher wether that is Perez or someone they bring in is a very workable catching duo
Wow, a whole $400,000. Penny pinching Rays at it again.
Let’s not forget that paltry sum of money is a lifetime income for some people
The $4.9M was merely an estimate at arbitration. It could have been more or less. The risk for Zunino is he could have been non-tendered. Ergo, put 9f a job.
He didn’t exactly do much last year. 4.5 mil is a lot for a guy that hit 165.
His job is to be a catcher. If he has a good bat that would just be a bonus. The percentages of catcher that bat worth their salt aren’t high imo.
And why not if they got him anyway. Would have been a different story if they had lost him for 400k. I don’t know how anyone criticizes the Rays when they’ve been so successful doing things their way. Oh the difference between knowledgeable fans and trolls.
while i think it could benefit them to make a bigger signing, (you have to admit as well that they havent won a WS with this strategy yet, so its not safe to say its absolutely the right strategy) they do get more flak than they deserve for the moves they make. i mean half of the Darnaud article was “the braves overpaid” while the other half was “i cant believe the Rays were cheap enough to not match that offer.” Ill stand up and say, as an outside observer, their tactics and core are intriguing and worth watching.
It’s called money management. Aren’t you interested in getting more for your money? It is crucial to financial success.
That’s a shortsighted way to view this deal that also comes with an identical dollar figure option for next season. This deal saves them 400k or so on the projected arb figure and if he actually produces they can have him again next season for the same price. There’s certainly value in that option that comes w no buyout. If he sucks it’s worthless but this is more than just 400k bucks.
It’s more significant because it would have affected his arbitration next year.
Zunino is in his last year of arbitration. He would have been a free agent in 2021.
They’ll probably get equal value from Zunino as they would’ve from d’Arnaud, but for $3.5 million less.
“he’s coming off of a forgettable 2019 offensive season. Zunino slashed just .165/.232/.312 over his 289 plate appearances, with the departing d’Arnaud taking more of the reps over the course of the season.”
All the smart teams have realised paying more for above average players with an injury history is much more valuable than most people realise. The smart teams are paying for guys like Brantley, and Pollock because your getting a valuable player when healthy, and replacing them with a league average or slightly below when they arent in the lineup, is easy and cheap. The amount of guys wt C who have the potential to hit at or above league avg, while playing solid defensive and throwing out more runners than avg, is extremely small.
The Rays wanted to cut Zunino after last year, but now are forced to keep him at a bad rate, or attempt making the playoffs with 2 unkowns at catcher all year at a position of scarcity.
This only makes the D’Arnaud deal look better.
You just named teams with huge payrolls lol. No small market team can play by those rules and go ask LA how they felt paying for hill and pollock and other to sit on the bench. That’s not smart or valuable to any team especially a small market. Probably one of the worst comments I’ve read
You are right Houston, Dodgers, those teams are dumb. Nats with all those injury prone guys too. Basically every good team is dumb and plays by different rules. Ok, you got me. Great analysis genius. 162 hitter is better value at 5 mil than the guy who stole his job at 8.
A player who was better than him, at the same position, and literally stole his playing time, while producing clutch at bats and well above average offensive stats at a position that doesn’t have many of those players because you think he will remember how to not play bad again next year.
If you ever agree with a comment of mine, let me know, so I can go think about where I went wrong and correct it. I bet you know exactly how to build a team that almost makes the playoffs and has some really good values on it though.
You’re talking about payrolls hundreds of millions of dollars apart, for one yes it is dumb but for 2 also impossible for the Rays to function that way. That’s not even a possibility for them so paying that much for a player with 3 months of good play to his career is much too risky
I wouldn’t count on d’Arnaud playing as well as he did in 2019. Being in the same city as my favorite team – Yankees- I watched d’Arnaud plenty over the years and he was terrible.
I didn’t realize Zunino played that poorly offensively in 2019. I recall he was a decent bat when he was with the Mariners. If the Rays merely settled for Zunino, they should’ve taken a look at Romine. He’s not an elite catcher overall, but he’s decent defensively and has turned himself into a legit hitter the past few years. I can’t see Romine costing more than $4.5 million per, but maybe I’m wrong.
Let’s see how the Darnaud deal looks when he can’t hit his weight and spends the majority bod the year on the IL that’s what the historical numbers say about him. The rays squeezed out a lot from a guy who never should have been that good why can’t they do that again here?
Why. Zunino hovered around the Mendoza line all year. Make a trade.
You can have McGuire from the jays for your best pitching prospect?
That’s probably why no trade
there’s only one C available on the market?
Very few.
Plenty of bad ones tho
Heck I’ll catch for that 400k. I switch hit, so I can be either side of a platoon
Zunino should bounce back to his career averages at the plate in 2020. d’Arnaud could end up being hurt again like he has in the past. I like the contract because if Zunino did hit to his career averages last season he would have been able to get more $$$$.
Zunino never seen an outside curveball he didn’t like and still hasn’t hit one of them. His defense is overrated. A;though I’m a big Eric Neander fan,Maybe Chaim Bloom was the brains behind some of the better deals. Why not trade for Contreas or Perez in KC? I hope I’m wrong.
Because those two players cost massive amounts of your future. And his defense isn’t overrated if you look at stats he’s a gold glove caliber defensive catcher and blew TD away when behind the plate. His offense should improve even if it isn’t a plus he’s still worth that amount as an average catcher on the market. Bloom made no decisions whatsoever so I’m not sure how he could’ve been the difference
d’arnaurd was such a great clutch hitter for us and won many tight games. The pitchers said he framed better than Zunino and threw out 29% of stealers. The Rays just sighed an 80 mill Cable contract so they have 45 mill more than last year and still go cheap. Little d was a big part of our playoff run and Zunino can’t hit major league pitching. I hope your right but we both suffer if your wrong.
I just don’t see an upside for a small market to sign TD we have went years with bad hitting catchers and were successful. To pay someone who couldn’t stay off the dl for over half the season and has 3 good months to his name and not to mention his decline late in the season
Because Ronaldo Hernandez is coming up in 2021
Why not Contreras and Perez? Mostly, because both are poor defenders and the Rays value defense over offense from catchers. Contreras might be a Rays trade target though. He has value, notwithstanding his defensive limitations. Not sure the Rays and Cubs value him similarly though.
No seriously? $4.5 mil for a guy who hit .165? With an OBP of .232?? If he was a free agent he might get a Spring Training invitation somewhere. The guy hit a buck 65!!
He’s a gold glove caliber catcher who can have a bigger impact on a team than just with the bat, he can save the rays tons of runs as well. Finding a catcher this talented on defense isn’t easy
Martin Maldonado is still out there. He’s right there on defense. Zunino is familiar with the pitching staff and can’t possibly be any worse offensively. But a catcher who posts a 44 WRC+ is an automatic out. I doubt his defense was so superior to D’arnaud’s to make up for that hitting gap. D’arnaud is generally considered an average Defensive catcher.
Zunino has a ton to prove. Last year was a waste. He’s never been that bad.
Unlike a lot of names being thrown out, Maldonado is playable behind the plate, but I suspect Zunino has the higher upside for 2020 and 2021. Zunino averaged 2.7 fwar over the 3 year period before coming to the Rays and he battled injuries, transitioned to a new team, and even became a new dad in 2019. Given another year of familiarity with the Rays organization and a certain amount of regression to the mean, and I suspect Zunino’s 2020 will be much better than his 2019. I don’t love a Zunino/Perez pairing in 2020, but aside from Grandal, there are no available catchers that are demonstrably better than Zunino. Little d had a very good year with the Rays but he’s an aging catcher with injury risk who demanded 2 guaranteed years at almost double the annual cost of Zunino. Under these circumstances, I don’t mind them choosing Zunino over Little d.
A good defensive catcher with power costs money. He’s always been a low to mid .200 hitter and I expect that he’ll improve. Don’t be surprised if he out hits d’Arnaud next year with better defense. The Rays way.
Gold glove caliber and 3 season with 20 HR + at 28 year old. Great deal for the Rays and Zunino.
Zunino was an automatic out.
D’Nauard was clutch.
It is difficult to b a rays fan and see this huge downgrade in the lineup
He was the one signing the rays needed to make this off season
The one signing for a guy with no track record and every other year of his career was hurt for Long periods of time. This is called being a senseless fan
D’arnaud is an upgrade over Zunino. He might not be twice the player that Z is. But he is a downgrade. There’s a reason D’Arnaud was catching games at the end of the season and not Zunino.
We’ll see but Z’s hit tool is abysmal. He strikes out at least 1/3 ABS. Maybe he finds his pop again and provides some value there. I suppose they’re hoping for that. Or they just thought the D and familiarity w the staff was good enough given the options left on the market.
Nobody said he wasn’t a downgrade, he is, but I also don’t expect the rays to rely on his bat, if you have a stacked lineup around a defensive first catcher that’s plenty formidable, there is better right handed hitting players on the market and don’t play catcher, rather sign a RHH with less risk than TD and you still have a ++ defensive catcher.
We’ll see. You’d think the Rays might want to spend a few more dollars than usual considering they have A very good team right now. Shouldn’t have to take the downgrade. But if they’re able to compensate elsewhere it’ll be alright.
d’Arnaud won’t duplicate last year. He faded the last 2 months.
I tend to agree re: the familiarity angle; they went with so many different guys catching last year, and they use batter by batter analytics so much that such familiarity is likely more crucial there. And the “catcher of the day” couldn’t have helped the staff that much And ya, Maldonado is the better buy, but I can see the reason for the move.
So back to Zunino and Perez behind the plate
This is a very good news for Rays. And for Zunino.
Zunino is a new father and I wish him nothing but the best for the next 2 years in Tampa.
Atlanta was in a bidding war for d’Arnaud and they won.
Clutch hits from d’Arnaud In Rays uni have been paid by the Mets and the Braves will pay big dollars hoping to have some in the next two years. In other word Rays got the best of d’Arnaud without paying! Genius.
Let’s hope for a 4th season of 20HR + in 2020 for Zunino at 29 y/o and hopefully some big one with game on the line.
Rays need to sign an OF like García or Puig …
I’m glad the Ray’s stuck with him. He’s a good fit for the team.I would like to see him thrive.I feel he’s going to have much better numbers next year with a solid second half of the season.2020 ALDS MVP,you heard it here first
I watched Mike Zunino up close in Seattle all those years. He’s a great kid and I hope he’s successful in 2020. Great defense, streaky offense, great power, great arm.
As a Rays fan, it would be nice to keep TD. But the reality is we don’t have the money to take that risk. TD was great last year…until the last month or so. So he had 2-3 really good months and that was great. But paying a guy with a history of injuries for 2-3 months of production is a big risk. It made more sense to hope Zunino can hit a little better next year. With Z’s defensive ability, just hitting a little better would make him a solid starter. Esp. if they could platoon a better hitting catcher as well.
It’s a bummer, but not a big one. Go Rays!
Rays weren’t prepared to deal for an unproven catcher (McGuire), an expensive catcher (Ramos), a defensive liability (Narvaez), or a stud that would cost them prospect talent (Contreras).
So they overpaid for a backup catcher instead. That’s what Zunino is after the 2019 season he had. If we are going to look prior to 2019 then we should do the same for other guys like D’Arnaud or Chris Martin of Atlanta and others who happened to have a good 2019 season.