Veteran catcher Nick Hundley turned 36 late in the 2019 season, but he’s not yet planning to call it a career. Hundley tells Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that he’s spoken to a few teams this winter — presumably about minor league deals with non-roster invites to Spring Training (Twitter link).
Hundley’s 2019 season wasn’t exactly the finest of his 12-year career. The veteran backstop appeared in just 31 games with the Athletics, spent more than a month on the injured list with back spasms and was released by both the A’s and the Phillies. Notably for A’s fans, Hundley tells Slusser that Oakland isn’t one of the teams to which he’s spoken.
Last year’s poor showing notwithstanding, Hundley is only a season removed from hitting at a near-average clip with the Giants in 2018. That year saw him tally 305 plate appearances with a .241/.298/.408 slash (95 OPS+, 93 wRC+). Considering that the league-average catcher posted an 84 wRC+ in 2018, Hundley’s output was more than passable — particularly for a part-time/backup catcher. Overall, he’s a .247/.299/.405 lifetime hitter in the big leagues.
Hundley has never been considered a defensive standout, but his career 26 percent caught-stealing rate is only a hair below the league average. And while he’s rarely graded well in terms of pitch framing, Hundley typically posts quality marks in terms of blocking pitches in the dirt, per Baseball Prospectus. At 36 years of age, there’s little reason to expect a marked uptick in his defensive skills, but he’s generally been a capable bat relative to his positional peers, and as a depth pickup on a minor league deal, Hundley would make sense for several organizations that are still rather thin on options behind the plate.
much better than most backups still
Not even remotely true. He’s 36 now, catchers usually fall off a cliff at 35 and he sure looked like that last year. He should probably go to Boston and manage them which is his obvious destiny. Guess he could player manage and be 3rd catcher maybe, but he’s not a viable major leaguer anymore.
That said its fine if a team wants to bring him to ST or sign him to a minors deal.
Todd Hundley FofofoLIFE
For whom?
There are a lot of players at his stage of career that want to play, there just aren’t a lot of teams who want to pay them to play
One of the few right handed hitters I’ve seen his opposite field home runs at Oracle Park. I hope someone gives him a shot. His hitting numbers as a part time player (as the article says) were impressive.
If he’s willing to spend time in AAA, then he has value. The Reds could use him as insurance.
They have Pena and Stephenson, ntm Farmer caught some in the majors last season
Also Casali
He looks like mabey a good NRI for the orioles bight be good as a back up for severino
Rangers?
I still like him. During his time with the Padres, he was the only guy who dared call out teammate Yasmani Grandal for using PEDs.
Hope he has one glorious year.
Sounds like a jerk and a lousy teammate
Depends on your perspective…..
Yeah like that episode of TNG where the guy who played Hector Salamanca blew up and they tried to blame it on Riker cause he was mackin it to … eh nevermind
You need a life, bud!
Thank you.
Nobody liked Grandal when he played for the Padres. We celebrated when he was gone.
Pirates definitely could use him.
Non roster invites to spring training!!?? That blows! The food is better…..
Guys need to learn to retire
Sorry, it’s not up to you.
come on guys he just wants to play do not make a big deal about he just wants to play I’m pretty sure if you ever make it to the MLB and it is time to retire you will not want too
I for one cannot believe he’s that old
I remember watching his dad play. Crazy.
Astros, Pirates, Rockies, A’s, Mariners, Marlins, all could give Hundley a chance in spring training.
This is a guy the Mets should have offered a minor league deal to.
Launch him and Myers to the sun!
Launch him and Myers to the sun!