Drew Butera has made the leap from the roster to the coaching staff, as Sam Blum of The Athletic reports that Butera will now act as the bullpen catcher for the Angels.
Butera was selected by the Mets in the fifth round of the 2005 draft but was traded before making it to the big leagues. In 2007, he was sent to the Twins as part of the deal for second baseman Luis Castillo. Butera went on to make his MLB debut as a Twin in 2010 and played parts of four seasons in Minnesota. Although he didn’t hit much in that time, he did rack up one significant career highlight in that stretch, as he caught Francisco Liriano’s 2011 no-hitter.
He was traded to the Dodgers at the deadline in 2013 and spent a season and a half there, catching a second no-hitter, this time with Josh Beckett in 2014. After that season, he was traded across town to the Angels, playing just ten games for them in 2015 before being traded to the Royals. This proved to be an extremely fortuitous deal for Butera, as Kansas City would go on to win the World Series that fall. In the final game of the series, the club’s starting catcher, Salvador Perez, was removed for a pinch runner, which led to Butera catching the final strike as Wade Davis struck out Wilmer Flores to clinch the title.
The following year was probably Butera’s best, at least at the plate. He hit .285/.328/.480 for a wRC+ of 115 in 56 games, a showing that earned him a two-year, $3.8MM deal to stay in KC. He was traded to the Rockies in the second year of that deal and then spent the next few seasons there, with a brief interlude in the Phillies organization for Spring Training 2019. Last year, he got into 12 games with the Angels, the team with which he will now stay on in his new role.
Butera, 38, finishes his career having made 1,473 plate appearances in 556 MLB games over 12 seasons, racking up 262 hits, 59 doubles, 5 triples, 19 homers, 123 runs scored and 123 runs batted in. He caught the final out of a World Series and a pair of no-hitters. MLBTR congratulates Butera on a fine playing career and wishes him the best in his coaching career and any other post-playing ventures.
I mean, is his new job really any different than his old one?
Doesn’t pay as well.
he doesn’t need the pay at this point
He didn’t make that much money. More than a regular person, but I think that he still would like to make an income. He is still one season shy of making the full 10year pension. He accrues service time as a coach. I would think that was at least a partial consideration.
$8.739 million is pretty good.
$9 million in 12 years? Yeah, pretty sure he’s set for life.
He should have put it in a CD. In five years, he’d have $9,000,003.40.
Did not know coaches earned ML service time until your post. Learn something new all the time.
Congrats Drew! Always liked him. He could probably stay in the game as a coach for a long time
No offense (and no pun intended) but it’s simply amazing the guy was able to stick in the big leagues for so long. Good for him.
Pun intended or not, I laughed at the “no offense” comment. And dude was a legit catcher, which means he doesn’t need to hit to provide a ton of value (hence the two no-hitters, as a backup catcher, no less!). So it definitely checks.
$8+ million career earnings.
I’m going to go buy my son some catching gear tomorrow lol
Like Father like Son for sure now 🙂 not sure he ever had dads Stache but hey royals.mlblogs.com/like-father-like-son-the-drew-b…
Sal also played for the Twins.
And both father and son earned World Series rings. That’s pretty cool.
Aren’t bullpen catchers typically not former big leaguers? He probably has the most impressive playing career of all current bullpen catchers. One year of doing that and he qualifies for the 10 year pension.
I didn’t even know he qualified for my “All Older Than Me Team.” Oh well, I already have Yadier Molina and Kurt Suzuki at catcher. Rene Rivera and Jeff Mathis haven’t officially retired.
Drew Butera was excellent at being a catcher. He did everything behind the plate well. Ridiculous arm. Could have been an MLB pitcher. He was worth every penny of that 8plus million. Congratulations to a class act on a great career.
He actually did come in and pitch in some games where the Royals were being blown out…if I recall correctly
Teams liked Butera, but fangraphs pegs his career value at around -$33M. He couldn’t hit, and fangraphs didn’t like his defense either.
Which points up the fallacy of stats.. He was a valuable player on several teams.
Irrelevant
He probably could’ve caught on with Milwaukee.
Guy had an epic hair flip!
Historically. Bad. Player.
And he’s richer than I am, so I hope he enjoys his retirement.
Butera is neither historically bad nor historically good….just like the vast majority of those who are talented enough to play the game at that level.
Congrats on retirement, Booty. Made the most out of his career while being the 25th man. Caught the last out of his ring and caught a couple of no-no’s, did what the rest of us only dream of. Props.
there were games he was the Dodgers best relief pitcher!
Luis Castillo name drop. Man, time flies!
Who?
Drew was a disciple of the Jeff Mathis School of Catching Relevancy. Nice career for sure. I didn’t know about the no hitters nor the last out of the World Series. Impressive.
Didn’t realize the handful of cool career moments Butera had. Enjoy retirement!
never a backup catcher. he was a catcher.
I saw him hit the first home run of his professional career, for the Brooklyn Cyclones in 2005.
Great career! I remember his dad, Sal playing in Montreal. That’s a lot of time in the show!
$8.3 mil in career earnings, no idea who he is. What an incredible career, backup bench guy who plays for years and makes 8 mil doing so … wow
He throws gas on the mound
Happy trails Drew! His 10-year career was similar to former Yankees backstop Charlie Silvera. Only Butera played about twice as many games and had twice as many hits in three times as many PA’s. The one stat Silvera dominated over Butera was WS rings 6-1. With one career homer, Silvera obviously didn’t play much behind Yogi Berra. Charlie was a great guy. He and his wife took my wife and me out to dinner once where he talked baseball and meeting Marilyn Monroe for the first time. A Cubs scout who worked well into his 80’s, man he could spin a few yarns!
He’s got nice moss..
8-9 million dollars over 12 seasons isn’t enough to retire on, without doing some kind of work. Unless he had fiscal discipline. Pro athletes tend to be free-spending, and it is tough to not try to keep up with one’s peer group. Let’s hope he got good advice along the way.
That’s about 26 years of income for a person in a 300K annual salaried career. If he can’t manage that it’s really not the incomes problem. If his largest purchase was a house…chances are good that there’s solid return on that investment in most climates.
Some people are just more than money, though. They love their career. Love what they do. Given he managed his finances there’s no reason to go be a bullpen catcher outside of a desire to stay in the game in some capacity. Lifers.
Good point.
I’m not sure I understand all of this interest in Butera’s personal finances, but just in general, $9m conservatively invested could easily return $400-450k annually without attacking the principal. Anyone who can’t get by with that sort of passive income needs help, and maybe not totally of the financial variety.
I agree with you Blue Sky…as my comment was basically the same. But there’s no way someone invests 100% of their income. At this point he SHOULD be financially stable enough that his money can make money through investments…real estate. Real estate is tricky. I’m ASTOUNDED at California property value. A 3M home in the bay area is often 300k or less in the midwest.
Eligeable for the HOF in 5 years!
Same odds as you making the spelling bee. Sorry…had to.
the DREW BUTURA LINE will replace the Mendoza line with .196 being the clip now.
Winner of it last year was Cody Bellinger