Nationals, Andrew Knizner Agree To Minor League Deal

The Nationals are in agreement with catcher Andrew Knizner on a minor league contract, reports Andrew Golden of The Washington Post. The CAA client will get a non-roster invitation to MLB Spring Training.

Knizner, 30 next month, was drafted by the Cardinals in 2016. He’d converted to catching during his college days at North Carolina State. The right-handed hitter has produced offensively in the minors but hasn’t made much of an impact over parts of six big league campaigns. Knizner hit just .216/.290/.331 in nearly 800 trips to the plate with the Cardinals. St. Louis cut him loose last offseason.

The Rangers inked Knizner to a $1.825MM free agent deal last winter. He spent most of the year as Jonah Heim’s backup, but he didn’t perform especially well. Knizner hit .167/.183/.211 over 35 games. Texas acquired Carson Kelly at the deadline and designated Knizner for assignment not long after. He landed with the Diamondbacks via waiver claim. His time in Arizona consisted of 22 Triple-A games. The Snakes outrighted him off their 40-man roster without getting him into a big league contest. Knizner qualified for minor league free agency at the end of the season.

While Knizner hasn’t hit much at the MLB level, he owns a solid .271/.351/.424 slash over 454 career Triple-A plate appearances. There isn’t a huge bar to clear offensively for a backup catcher. Most backup catchers are well-regarded defensively. Knizner has struggled behind the plate, at least in the view of public metrics. Statcast has graded him as a below-average pitch framer. He also ranked in the bottom 10 among qualified catchers in average pop time (time to throw to second on a stolen base attempt).

There’s no risk for the Nationals in giving Knizner a non-roster look in camp. Keibert Ruiz has the starting job secure despite a difficult 2024 season. Riley Adams is the favorite for the backup job, a role he has held for the past three seasons. He is out of options and can’t be sent to the minors without going on waivers. Drew Millas is the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. Knizner is out of options himself, so if the Nats call him up at any point, they’d need to keep him in the big leagues or risk losing him to another team.