The Diamondbacks announced that catcher Rene Pinto was designated for assignment. The move opens up a 40-man roster spot for Shelby Miller, as the team confirmed reports from over the weekend that the right-hander’s contract was being selected to the active roster. Arizona also officially announced its one-year deal with Jalen Beeks, and placed Jordan Montgomery (who is undergoing Tommy John surgery) to the 60-day injured list in the corresponding roster move.
The Pinto move was expected, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic wrote on Sunday that the catcher was “saying his goodbyes in the clubhouse” to teammates after not making the Diamondbacks’ Opening Day roster. The D’Backs now have seven days to work out a trade for Pinto during the DFA period, or another team in need of catching depth could simply claim Pinto off waivers. Pinto has already changed teams twice via the waiver wire in the last five months — after the Orioles claimed the backstop from the Rays in early November, the D’Backs claimed Pinto in January after Baltimore had DFA’ed him to make roster space for Charlie Morton.
A veteran of three big league seasons, Pinto has spent his entire MLB tenure with the Rays, hitting .231/.263/.404 over 237 career plate appearances in the Show. As part of the ongoing revolving door that is the Rays’ catching position, Pinto was actually Tampa Bay’s Opening Day backstop last year, but he didn’t hit enough to earn much more regular playing time. The D’Backs brought Pinto aboard to compete for the backup catching job, but Arizona will instead go with Jose Herrera as the secondary option behind starter Gabriel Moreno.
Pinto is out of minor league options, so the Diamondbacks had to first expose him to the waiver wire in order to move him down to Triple-A. This out-of-options status could mean Pinto has more trips through the DFA process in his future, if teams continually see him as the proverbial last man on the roster, and just as a pure depth piece.
Miller is a back again after the most looped sided trade ever with the Braves years ago for Swanson that never panned out for the dbacks
How about the Giants trading Zach Wheeler for a few months of Carlos Beltran?
How about the A’s trading Yoenis Cespedes to the Red Sox for a few months and Wild Card loss from Jon Lester and Jonny Gomes?
That just reminded me that the Red Sox then traded Cespedes for Rick Porcello who promptly won the Cy Young
@Steinbrenner2728 – one of the worst trades of all time! Still can’t believe it haha
Was Cespedes before or after the As traded Donaldson for nothing?
Before – totally messed up the team’s chemistry. The Donaldson trade was bad too! Along with the firesale a couple years back
Wheeler had health issues at the time. A worse trade was the Giants trading Luis Castillo for Casey Mcgahee
They’ve made their fair share of winning trade too in the last decade especially Gallen and Marte trades.
Full circle for Shelby. Party like it’s 2016!
He was unhittable and limited the long ball in 2023 with the Dodgers, but then the opposite last year with the Tigers. I’m surprised more teams can’t replicate the success the Dodgers organization has with veteran relief pitchers.
He was good with the Tigers at the start of the season. Then he started blowing games and getting hit hard which let to his removal
Oh how the turntables …
Rene Pinto being DFA’d (again) isn’t just a roster move—it exposes how teams still don’t know how to properly value backup catchers. The Rays have figured out how to churn through undervalued defensive specialists, but other teams (like Arizona) keep making the same mistake. The next true market inefficiency? Locking in elite defensive backups before teams realize they matter.
@Old York
In this instance, mostly it is just a roster move. Herrera is a contact hitter with solid plate discipline on a team full of contact hitters with solid plate discipline.
Pinto wasn’t going to jump Moreno on the depth chart and Herrera has greater familiarity with the pitching staff (and I wouldn’t say his defense was great, but the team is obviously comfortable enough with it).
Herrera’s skillset synergizes well with the rest of the active roster; higher OBP means avoiding more outs and more balls in play gives more opportunities for extra bases to be taken by the faster runners (which is kind of the DBacks offensive identity at this point).
Pinto’s power certainly gives him a higher ceiling than Herrera, but Herrera has the higher floor (which is generally what teams are looking for out of a B/U C).
@highheat
You’re right that Herrera fits Arizona’s style—contact hitting and knowing the pitchers—but that misses the bigger picture. Backup catchers like Pinto get undervalued because teams focus on their bats, not their defense. A great defensive catcher can quietly make pitchers better with skills like framing and game-calling, saving more runs than Herrera’s on-base edge adds. Tampa keeps winning with these overlooked guys, while Arizona’s dumping Pinto shows they’re missing the real game-changer: defense that lifts the whole staff.
@Old York
This is the same front office that rostered and played Jeff Mathis for extended periods; they’re not strangers to great glove only catchers if they fit into the roster as constructed.
What are you seeing that suggests that Pinto is that strong of a fielder? Because he didn’t look it during ST, and I’m not seeing any numbers that show him to be a standout behind the plate. That wasn’t sarcasm or a slight; I’m curious as to what you’re seeing.
And Herrera is more raw in terms of skill than almost anyone his age (between not starting catching until shortly before he was signed and missing a lot of time to injury early in his career), yet he wasn’t a complete liability in the field.
He actually showed improvements in framing (and wasn’t a terrible game caller last season) and I wouldn’t be surprised if the DBacks see him taking a step forward defensively.
If Pinto (or Herrera) still had an option year, the DBacks would be more than happy to hold onto him. That being said, if Pinto had an option year remaining he would still be with the Rays.
I enjoyed this back and forth.
What I most appreciate is the fact that the Dbacks are so deep, good backup catchers like Pinto can’t even crack the Opening Day roster. And contrary to Old York’s position (which I respect), I don’t think the choice boils down to an organizational/philosophical deficiency, but rather to a common sense, baseball decision about which of two fairly equal players best fits the roster needs of the team in 2025.
Would love to see a Pinto resigned to a minor league contract if he isn’t selected by another team this week.
Also, like to see a discussion about who will be the Dbacks’ INF Utility man when Blaze Alexander is health and game ready? Hampton or Alexander.
Also, late in the season, who will be the Dbacks INF Utility player? Jordan Lawler, Blaze Alexander or Garrett Hampton?
Also, which reliever will be replaced when Graveman is healthy?
Also, will Jameson crack the active roster later in the season? And in what role?