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12:30 p.m .: The Cubs have announced that they have indeed signed Wolters for a one-year contract with the Major League.
09h00 Veteran Seeker Tony wolters, who recently gave up a minor league contract with the Pirates, is now likely to sign with the Cubs, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Bruce Levine of 670TheScore reported last night that the Cubs are interested in the Rockies’ long-standing safety net.
Willson Contreras, of course, is the starting catcher for the Cubs and should be on the line for a heavy workload this year. However, the Cubs traded a save Victor Caratini to the Padres next door Yu darvish earlier in the winter, and they did little to remedy the situation over the following months. Wolters and his veteran colleague Jonathan lucroy were on the Cubs’ radar, according to Levine, but it looks like the Cubs will go with this pair’s youngest and most famous defenseman.
Wolters, 28, has spent the past five seasons as the Rockies’ main receiver despite a meager career hitting line of .238 / .323 / .319 (57 wRC +, 62 OPS +). He’s had a particularly tough year on the flat in the shortened 2020 schedule, batting just .230 / .280 / .270 in a limited sample of 109 plate appearances.
On the defensive side of the coin, however, Wolters is considerably more attractive. He only went 3 for 20 to thwart stolen bases last year, but before the 2020 season he had a lifetime theft rate of 32.8%, well above the league average (around 27 %). Wolters’ framing marks have plummeted since 2019, but he has ranked as one of the best options in the game in that regard for much of his early career. Beyond that, Baseball Prospectus ranked it as overall average in terms of blocking pitches (and a little above average as recently as 19).
The Rockies did not appeal to Wolters rather than pay him a $ 1.9 million pay raise from last year. He still hasn’t reached five full years of Big League service, so if Wolters is able to make the Cubs roster and stay throughout the season, he would be controllable by arbitration throughout the season. 2022 campaign.
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