{"id":89231,"date":"2024-11-20T16:04:51","date_gmt":"2024-11-20T21:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=89231"},"modified":"2024-11-20T16:06:44","modified_gmt":"2024-11-20T21:06:44","slug":"jacob-stallings-one-year-rockies-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/11\/20\/jacob-stallings-one-year-rockies-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran Catcher Returns to Rockies on Deal with Option for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stallja01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jacob Stallings<\/a>, a nine-year veteran, signed with the Colorado Rockies on a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2026. Per <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JonHeyman\/status\/1859322869160841684\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jon Heyman of The New York Post<\/a>, it&#8217;s a $2.5 million deal including a $2 million salary in 2025 and a $500,000 buyout on a $2 million mutual option the following year.\u00a0Per <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.spotrac.com\/mlb\/player\/market-value\/_\/id\/20147\/jacob-stallings\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Spotrac<\/a>, the veteran catcher&#8217;s market value is a one-year deal worth $2.1 million, and he is the 22nd-ranked catcher.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Welcome back, Jacob Stallings! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/dqFIUmRIY8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/dqFIUmRIY8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Rockies\/status\/1859308260437991798?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">November 20, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Rockies Re-Sign Jacob Stallings<\/h2>\n<p>Before Stallings came to Colorado, he spent two seasons with the Miami Marlins. With the Marlins at their pitcher-friendly ballpark, Stallings struggled to get his offense going. In 88 games in 2023, Stallings hit .191\/.278\/.286 and finished with a WAR of -0.6. He finished with three homers and 20 RBI. Stallings was expected to be a serviceable defender for the Rockies, and whatever he gave them on offense would be a bonus. Going from a pitcher&#8217;s park to a hitter&#8217;s haven in Coors Field netted great results for Stallings&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/07\/25\/rockies-who-could-leave-trade-deadline-2024\/\" target=\"_self\">bat<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, he hit .263\/.357\/.453 with nine homers and 36 RBI. Posting the highest slash line of his career in seasons in which he played at least 42 games. Per <a  href=\"https:\/\/baseballsavant.mlb.com\/savant-player\/jacob-stallings-607732?stats=statcast-r-fielding-mlb\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Statcast<\/a>, Stallings found the sweet spot on his launch angle 38.9% of the time in 2024, up from 28.5% in 2023. The veteran catcher maintained a solid whiff rate of 25% and a walk rate of 9.6%. He delivered on defense for the Rockies, finishing with ten blocks above average and a fielding percentage of .987. Together with fellow veteran catcher <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/d\/diazel01.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Elias D\u00edaz<\/a>, the Rockies received consistent quality play from the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/08\/18\/rockies-should-have-traded-not-released-elias-diaz\/\" target=\"_self\">catcher position<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Splits + Standout 2024 Moments<\/h3>\n<p>Stallings bat did enjoy his new home, but he also successfully brought his offense out on the road. In 128 home at-bats, Stallings hit .266\/.349\/.445 with four home runs and 18 RBI. In 115 road at-bats, the veteran catcher hit .261\/.366\/.461 with five home runs and 18 RBI. Stallings was noticeably better against left-handed pitching, hitting .274\/.386\/.548 compared to .258\/.341\/.403 against righties. But Stallings being able to bring his offense out on the road was crucial for a Rockies team that always struggles to do so.<\/p>\n<p>Two of Stallings&#8217;s best games came against his two former teams on the road three days apart. In a <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/game\/_\/gameId\/401568942\/rockies-marlins\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">5-4 heartbreaking loss<\/a> in ten innings to the Marlins on May 2, Stallings eliminated his demons at loanDepot park with a 409-foot three-run homer to left-center (1st of the year) in the 2nd inning to give Colorado an early 3-2 lead. On May 5 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he spent six seasons, Stallings launched a 414-foot two-run homer to center to give the Rockies an early 2-0 lead. But the Rockies again would blow the lead late, despite Stallings&#8217;s efforts.<\/p>\n<p>Stallings splits show that his career offensive season was not just a product of Coors Field. As a seasoned catcher who has nine seasons of major league experience and provides solid defense, Stallings will look to build on his newfound offense in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: \u00a9 Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jacob Stallings, a nine-year veteran, signed with the Colorado Rockies on a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2026. Per Jon Heyman of The New York Post, it&#8217;s a $2.5 million deal including a $2 million salary in 2025 and a $500,000 buyout on a $2 million mutual option the following year.\u00a0Per Spotrac, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5354,"featured_media":90067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,32,35],"tags":[3068,28449,71,231],"class_list":["post-89231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-rockies","category-news","tag-elias-diaz","tag-jacob-stallings","tag-miami-marlins","tag-pittsburgh-pirates"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}