{"id":93996,"date":"2025-01-16T18:37:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T23:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=93996"},"modified":"2025-01-16T18:37:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T23:37:56","slug":"padres-sign-martin-maldonado-address-catching-depth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/16\/padres-sign-martin-maldonado-address-catching-depth\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres Sign Mart\u00edn Maldonado, Adding Catching Depth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The San Diego Padres have finally made a move in free agency, albeit not the splash fans were hoping for. According to Dennis Lin of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Athletic<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Padres will sign veteran catcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/maldoma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mart\u00edn Maldonado<\/a> to a minor league deal with a non-roster invite to spring training. While not a headline-grabbing acquisition, the move provides some clarity to the Padres\u2019 unsettled catcher situation.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Padres have agreed to a deal with free-agent catcher Mart\u00edn Maldonado, sources tell <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dennis Lin (@dennistlin) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dennistlin\/status\/1880011527580967210?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 16, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Padres Address Catcher Depth, Sign <strong>Mart\u00edn Maldonado<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Maldonado, 38, is set to enter his 13th MLB season. After bouncing around early in his career, he found stability with the Houston Astros. He spent five seasons with Houston (2019\u20132023) and won a World Series in 2022. In 2024, he joined the Chicago White Sox but endured a dismal season, posting a .119\/.174\/.230 slash line with four home runs, 11 RBI, and a .403 OPS (15 OPS+). His offensive struggles mirrored the White Sox\u2019s overall disappointing year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Known for his defensive skills, Maldonado has seen a decline in that area as well. According to Statcast, he ranked in the lower tier for Blocks Above Average (-2), Catcher Framing (-3), and Caught Stealing Above Average (-3) in 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>How Maldonado Fits With San Diego<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After losing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/higasky01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Higashioka<\/a> to the Texas Rangers in free agency, the Padres had an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/21\/padres-starting-catcher-search\/\" target=\"_self\">urgent need to sign a catcher<\/a>. Maldonado\u2019s signing brings experience but also raises questions about the overall production they will receive from the position. He is expected to compete with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/campulu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luis Campusano<\/a> for playing time. However, Campusano has yet to solidify himself as a reliable everyday option. A trade involving Campusano or the addition of another catcher remains a possibility as the offseason progresses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While this signing addresses one roster hole, the Padres still have significant challenges ahead, including financial hurdles, an <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/06\/padres-ownership-in-turmoil-amid-lawsuit\/\" target=\"_self\">ownership dispute<\/a>, and their pursuit of Japanese phenom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=sasaki000rok&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-16_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roki Sasaki<\/a>. Mart\u00edn Maldonado\u2019s arrival may be a modest first step, but it underscores the team\u2019s pressing need to make further moves.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The San Diego Padres have finally made a move in free agency, albeit not the splash fans were hoping for. According to Dennis Lin of The Athletic, the Padres will sign veteran catcher Mart\u00edn Maldonado to a minor league deal with a non-roster invite to spring training. While not a headline-grabbing acquisition, the move provides [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5263,"featured_media":94003,"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":[30,1071,35],"tags":[3006,3318,2134],"class_list":["post-93996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-padres","category-mlb","category-news","tag-kyle-higashioka","tag-luis-campusano","tag-martin-maldonado"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93996","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\/5263"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94004,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93996\/revisions\/94004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}