The Red Sox signed some catching depth.
Who is he and where did he come from?
He’s Seby Zavala, and he comes from The Land of Delightfully Wonderful Baseball Names La Puente, California. The White Sox drafted Zavala out of San Diego State way back in 2015 (he’s not exactly young), and for a couple of years he served as the backup catcher on the South Side. After he was DFA’d by Chicago towards the end of the 2023 season, he landed first with the Diamondbacks and then with the Mariners, serving as a depth piece for both organizations.
The Red Sox signed him to a minor league deal with a spring training invite a couple of weeks ago.
Is he any good?
If you ever see a Seby Zavala jersey out in the wild, then that probably means you’re looking at one of Seby Zavala’s family members. So to answer this question bluntly: no. But that’s not to say that Zavala doesn’t bring anything to the table.
Zavala is a glove-first catcher who put up quite good numbers behind the plate in 2022, when he played in 61 games for the White Sox. Get a load of this from Savant:
The Red Sox have been crying out for better defense behind the plate for a number of years. When it comes to Connor Wong, the eye test is all you need to know that he’s a very poor receiver (for reference, Savant graded Wong’s framing in just the ninth percentile, compared to Zavala’s 83rd), while Reese McGuire was one of those catchers everyone just assumed was good with the glove because he couldn’t hit. Cumulatively, Red Sox catchers were the fifth-worst in all of baseball at framing, which resulted in Red Sox pitchers allowing about 30 more runs than the Yankees, the best framing team in baseball.
Zavala paired those defensive numbers with some decent success at the plate in 2022, putting up a slash line of .270/.347/.382 and an OPS+ of 108. For a backup catcher who plays in only a third of a team’s games, that’s about as good as it gets.
Unfortunately, that batting line proved to be a mirage. In 91 games over the course of the next two seasons, Zavala’s production plummeted to .168/.227/.308. There simply hasn’t been anything positive about his bat lately: he strikes out a lot, doesn’t walk much, and doesn’t have any power. The right-handed Zavala isn’t even much of a platoon guy, with a career OPS of just .612 against both lefties and righties.
Tl;dr, just give me his 2024 stats.
MLB: 18 G, .154/.214/.282, 1 HR, 2 2B, 16 K, 3 BB
AAA: 33 G, .188/.325/.376, 4 HR, 7 2B, 43 K, 16 BB
Show me a cool highlight.
He once hit two homers in one game against the Yankees (while catching Lucas Giolito!) so he’s alright in my book.
What’s he doing in his picture up there?
Appearing in a dream sequence in a Terrence Malick movie, apparently.
What’s his role on the 2024 Red Sox?
He’ll likely be nothing more than a AAA depth piece. But it’s worth noting that Connor Wong is the only MLB-quality catcher currently on the 40-man roster, while Kyle Teel will almost certainly spend at the least the first half of next season in Worcester. Someone is going to need to be in Fenway while Teel finishes refining his game; with a solid spring, that could be Zavala.