On Friday, the Atlanta Braves claimed catcher Tuffy Gosewisch off waivers. He had previously been with the Arizona Diamondbacks organization.
Gosewisch has recorded major league playing time in parts of the previous four seasons, topping out at 138 plate appearances in 2015. He has virtually no offensive value. As a career .199/.237/.288 hitters, it’s hard to envision him being an improvement over the current catching tandem of Tyler Flowers and Anthony Recker. Gosewisch has graded out as a positive on defense, though. He isn’t Yadier Molina back there, but has more defensive prowess than either Flowers or Recker.
In all likelihood, Atlanta just brought him aboard because he was readily available and can provide minor league depth. If Flowers or Recker were to go down with an injury, the organization does not have much waiting in Triple-A.
One other potential reason for the move (and this is 100 percent speculation) is to mold Gosewisch into being R.A. Dickey’s personal catcher. Knuckleballs are notoriously difficult to catch and oftentimes require a backstop who specializes in it. For years, Josh Thole (a free agent, by the way) provided that service for Dickey. Now, either Flowers/Recker/Gosewisch will have to learn how. Given his superior all-around defensive abilities, perhaps Atlanta wants to give Gosewisch a chance to master it.
That would also allow the team to trade either Recker or Flowers. After mediocre offensive showings from 2011-2015, Recker showed an improved bat in 2016. In 112 plate appearances (admittedly a small sample size) he posted a .278/.394/.433 line with the highest walk rate (14.3 percent) and lowest strikeout rate (19.6 percent) of his career. Flowers also posted a career best season at the plate. In fact, were it not for an ill-timed hand injury, he likely would have been dealt at last year’s trade deadline. Gosewisch, despite his offensive limitations, could give Atlanta the chance to dangle those two in trades.
Again, this was likely just a low-cost depth move. The catching situation in Atlanta is very much in flux and acquiring Gosewisch won’t stand in the way of a higher-profile move such as signing Jason Castro.
Scott Ferris covers the Braves as a Staff Writer for Outside Pitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottHFerris
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