The Pirates are in agreement with catcher Jose Herrera on a minor league deal, according to the MLB.com transaction log. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis.
Herrera hasn’t appeared in the majors this season. The switch-hitter signed an offseason minor league contract with Texas. He spent the first half of the year with their top affiliate in Round Rock, hitting .229/.344/.321 with two homers in 40 games. The Rangers released him around the All-Star Break. Herrera had a stop in the Mexican League before finding this opportunity with the Bucs.
A veteran of parts of four big league seasons, Herrera had previously spent his entire career with the Diamondbacks. He was part of the Arizona organization from the time he signed in 2014 until the end of last season. Herrera spent a couple seasons backing up Gabriel Moreno but never provided anything at the dish, batting .200/.280/.259 across 562 plate appearances. He has been exactly average at throwing out baserunners and had league average metrics for his pitch framing and blocking.
The Bucs recently lost Endy Rodríguez to hip surgery. They’re still carrying three catchers at the MLB level, selecting veteran Christian Bethancourt on Tuesday to join Rafael Flores Jr. and Henry Davis. They don’t have any other catchers on the 40-man roster. Organizational depth types Derek Berg and Cameron Barstad are splitting the work behind the dish in Indianapolis. Herrera doesn’t have a much higher ceiling but has quite a bit more upper level experience, as Barstad and Berg have a combined 45 games above Double-A.
