San Francisco Giants Have Options for Catcher in Free Agency

The San Francisco Giants enter this offseason with a huge question mark at catcher because of Buster Posey‘s injury.

If everything goes smoothly, Posey could be back for the San Francisco Giants on Opening Day, and at the very least it looks like he could miss a month.

Even so, the Giants should be aggressive in looking for a backup catcher this offseason.

If Posey comes back healthy, I think he spends less time behind the plate in 2019. And because of that, the Giants need to find a backstop that is capable of catching 100 games.

The first option will obviously be Nick Hundley, who played in 96 games for the Giants this year. He actually had a solid season at the plate hitting .241 with 10 home runs.

Hundley is a free agent though and will play next year at age 35. He’s made $2 and $2.5 million each of the past two seasons for the Giants, and I think he would take a similar one year deal for 2019 if that’s what the team decides to do.

But there are plenty of other options out there in free agency this offseason.

With posey intact for years to come and Joey Bart on the way, they obviously won’t go for the top names like Yasmani Grandal or Wilson Ramos.

But players like Kurt Suzuki, Martin Maldonado, Matt Wieters, Devin Mesoraco, and Jonathan Lucroy are out there as well and could likely be had on one-two year deals.

Maldonaldo and Lucroy make a lot of sense to me because of their defense and framing skills. Suzuki, Wieters, and Mesoraco give you a little more offense.

Lucroy and Wieters are intriguing options to me because I think you could get them cheap (less than $6 million) on a one year deal with maybe an option year. Both have been very good catchers in the past, but age has caught up to them.

Having one of them as a ‘back-up’ could be huge for this team as it at least adds another threat in the lineup.

I know Hundley was just as good, if not better, than both offensively in 2018, but I still have more confidence in Lucroy or Wieters going forward.

And then, of course, the San Francisco Giants could decide to do nothing and hope that internal options like Aramis Garcia can get the job done until Posey is 100 percent.

I believe they will look to sign a catcher this year, and they would be wise to look externally for a catcher that is capable of carrying a heavy workload in 2019.