The Angels signed a catcher Sebastián Rivero to a minor league contract last month, as shown in the MLB.com job log. It is not yet clear if he will be invited to the big league Spring Training.
Rivero, 26, has two seasons of major league experience. He played in 34 games for the Royals during 2021-22, hitting .167 with no home runs over 73 trips to the plate. Kansas City released him after the ’22 campaign. The Venezuelan-born catcher has spent the past two seasons in the minors, splitting his time between the White Sox and Braves organizations. He hit .186/.239/.249 in 75 games between Double-A and Triple-A in Atlanta’s system last year. Rivero was playing winter ball, where he hit .182 in 21 games.
While there’s obviously not a ton of offense, Rivero adds some depth to the catch at the minor leagues. He started nearly 400 games and pitched nearly 3500 innings in his minor league career. Rivero has struck out nearly a quarter of attempted basestealers over the past two seasons.
Logan O’Hoppe again Travis d’Arnaud will split the catching duties at Angel Stadium. Latest trade downloads Chuckie Robinson projects as a top depth option as the only other catcher on the 40-man roster. They had never had a catcher with major league experience before signing Rivero, who would have backed up Robinson at Triple-A Salt Lake.
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