San Francisco Giants: Hundley Deal Good for Team, and for Trevor Brown

The San Francisco Giants signed catcher Nick Hundley to a big league contract, and that deal has the potential to be good for the team and for Trevor Brown.

In 2016, the San Francisco Giants only needed to use two catchers over the entire season. Buster Posey and Trevor Brown began the year on the opening day roster as the two backstops, and were the only guys to play behind the plate over the entire course of the season. They did add Tony Sanchez to the 40-man roster very late in the season, but he didn’t enter a game. The Giants were lucky enough to avoid injuries to their catchers and not need another one.

They won’t test that luck again in 2017. On Tuesday, the Giants signed veteran catcher Nick Hundley to a big league contract, worth $2 million for the 2017 season. Though they added Tim Federowicz and Josmil Pinto earlier in the offseason, they were signed to minor league deals. Hundley has already been added to the 40-man roster, with Ehire Adrianza being designated to make a space for the catcher.

This signing won’t take any playing time away from the starter Posey, as general manager Bobby Evans made clear after the deal was announced. Posey caught a career-high 123 games last season (122 starts), and the target in 2017 is to get him behind the plate for around 120 games again.

More from Golden Gate Sports

It does, however, likely translate directly to 2016’s backup Brown being sent to Triple-A, and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Hundley has never been a great defensive backstop, and is among one of the worst pitch-framers in baseball. On the defensive side of things, Hundley is probably sizable downgrade from Brown.

But this move wasn’t made for defense. Hundley possesses a better bat than Brown, and will add a bigger threat off the bench than Brown. The Giants have sorely lacked right-handed pop coming off the bat in recent years, and they will add a bit more with Hundley in the fold. Over the past two seasons, the Giants have gotten only one pinch-hit home run from a right-hander, with Mac Williamson doing the honors on July 16th last season. During those two years, right-handed pinch-hitters are hitting .262, a quite respectable number, but their slugging percentage is a meager .328.

Hundley hit 13 home runs in 2013, and hit 10 in both 2015 and 2016. He batted a career-high .301 in 2015, but couldn’t replicate that success in 2016. He was limited to just 13 games in the first two months of the season because of two trips to the disabled list, first because of a concussion and later due to an oblique strain.

He finished up the season pretty well, hitting .269/.302/.434 from July 1st to the end of the year, also hitting 12 doubles and six home runs. That slash-line jumped to .350/.366/.575 in September and October, albeit in only 12 games as Hundley lost playing time while the Colorado Rockies tried to figure out what they have in young catchers Tony Wolters and Tom Murphy.

When Posey does get a chance to rest his knees, having Hundley in the lineup will keep a somewhat viable threat in the order. There is also no replacement for experience, of which Hundley has plenty. 2017 will be his 10th season in the big leagues, and he is just three games shy of 700 behind the plate.

As for Brown potentially losing his backup job, it could be a blessing in disguise for him. The quickest way to develop as a player is with regular playing time, and as long as Posey had the job, Brown wouldn’t have gotten that at the major league level. In Triple-A, Brown will most likely get the bulk of the playing time behind the plate, allowing him to learn faster than he would if he were sitting on the bench in San Francisco.

Brown has proven himself to be a serviceable catcher on the defensive end, as he earned praise from veteran pitchers in his brief 2015 call-up and continued to grow in 2016. He does leave something to be desired on the offensive side. Overall, he hit .237/.283/.364 with five home runs and 19 RBI, but cooled off considerably after a nice April. In the last five months of the season, he hit .231/.267/.315 with only two of his home runs.

Brown is still a young man, having just turned 25 in November, and still has the opportunity to continue to blossom into an even better ballplayer. Having Hundley on board will not only allow Brown to learn from another veteran catcher in Spring Training, it will speed up the process by allowing Brown to play regularly at a lower level.

Next: Giants' Staff Almost Set, But Spots Up for Grabs

This move won’t grab a lot of headlines, or ease the thirst some have for the team to pick up a big-time left fielder, but it’s a good “under-the-radar” move that could have a longer lasting impact than just the one year Hundley is here.

Home/San Francisco Giants