Rays could reunite with former catcher after Braves' free agency decision

With René Pinto getting waived, the Tampa Bay Rays have to figure out who is going to be their catcher tandem for 2025.

Ben Rortvedt did a serviceable job last year after being traded from the Yankees, but the Rays were committed to getting Pinto innings. That experiment was abandoned very quickly, leaving the 2nd catching spot as a revolving door for most of the year.

Alex Jackson was solid defensively but an automatic out, and Logan Driscoll is a lefty which forces the Rays to start a lefty catcher against lefty starters.

Enter Travis d'Arnaud, a right-handed hitting backup catcher, who had his $8 million option declined by the Atlanta Braves this week.

d'Arnaud has been a very good hitter against lefties since 2021, with wRC+ marks above 110 every year according to FanGraphs. He also racks ups good enough numbers against righties, mostly staying around 10 points below league average in wRC+ against them.

d'Arnaud isn't great defensively though, but he's also not a liability back there. Moreover, his familiarity with the Rays from his time with the organization in 2019 would hopefully give him less of a learning curve than other new catchers, even if it has been five years.

His framing rate has declined over the past couple of seasons from his peak in 2022 when he was 10 runs above average in the category according to Baseball Savant.

His age is a bit of a problem, as he's on the wrong side of 30, but that also means no team is likely to give him a multi-year deal, which makes more sense for the money-cautious Rays.

The issue, as always for the Rays, will be his salary demands.

The hope would be that he's willing to perhaps take a bit of a discount to get more playing time, but entering his age 36 season would suggest that won't be a big factor. He's justly going to want to get significant pay.

If the Rays bring d'Arnaud back, his acumen hitting lefties combined with Rortvedt taking on righties could turn the catching position from a black hole into a source of relative competence offensively, without sacrificing too much defensively.

Of course, this is assuming the Rays are willing to spend the kind of money needed to upgrade the position for a year where they might continue to retool until their uber-talented prospects are ready.