The Pittsburgh Pirates announced on Thursday morning that they have signed catcher Tony Wolters to a minor league deal, with an invite to Spring Training. The 28-year-old Wolters has played the last five seasons for the Colorado Rockies, where he hit .230/.280/.270 in 42 games last year. He was the starting catcher for most of 2019 when he hit .262/.337/.329 in 121 games. His career line is .238/.323/.319 in 391 games, with a .726 OPS at Coors Field and a .557 mark everywhere else. While he has a career 0.0 mark for his offensive WAR, he has put up positive dWAR numbers in all five seasons, including a 2.1 mark in 2019, which was the seventh best dWAR in the NL. He has thrown out 31% of base runners during his career.
Wolters will be one of eight catchers at Spring Training for the Pirates this year. Jacob Stallings has the starting spot and Michael Perez would appear to have the backup spot for now, since he also has a 40-man roster spot. They also have Joe Hudson and Andrew Susac as a minor league free agent signings and Christian Kelley, Arden Pabst and Jason Delay as minor league invites to spring.
