The Cleveland Indians have brought another catcher into the fold, acquiring Sandy Leon from the Boston Red Sox on Monday.
This is not going to shift things among the usual starters, but the backup catcher role appears to belong to a recently acquired individual. The Cleveland Indians have acquired Sandy Leon from the Boston Red Sox. Cleveland sent relief pitcher Adenys Bautista to Boston in return.
This points towards Kevin Plawcki being the odd man out in Cleveland. Roberto Perez is in no danger of losing his starting job, Perez is coming off a career year in 2019. Kevin Plawecki was exactly as advertised last season. Relatively uninspiring with a bat in his hand and more of defensive catcher than anything.
Like Plawecki, Sandy Leon is also uninspiring at the plate. Leon has a career slash line of .221/.283/.332 with an OPS of .615. Not an offensive juggernaut by any means. These numbers should actually be worse if not for his career year in 2016. Leon slashed .310/.369/.476/.845 in 2016 and that is clearly the exception of his career. Leon has not come close to that performance since.
Leon appears to be destined to be the backup catcher role in Cleveland. What this may say, whether intentional or not, is the front office may not be all that high on Eric Haase. Haase is someone who has some hitting ability, but the question with him is behind the plate. Haase has not been good in that regard and the acquisition of Leon reflects that. If Cleveland was sure Haase could fill the backup catcher role they would not have gone out and acquired Sandy Leon.
