Fresh off making a massive trade to bring in Kyle Tucker from the Houston Astros, the Chicago Cubs addressed their catching depth by tapping into the free-agent market.
Friday evening, the Cubs announced they’d agreed to terms on a two-year contract with nine-year veteran catcher Carson Kelly. As first reported by ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the deal is worth $11.5 million over the next two seasons.
Despite trading with the Los Angeles Angels for Matt Thaiss last month, Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer noted during the Winter Meetings that addressing the catching position is “something we’re actively working on” due to it being “a clear area of concern” coming out of the 2024 season. And manager Craig Counsell, while not getting into any specifics, also said, “I think we’re going to add to our catching depth.”
Kelly, then, presents a solid option to pair with incumbent catcher Miguel Amaya.
The 30-year-old began the 2024 season with the Detroit Tigers before being dealt the Texas Rangers before the trade deadline. On the season, Kelly slashed .238/.313/.374/99 wRC+, hitting nine home runs and driving in 37 runners. He was worth 1.8 Wins Above Replacement (FanGraphs), well above the Cubs’ catching group’s total of negative-0.1, which ranked 29th in baseball.
On the defensive side, Kelly turned in solid numbers last season. He posted a four overall in terms of Statcast’s Fielding Run Value measure (one framing run, two throwing runs and one blocking run), and he caught 21 of 80 runners stealing (26.3 percent).
The Cubs went through a few different options along with Amaya in 2024, including Yan Gomes (released in June), Tomás Nido (released in August) and Christian Bethancourt (outrighted and elected free agency in November). Obviously, the hope is that adding Kelly can help the Cubs avoid the depths the catchers fell into at times last year.
Amaya struggled through the first few months of the season, but after a three-day break in early July, he eliminated the leg kick in his swing. From July 7 on, he slashed .282/.331/.468/124 wRC+, significantly cut down his strikeout rate and recorded 16 extra-base hits (six homers) and 32 RBIs. His defense also improved as he got more experience, and Cubs pitchers raved about his in-game work.
Still, it would’ve been risky to take Amaya’s second-half sample as evidence that he should be the everyday catcher in 2025. And behind him, Thaiss, with only 245 career games played, didn’t seem to be the right option to work in a 1A-1B tandem with Amaya.
That’s why the Cubs felt the need to keep looking for more at the position, particularly when it came to more-experienced catchers, leading them to Kelly after other potential targets like Travis d’Arnaud (Los Angeles Angels) and Danny Jansen (Tampa Bay Rays) went off the board.
“I think it’s important that we add somebody that has experience,” Counsell said. “Look, Miguel showed at times last year, he should be the guy. At other times, he showed us he needs a break. I think Miguel is going to still have the opportunity to be a guy that is a regular contributor, but it’s also important for us to have a backup plan. I think we’re going to make sure we have a really good plan for that.”
The pairing also seems to fit on the offensive side of the ball. Kelly has a 117 wRC+ against left-handed pitchers in his career (71 against righties), including a mark of 136 in 2024 alone. Amaya’s obviously got a smaller body of work since debuting in May 2023, but he has a career wRC+ of 99 against righties and 58 against lefties. In 2024, those sat at 101 and 30, respectively.
While Counsell may not divvy up the work based solely on their hitting splits, it’s a route he could take as he tries to get more out of the catcher position overall.
Regardless, this was another move the Cubs made to improve the overall roster after back-to-back 83-win, postseason-less seasons. Kelly isn’t the needle-moving acquisition that Tucker is, but it looks like a move that can help raise the team’s floor in 2025.
